Gossip & the Devil

[gossip session] | from slayer to sinatra :: an interview with new kill hannah touring guitarist gil baram

ser⋅en⋅dip⋅i⋅ty [ser-uhn-dip-i-tee] – (n.) – 1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. 2. good fortune; luck

Serendipity is the only way to describe how Israeli-born guitarist Gil Baram wound up playing with Chicago’s unconquerable sons, Kill Hannah. A friend at the Musicians Institute (M.I.) in Hollywood, where Baram had attended, informed him that the band was holding auditions to replace departed guitarist Jonny Radtke. Familiar with the band and eager for a challenge, Baram spent a mere 24 hours with a portion of Kill Hannah’s catalog before stepping in front of Dan Wiese (guitars) and Elias Mallin (drums, and also a former Musicians Institute student). Less than a day later, before any final decisions had been made, Baram ran into Wiese and Mallin by chance at a restaurant next to his apartment; three hours later everyone was smiling and Baram had a home.

Gil has been playing music since age 14, beginning with a band in Israel before he came to the United States to attend M.I., where he formed a project called The Lure. (You can hear the remnants of The Lure on his MySpace page.) After The Lure’s breakup he made the transition to freelance musician as a business move and ran the gamut of fame in a relatively short time frame. Two weeks after graduating the Institute he was picked up to play for pop-superstar and poster-girl for abusive relationships, Rihanna. After that gig he auditioned again and was chosen for professional BMX rider Rick Thorne’s band, Good Guys in Black.

Baram’s first tour with Kill Hannah came earlier this year when they opened for Lacuna Coil. I was able to catch a couple shows with the new lineup. While some musicians are content to be a faceless tool on stage in exchange for a paycheck, Gil’s performance with Kill Hannah is a palpable wave of vigor and warmth, devouring the fans’ sweat-soaked energy and reciprocating his own. He moves, moshes and most of all, the guy can play.

Baram holds a fire for the art he creates. It’s a burning reminder for the pursuit of unshakable dreams, and the idea that the humanities don’t care if you’re in LA, Africa or the lost city of Atlantis—they’ll move you just the same. This is why they cannot die. We spoke last week over the phone, discussing everything from Kill Hannah’s extensive back catalog to the state of the humanities. Gil answered each query with an infectious excitement that promises the desperate ears of today that we will have worthy music for tomorrow.

Julie M. Tate: How did it feel to travel abroad to the Musicians Institute? Did it scare you or were you more anxious for the opportunity?

Gil Baram: I spent most of my life in Israel so coming here was about the best move I’ve ever done. It was terrifying and it was really hard for the first six months but totally worth it.

JMT: I must imagine the cultures are completely different.

GB: Yeah, it’s completely different—people in Israel act completely different. It’s like you walk on the street here and smile at strange people, they’ll probably smile back at you. In Israel if you smile at someone it doesn’t go that well. It’s just a totally different culture. I think it’s based on the constant conflict in Israel. Here people are focused on totally different problems and different day-to-day realities.

JMT: So you had to grow up with that constant conflict.

GB: Yeah. It sounds weird but you get used to it and it’s not a big deal. It’s a part of your thinking. You’re raised in a constant war and suddenly you’re in a place where people are raised in a constant kind of comfort. There’s strife around the U.S. and there’s shit going on but there’s kind of a sense of tranquility. They’re not as worried about survival.

JMT: Did you have a big record collection? Dealing with constant conflict I imagine music was a form of escape for you.

GB: Oh yeah, wow. Michael Jackson was the first concert I ever saw when I was like 12. What do I listen to? Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Cure, The Smashing Pumpkins, Pantera, Metallica, White Zombie, Pink Floyd, Prince…I like everything. When people ask me what I listen to I say “Slayer to Sinatra and everything in between.”

JMT: Why LA? Was the move to California a conscious decision or did you come to the States and end up in LA?

GB: I didn’t know where to go [career-wise] in Israel. When you’re in Israel you have this awesome concept of what the United States is—not that it isn’t—but you’re totally illusioned about it.

The more I tour and see the States I understand “why LA” and the more I dislike LA in a way. I look at Israel like Missoula, Montana: it’s a small place in the middle of nowhere. People in places in the middle of nowhere have a grand vision of LA: it’s “the place where dreams come true.”

JMT: Yeah, they definitely talk it up.

