On The RadarLotta Shakin’ Goin’ On and got a massive
clap. After that, I wasn’t shy anymore.
Did your family have a piano at home?
My nan had a little keyboard in the loft
that my granddad had bought in a car boot
sale, so I started learning on that. I used to
put the records on at a slower speed, and
learned by ear. These days, I have a real
piano that we gutted and I put a Yamaha
P-125 keyboard in that, so it looks like a real
piano on stage. If I could play a real piano
at every gig I would, because nothing can
imitate that sound. But most venues don’t
have pianos, the way they used to.
How did you form your band?
My brother was working in Whitstable
and there was a pub that had a lot of
rockabilly bands. The guy who ran the pub
was actually a drummer called Stix Outram.
My brother told him I was into that kind
of music, so we met and had a rehearsal
with him and Richard Gunson, who was
a psychobilly bass player in the 80s, and
that’s how the band started. The first name
was Dylan Kirk And The Killer Combo,
but we thought that was a bit of a mouthful,
so we cut it down to Dylan Kirk & The
Killers. The current line-up, on the album,
is Luke Nicholls on bass, Sam French on
guitar and Shaun O’Keefe on drums, but
at gigs it’s different all the time due to their
work commitments and whether or not
they can make it.
You also worked across the Channel
with a French band, as Dylan Kirk With
The Starlights...
That’s been put on hold now, but we met
when I went to the Blue Monday Festival in
France. They’d find me gigs abroad, I’d send
them songs, we’d rehearse when I’d get
there and then we’d go and play a gig.
The French scene has a different
atmosphere, I think. There are more Teddy
boys in France than in the UK.Tell us about your new LP, Introducing
Dylan Kirk And The Killers...
There’s a lot of different sorts of covers- things that didn’t have a piano in the
original version, but which I thought might
sound good with piano. There’s also some
normal piano stuff, like Ten Long Fingers,
which is like an anthem for piano players,
and some original material that I wrote.
What inspired your song, Junkie?
I had a dream about what life would be
like without rock’n’roll. I made drugs a
metaphor for rock’n’roll: I’m a rock’n’roll
junkie and I need it in my life to keep megoing. It’s like I’m addicted and I need
a needle and a record to keep me going.What does the future hold for you?
During the first lockdown, I had lots of time
to think, and I feel like my performance
has been a bit poor – not that people will
agree! But I feel I can do a lot more. So once
we get back to live work, I’m going to have
something a bit different. Not changing the
music too much, but performance-wise. It’s
going to be a different me. I’ve been trying to
work on stuff that people will remember me
for, so people go, ‘That’s a Dylan Kirk song’,
not, ‘He’s covering a Jerry Lee song’. 9For further information, visit
facebook.com/DylanKirksKillers2021 promises to be
a big year for Dylan
Kirk & The Killers