With their current relase, the Scottish KINGPIN released a promising EP between Hardcore, Thrash Metal and Crossover in February. In an interview with us, singer Lev talked about his comic preferences, his contact with Japanese artist Suketoku, why they preferred the cassette as a medium and dogs playing poker.
Your main genre is Hardcore but there are also influences of Crossover and Thrash Metal. Which aspects of your music are the most important in your opinion?
Might come off as a bit of a corny answer, but I think the most important thing with our music is integrity. I think we have our own style, a basic skeletal framework of what KINGPIN’s „sound“ is –
fast circlepit-inducing thrash riffs fused with big dumb face-breaking hardcore breakdowns in a way that (for better or worse!) I don’t think anyone else is doing in quite the same way we are right now – but we all love a wide variety of music and aren’t afraid to reach into our own individual influences to introduce something that strays from the formula now and again. For example, those cool chords Neevo plays at the end of „Lessons“, or that grooved-out punk rock riff near the end of „Dead End World“… If you listen to a handful of KINGPIN songs, you’ll feel a general consistent thread but you’ll probably also hear at least one little element fairly unique to each song. We’re not afraid to experiment with new ideas now and again and we don’t really give a fuck if that idea is influenced by hardcore, by crossover and thrash metal, by The Stone Roses, by The Pet Shop Boys or by anything else as long as we all like it and it comes from a genuine place.
Tell us something about the band name KINGPIN. Are you a big comic fan or where does it come from?
When Gary first suggested „Kingpin“ as a band name, I asked if he got it from the Leeway song title, or from the Marvel comics villain, or from the Woody Harrelson movie. He just said „all of them“. I actually am a big fan of comics and own a (very poor condition) first-print edition of Amazing Spider-Man #50, with the first appearance of the Kingpin! I still love comics now… I’m a bit superheroed out with the barrage of movies and Netflix series and whatever else, but I really like Saga, Locke & Key and Paper Girls. I’ve been doing some serious catching up on some classic 2000AD material lately as well.
Your latest EP is called „Prayers Won’t Save You“. Are you against religion in general? What’s the meaning?
I can’t stand corruption and selfish abuse of power, so just like the title track of our first release, „They Serve Themselves“, is about corrupt police officers abusing their power to serve their own interests, „Prayers Won’t Save You“ is about religious figureheads who abuse their position to manipulate 
vulnerable people who have given them their trust. I am personally agnostic atheist, the ideas presented by every single religion I have encountered so far seem absolutely fucking ridiculous to me… But life in general is pretty fucking ridiculous sometimes, so you never know, maybe one of them has got it right eh? I don’t claim to know all the answers, and if people have a belief that gives them a reason to keep living and/or keeps them on the straight and narrow then fair play to ‚em, I suppose. I don’t have any particular beef with an individual person’s faith, but I do have problems with those who manipulate other people’s faith to give themselves power and/or money, or instill homophobic or other hateful ideas in people’s minds from fuckin‘ childhood, as well as the idea of organised religion in general. I think every single organised religion is inherently corrupt and it absolutely boggles my mind that anyone would want to be part of that, to be honest.
I read the cover artwork is made by the japanese artist Suketoku. How did you get in touch? Did you give any guidelines for the design?
I saw „suketoku666 liked your post“ on a live video clip of KINGPIN I posted to my Instagram, and his profile pic was his own art which looked cool as fuck so I had a look at his profile. He was doing some of the most wicked art I had ever seen in my life and seemed to be a real big fan of crossover, so I sent him a message asking if he’d be interested in doing cover art for our next release. 
To my surprise, he was very enthusiastic about it! I knew he generally seemed to like drawings demons, so I asked him to draw us „a Priest with a demonic face, wielding a crucifix like a weapon“. In my head, the priest would be swinging a bare cross through the air with both hands like it was a baseball bat or a sword or something, but the way Yusuke interpreted my suggestion of „holding the crucifix like a weapon“ was to have the priest holding the cross with Christ’s body still on it like it was a machine gun (laughing). This was pretty different from what I originally had in mind but we fucking loved it. He took the whole concept to the next level and made it way better than we could have imagined. That artwork is one of my favourite things ever associated with KINGPIN, we are very proud to have such badass art for our release and Yusuke has become a good friend. I send British tattoo magazines over to him in the mail sometimes, because tattoos are still quite taboo in Japan (due to association with the mafia) so it’s difficult for him to get hold of that stuff over there. It’s wild to think that tattoos are still so controversial in another part of the world, yet over here they’re just something that your friend’s parents and all the guys working in the supermarket or call centre down the road might have.
Recording, mix and mastering were done by George Henry at The Audio Lounge in Maryhill, Glasgow. Have you worked together before? How was work with him?