GB: If you want to be a hired gun, if you want to do gigs and sessions, there is no better place to be than LA. If you want to be in a band, there’s no worse place to be than in LA. The market is over saturated with bands from LA and to be honest there’s no real musical direction. There are good bands in LA but the fact you have to pay clubs to play there, that doesn’t really happen anywhere else around, does it?

There are a lot of hardworking bands that come here. It’s just rich kid central. There are kids who are 16 and their dad’s a movie star, and they go to places like the Key Club and buy out the place and play there. There’s no place to play in LA for a band. There are only other [LA] bands and their girlfriends. I’m totally trash-talking LA.

JMT: I do it all the time. It’s an easy city to hate. I have friends that are in bands in LA who shit-talk LA. Hell there are high profile bands, like Tool for example, who are based in LA and hate it too.

GB: Tool are known LA-haters aren’t they?

JMT: Exactly. So it’s not necessarily anything scandalous. It’s a double-edged sword because if you want gigs or opportunities, yes, LA is the place to be but at the same time you have to put up with all the bullshit.

GB: What you’re saying is 100% correct. Because LA is very good if you’re already “in the business” and you’re a successful band. LA is a great place if you want to get into the pop business, the hype business. If you want to start a band and really be a band? No.

JMT: So you’ve never wanted to stay a freelance musician, you’ve always wanted a permanent spot with a band?

GB: Definitely, definitely. I hate being a hired gun. I hate the pop side of music. It’s horrible, it’s fake and you’re like a very cheap tool. You’re not a person. You’re a guitar or a set of drums. In the hired gun world I know this guy and he’s 50 years old. He plays for Prince and he plays for Justin Timberlake and he’s made a shit load of money and he played for Rihanna for a little bit. After all that he’s still 50 and running around LA chasing gigs. So that is the world of the hired gun, and I’m over it.

JMT: You’re half that age and you’re already over it. That’s telling.

GB: I feel super lucky I get to play with Kill Hannah because when I first heard of them I only knew a bunch of songs. The deeper I dive into the catalog of the band the more I love it, the more epic it is. I like listening to really old stuff now like “Nerve Gas.”

JMT: Yeah, a lot of the older songs had a really huge feel, they filled up a room even straight from the album. Then you hear them live and they’re mind-blowing. There’s a lot of room in Kill Hannah because they don’t pigeon-hole you into one position. They have everything from pop to rock to almost experimental.

GB: Exactly, and that’s fucking awesome. That’s how music should be. It shouldn’t be defined by a genre, it should just be art.

JMT: Right now I’m sure your free time is pretty much consumed by Kill Hannah and trying to learn the back catalog, but do you still record original music at all?

GB: All of the stuff I did with my other band [The Lure] I wrote all the music and the singer wrote the lyrics. Right now though, yeah, I’m working on learning the Kill Hannah catalog. I do write, but Mat (Devine, vocals) is fucking awesome. I’m bewildered by his songwriting ability. The more I listen to his songs, the more I realize there are no producers behind that and he didn’t really learn any of that. He just writes that way. I’m in awe.

JMT: Well Mat’s method of thinking is admittedly a little tweaked. So the artistic things he produces, whether it’s his lyrics or his chord structures, tend to come out that way.

GB: I had this conversation with an A & R while I was going to school and he was telling me how he can listen to a band and know within ten seconds if a band has that “thing.” Which is usually like 1% of all the bands ever and listening to Kill Hannah you know that the band has that “thing,” that elusive 1% thing. It’s pretty awesome to be so close to it.

JMT: Well and in terms of songwriting getting to work with a musician like Dan must be refreshing as well. If you think of the music industry right now guitarists like Dan are rare in bands, in terms of the way he can layer a sonic landscape. The musicians you work with bring a lot to the table.

GB: I really like Dan’s playing. In a way it’s completely opposite to mine and it’s awesome in any way to be playing with someone who is totally different. Dan was playing me some stuff while we were learning the songs and I was like, “Oh that’s a guitar? Really?! You can play that? I thought that was a sample or something!” He’s like the creepy mad scientist, and he’s fucking epic about it. I feel like there’s so much room for me in the band. There are no restrictions and you’re able to put yourself in there.

JMT: Yeah, anything that can enhance and make it better. It’s not just “insert guitarist here.” Kill Hannah really aren’t about that, they want to add and grow.

GB: Exactly.

JMT: Obviously you have a passion for music—you’ve been playing since you were young and moved half-way around the world to pursue it. Do you think the humanities are an important part of preserving our culture?

