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Q&A with Jim Müller
Germany’s Kissin’ Dynamite released its third album, Money, Sex & Power last week, and on May 1, 2012, guitarist Jim Müller and I connected on Skype to talk about the band’s latest effort. Kissin’ Dynamite was founded in 2007, with Müller, vocalist Hannes Braun, bassist Steffan Haile, drummer Andreas Schnitzer, and fellow guitarist Ande Braun.
The quintet released its debut album, Steel of Swabia in 2008, and its sophomore effort, Addicted To Steel in 2010. Former Accept and current U.D.O. vocalist Udo Dirkschneider made a guest appearance on the latter album’s title track.
Money, Sex & Power picks up where Addicted To Metal left off, but finds the band in a state of self-discovery. ”The first two albums were kind of like finding ourselves,” said Müller. “On Addicted To Metal we were searching for the heaviness. On album number three we were talking about music a lot before we were writing it.”
Müller explained that the band realized with the new album, it was time to put a voice and a signature on exactly what Kissin’ Dynamite is as a sonic entity. We were listening to thousands of bands and songs, and explaining what riffs is Kissin’ Dynamite and what atmosphere is Kissin’ Dynamite, and to put it all in a nutshell, we were like Kissin’ Dynamite is Mötley Crüe meets Accept. So American sleaze, glam stuff like Mötley, Aerosmith, Skid Row, Guns ‘N Roses meets European heavy metal like Judas Priest, Accept and U.D.O.”
The first single from Money, Sex & Power is the album’s title track. A song that combines, as Müller promised, a healthy foundation of power metal riffing overlaid by a thick coating of sleaze. The story behind the song came from the scandal surrounding the alleged sex parties, called “bunga, bunga”, held by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
“The head of Italy, he did bunga, bunga parties,” Müller grinned. “He had the girls, he had the alcohol. I don’t want to say that he had drugs, but probably he had drugs. He was like kind of a rock star in the twenty-first century. We were reading about Berlusconi, and we were saying ‘man, he’s a fucking rock star. He’s got the money, he’s got the sex, and he’s got the power.’”
For Kissin’ Dynamite, playing hard rock and metal is not about making social or political statements but rather living life like it’s a party. Over the course of our 30-minute conversation, Müller and I talked about this concept, his influences, how Udo came to sing with the band on the previous album, and the bloody tale behind the song, “Sex Is War.” Listen to the full interview below and watch the video for “Money, Sex & Power”.
If you jump over to NoiseCreep you can also check out 10 Reasons Why Jim Müller loves heavy metal.
Related links:
http://www.kissindynamite.de
http://www.facebook.com/kissindynamiterocks