George has been a great friend of mine since we were teenagers, and he knows how to get us to give our best but the atmosphere is still chilled. He has engineered and mixed every single proper studio release KINGPIN have done so far; he just feels like part of the band during the recording process. He literally was part of the band for a while as well – he was the drummer in KINGPIN when Den left for a short time, and played on our „Truth“ EP. George is very easy to work with and an incredible musician. Check out his current band, Gendo Ikari, if you’re into blastbeats and mindfuckingly heavy riffing.
The title track features Aaron McPhail of the scottish Thrash Metal bandTempered. Are you friends? Why is he the perfect guest on this song?
Aaron is originally from New Zealand but he lived in Europe in 2017, and that was when we first met him at a show we played on tour in the Netherlands. He came along to see us in a belter of a wee venue called Café de Meister because he heard we were from Glasgow and he was planning to move here in a few months, so he came along to make some friends in advance of arriving in Scotland. Once Aaron moved to Scotland, I introduced him to some people in the local hardcore and metal scenes, including Beck who used played guitar for us (Beck also played on our „Truth“ EP), and they started playing together in Tempered shortly after. Because KINGPIN were among Aaron’s first friends in Scotland and because Beck is our former guitarist, and we helped bring them together, Tempered feel a bit like „family“ to KINGPIN, like our Metal brothers of trve steel (or our smelly annoying wee cousins who get snotters on all our favourite toys). Aaron was in the studio recording the (fucking amazing) Tempered EP „Greenwashed“ at the same time I was in doing some vocals for „Prayers Won’t Save You“, so I suggested he go in and do a line on the track to add a twist of kiwi fruit to the flava.
„Prayers Won’t Save You“ has been released digital and on blue tape. Why did you choose this form?
Because it’s cheap and quick! We have DIY-as-fuck self-released everything we have done so far – except for „They Serve Themselves“, which was released by Demons Run Amok Entertainment – and as cool as it was to release our own vinyl with „The Vultures Circle“ that shit was expensive as fuck and took a relatively long time to break even costs-wise. Most people listening to our music still seem to do it digitally anyway, and those who do still collect physical media generally aren’t too fussy about which format it is as long as they can put it on their shelf with the rest of their collection, so we just went with tapes this time. They were relatively inexpensive to produce, and we were able to quickly knock them together in time before we went and played some shows in Europe earlier this year.
After a demo and four EP s it’s time for an album. Is it already in progress?
Not really! We are a very slow-moving band when it comes to getting time to sit down and write and record new music. That’s why we keep just chucking out a few tracks at a time. I’ve often thought it’d be cool to just re-record all the best tracks from our previous EPs and release that as an album with a couple of new songs, but we’d probably need an actual label to help us with even that.
What’s your favorite KINGPIN song so far and why?
Tough call, but we have been closing our sets with „Chains“ since we released „The Vultures Circle“, and I love the energy it has live so probably that. Den’s snare rolls just smack you about on that track, and the breakdowns are super fucking heavy.
On your bandcamp page are for example Suicidal Tendencies, Sepultura, Crowbar, Life Of Agony, Biohazard and Body Count listed as influences. Does that reflect your listening preferences?
Definitely. We like a lot of music, but those were some of the bands we really looked to for influence when first trying to piece together our sound. We’re obviously hugely indebted to bands like Leeway, Sacred Reich, Nuclear Assault, Cro-Mags, D.R.I., etc. as well.
When it comes to live shows: Is there a possibility to see you in Germany once?
There’s a possibility of seeing us as many times as promoters are willing to book us, in any country, but unfortunately every time we’ve come over to Europe so far our attempts to get to Germany have fallen through! I’ve personally been all over Germany quite a few times – I even sprechen ein wenig Deutsch from high school – and „They Serve Themselves“ was released on a German record label, so we’re long overdue a visit to your country. If anyone can help us play some decent shows in Germany, hit me up!: lev@kingpin-glasgow.com
What’s your most funny or intense live experience?
For a band of absolute clowns, I’m surprised to say I can’t really think of any funny on-stage stories.
Imagine you could use all colors, shapes or motives to paint a picture that represents the sound of KINGPIN. What would it look like?
Dogs playing poker.
Ok, thanks again. Please let us do a short brainstorming in the end of this interview. What comes to your mind first reading the following terms:
Brexit: A fucking mess and a stupid idea in the first place. Nobody in Scotland wanted this, by the way, England dragged us into it whether we liked it or not.
Your favorite album: Favourite album of all time – „River Runs Red“ by Life Of Agony or „Arise“ by Sepultura.
Slipknot: They used to say they were going to split-up after three albums… They should have done it after two. At the most.
Wacken: Never been! I’m more of a HellFest guy, but I’ll need to go to Wacken at least once to see what it’s all about eh.
Beer: Never touched the stuff, personally, but the rest of my band more than make up for me in that department.
KINGPIN in 10 years: Still trying to get someone to book us in Germany.
The last words are yours – is there anything left you want to tell our readers?
Big thanks to anyone who has gave us a listen at any time. If you haven’t checked us out yet but are about to, make sure you read the lyrics as well! Thanks to Metal1 for this platform to spout a stream of absolute pish. (laughing)
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