GB: The thing I hate the most about music in the past 10 years is I feel that a lot of the pop and mainstream is devoted to the art of making money and not the art of art. Growing up the only consolation you get from all the shit you go through every day, from being the outcast kid and all that shit, is the music. Which, between listening to bands like The Smashing Pumpkins and Pantera and all that stuff, it touches you somewhere. I don’t guess, I know that’s why people connect to Kill Hannah the way they do. So yeah, music has to mean something, has to talk about human emotions and what’s going on in the world today. Fuck yeah. It’s pointless if it doesn’t.

JMT: I’ve talked to people though, whose attitude is, “Oh, it’s just something I do. I have the means to do it so I’m going to do it.” They don’t want to get into it any deeper than that. They like it because their friends do it and it helps them get laid. To me if it’s worth a shit it has to mean something more than that.

GB: Exactly. If it has any sort of value what you’re saying is absolutely correct. Because whoever is in this business to make money is A: an idiot and B: in the wrong business. Because there’s nothing better than getting the connection with fans when you’re playing on stage and just knowing that people are vibing off what you play, or people are singing back the lyrics to you. That they actually take the time and are touched by the music. When you listened to the new album you remember a song called “Vultures,” right? Or “Sad Eyes?”

JMT: Yeah.

GB: Where Mat says “love must be just for idiots?”

JMT: Yeah, I remember.

GB: You know exactly what that means right? And so do I but it means two totally different things to you and me, and it probably means something totally different to Mat. But that’s what makes it art.

JMT: See I love to hear people still talking like this because if there’s one thing I try and re-iterate to people it’s that these things are still important, even in the Information Age. We shouldn’t reduce great works of art to entries on Wikipedia. This thinking still exists in two totally different places: I’m in the middle of the Bible Belt and you’re in a city that’s commercialized the humanities arguably more than any other.

GB: I don’t think it’ll ever die out, you know? Because there’s always going to be people using music for what it should be, as an escape or a communication form. Whoever does music to please people and thinks they can give people what they want is dead wrong. That’s one of the things you see in LA, people doing the trendy thing, doing whatever works. They don’t get it. But all those bands that make that “thing” work, make it work because what they’re doing is original and touches people in some sort of way. You can’t imitate that. You’ve got to do it your own way.

(Kill Hannah are currently gearing up for a month-long tour with She Wants Revenge beginning September 8th. Their upcoming album, Wake Up the Sleepers, is slated for release on September 29th through Original Signal Recordings. A digital 45 featuring the album’s first single, “New York City Speed” plus a B-side, will be available on iTunes on August 18th. Check www.killhannah.com and www.myspace.com/killhannah for details. Listen to the latest sneak peek from WUTS, “Strobe Lights,” at www.purevolume.com/killhannah. Download “New York City Speed” for FREE here. Song uploaded with permission.)

I just need the airfare and I’m gone: [Blessed with Lucky 7's]

[If you don't know what the "airfare" posts are about, please see this description.]

Being sober is a funny thing. I used to do drugs. I mean, a lot of them. Any of them. Probably all of them. I still miss ecstasy. Every once in a while I’ll reminisce then regret it in the morning. Getting wasted is overrated but if you haven’t done it you don’t know what you’re missing. I’ll probably talk more about this later. But for now, back to the point.

Like any drug, no matter how often you do it, the come down always sucks. Tour is no different. Your body gets used to the grind, the drive, the adrenaline. For anyone who’s tried their hand at sobriety you know how difficult it is. Sure, the first few days it feels just like heaven to sleep, shower and hear yourself think…then it hits: you aren’t going anywhere for awhile. It’s like your supplier was just incarcerated for an indefinite amount of time. Your skin starts to itch. Your anxiety goes through the roof. After a couple of months you’re dying. Let’s just fucking GO. Get the hell out.

Despite how much I enjoy getting away for a couple of days every other week and then coming back, I always leave whatever city [except Birmingham] with a sense of longing–you want to stay inside the feeling, the experience. It’s why people shoot heroin 10 times a day. You don’t WANT it to go away. But it always does. It’s a story that’s been told a hundred times before.

Oklahoma City, OK, July 6th, 2009

Hotel: none

Budget after initial costs: $211

Other Attractions: Lacuna Coil and Kill Hannah at the Diamond Ballroom [OKC], Jeremy Dawson and his storm chasing van

Oklahoma City really doesn’t have much to offer. So there’s not much to say. The Diamond Ballroom is a tin-can off the interstate in the middle of nowhere surrounded by rusting 18-wheelers and gravel. However, you can still smoke inside, which is more than I can say for 90% of the venues/bars I visit these days. That’s a plus, I suppose. I didn’t bother with a hotel since I’m staying in Tulsa, at the moment.

The show in OKC was the kick-off in an almost month-long jog between Lacuna Coil and Kill Hannah. I’ve been listening to Lacuna Coil since I was in high school years ago and was excited to see them live. Although, like meeting people in person, sometimes that can disappoint you. The vocal mix sounded terrible, among other things. The idea of Lacuna Coil still excites me however and I’ll still listen regardless.

Kill Hannah debuted new touring guitarist Gil Baram along with a host of songs from their upcoming album, tentatively titled Wake Up the Sleepers. [A line from one of the new songs they've been playing called "Strobe Lights," which, by the way, is an infectious mess of guitar-gasms, dance beats and catchy everything.] There were very few breaks in the set’s energy and for a first show with a new member I’ve definitely seen worse. My money is still on the re-worked version of “New York City Speed” which even had the plethora of Hot Topic goths bobbing their heads.

Openers Dommin were fun–some weird mix of Depeche Mode, Joy Division, Voltaire, The 69-Eyes and, occasionally, the vocals reminded me of early 90′s Tool. Their song “Dark Holiday” from the Dommin EP sounds like they’re playing a saloon in Hell. I believe I invented a dance called the “goth shuffle” for their set. I talked with their bassist, Billy, for a long time over a few cigarettes and we attempted to answer the ongoing debate: The Cure Vs. Depeche Mode [I won't say which side I'm on.]

Seventh Void are knitted together using members of Type O Negative and Inhuman, and were the other opening band on the bill. While I didn’t enjoy them at all they seemed to garner a sizeable reaction from the crowd in OKC. That’s probably because while the entire country is blanketed in shitty Staind-esq rock, OKC has a larger concentration than most.

After I had an amusing back and forth over wine and leftover lamb. FYI, two words a boy in a band never wants to hear are these: blood disorder.

Instead of hitting the bar 30 fucking minutes away I opted to head home. I’m getting old, apparently.

Kansas City, MO, July 7th, 2009

Hotel: The Q[uarterage] Hotel

Budget after initial costs: $176

Other attractions: Lacuna Coil and Kill Hannah at the Beaumont Club,  The Riot Room, some gas station on I-35

The Q Hotel in is arguably the nicest hotel in the city. It makes a true effort to be eco-friendly and it’s standard amenities include almond-scented Aveda products which is a complete win. Aveda is one of my favorite bath and body lines, with natural ingredients that usually smell amazing. The rooms had very clean looks, bright greens, blues and whites, hi-def TV’s and more mirrors than I knew what to do with. The coffee bar downstairs was decent and there was a little bookshelf with a sign that said “Need a book? Take a book. Have a book? Give a book.” Which nearly melted my little black heart. I left some swag on the shelves. Who knows where it’s all at now. Their front desk staff was very friendly and the on-site spa looked a little creepy but regardless it’s always nice to have a massage option before doing any heavy partying.

Each band had a tighter set in Kansas City and was the exact same from the night before. I spent most of my time catching up with everyone I’d missed so dearly in the last few months. You never get enough time but, hey, that’s tour. You take what you can get, when you can get it. It’s a given rule. I even met an extremely nervous girl who stopped me just to say she read my site. I was flattered and gave her some stickers and buttons for her courage.

As I stood outside during Seventh Void, the crowd was not so friendly however, as most of the smokers going in and out were trying to escape their set.

After the show we went to the Riot Room for some band I thankfully missed after a detour back to the hotel. I was accused of starting the night off right with Patrón shots for myself and Gil, and I might or might not plead the 5th. Gil’s a fucking firecracker on and off stage. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t in bed until 5:30a.m., even though I had to be up at 9a.m. to hit the road home. Completely fucking worth it.

Check back in the next few days–I just so happen to have an interview with Gil Baram coming your way. [I'm still editing the John Bourke interview. It'll be live soon, promise.]

P.S. There are a lot of things that get left out in between the words. It’s like a cryptogram. Whether it’s shame or selfishness there are some things that must be left unsaid, to be mulled over on your own. You fall in love with it, every bit, even the bad parts. Even if you want to scream your entire story to the waiting universe sometimes, well sometimes dear orphans, you just can’t find the words. It is yours.