Exposed Vocals just caught an exclusive with Spike Summers (Guitar & Vocals – Psycho Melodic Kill Switch)
Exposed Vocals: How did you hear about Exposed Vocals? What made you decide to sign up?
Spike Summers (Guitar & Vocals – Psycho Melodic Kill Switch): To be honest I hadn’t heard of Exposed Vocals until you approached me on Twitter about doing this interview. Obviously after that I did some research and I liked what I saw.
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Spike Summers: I grew up in Sierra Leone until I was five before we moved to the UK for my education. My father was American and my mother British. I lived for five years in Texas (One of those on a mattress in a wine warehouse). Bob [Black – Bass and vocals – PMKS] was born in New Jersey, but his family moved to Sacramento, California when he was young, and went to college at USC. We met about a year ago in Saudi Arabia and after working on a couple of projects together we started PMKS in October of this year. [2015]. I don’t think you decide to become an artist. It is more something that happens over time. It gradually creeps up on you until at some point you consciously realize that you are an artist.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Spike Summers: Back in 2014 I was experimenting with some EDM and I saved a piece of music as Psycho Melodic Kill Switch as I hadn’t decided on a name for it yet. I came across it again just prior to forming the band. I asked Bob what he thought of it and he said OK. The rest as they say is history.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Spike Summers: I think online music sharing is fine when you’re a student, unemployed or in a low paying job. However I do think that if you have the money you should buy you’re music to help out up and coming artists.
In answer to the second part of your question, there are three main reasons I would give my music away for free. Firstly, when you’re first starting out it is important to get your name out there and one way to do this is to encourage people to download and disseminate your music from social media outlets such as SoundCloud. Secondly, I would, without hesitation, give my music to a charity I support should they approach me. Finally, I traditionally have a bit of fun recording a Christmas song, which I always give away for free. This year we covered Slade’s “Merry Xmas Everybody”.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Spike Summers: To get gigs and airplay you need to present yourself as professionally as possible. The way to do this is to put together a press kit. This should consist of photos, songs, a bio and a link to a video. For the photos I would include a live shot, a posed shot and the artwork for your lead song. Song wise there should be no more than 3 and they should be you best. Lead with the strongest. The bio should be short, punchy and informative. Try to get across what the band is about and finally if you have a video, preferably of the lead song, include a link to it. Once you have this in place just start pushing it around venues and radio stations.
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
Spike Summers: No never! [Laughs]. Of course I do. We all do. Most mistakes you make happen in a split second and generally the audience doesn’t even perceive them as a mistake. Once I was fronting a band in Japan and doing my normal running around the stage thing when I stepped into the darkness and plummeted several feet into the audience. Luckily the adrenaline had kicked in by then and l leapt back onto the stage and continued singing. The crowd thought it was part of the show and loved it. However sometimes there are times when the mistake is so obvious that the audience can’t fail to notice it. I once saw Paul McCartney sing the whole first verse of Let It Be out of key. He handled it by stopping the song. Informing the audience it was crap and making a joke of it before proceeding to do it again. I have used this strategy on occasion myself.
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
Spike Summers: One time my band was on the way to play a festival when we got pulled over by the cops who took us down to the station for questioning. A hole punch had come apart in my jacket pocket and so I was in possession of an awful lot of suspicious looking small round pieces of paper. The bass player had a broken of head of a teaspoon and some aspirin wrapped in tin foil in his back pocket. In addition to this the guitarist was found to have a number of asthma capsules but no inhaler. The drummer, who had nothing suspicious on him, managed to get strip searched twice when the police changed shift. The police, who must have thought they had the biggest bust this side of Colombia, sent away these innocent but suspicious articles for analysis. I wish I could have seen their faces when the results came back negative.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Spike Summers: Obviously anything from real life is the best. An old rocker once told me that each girlfriend/wife is worth four songs. Two when you start and two when you finish, put together 3 girlfriends and you’ve got yourself an album. Love and heartbreak are very strong emotions. Anger, fear and hate also work. Whenever you are feeling these it is a good time to write. I generally start with an idea then sit down with a guitar and write a verse and a chorus. After that I write the lyrics to verse 2 and 3 and later I add an intro, outro and middle eight.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Spike Summers: We don’t have an official dedicated website as such, but we do have an online presence. We have a Facebook page plus accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud YouTube, Bandcamp and, of course, Exposed Vocals now. [Laughing]. These are only about a week old so we don’t have many followers yet. It would really help us out if some of your readers would like or follow these. [Laughs].
Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
Spike Summers: Although PMKS are quite heavy, I’m a big fan of Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift. I think they write some interesting songs.
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Spike Summers: I would waste some of it on financing an album and World tour. The rest I’d spend on booze, drugs and hookers. [Laughing]
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
Spike Summers: I’m always looking to upgrade my studio. At the moment I’m using Logic Pro X and some Yamaha monitors. I’ve got my eye on a good recording microphone for my next purchase. Not sure which one yet though.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Spike Summers: Online on some of the platforms I mentioned earlier. However there are so many artists out there now it’s difficult to stand out from the crowd. It is very expensive to promote your sites properly and there are a lot of sharks out their offering nonexistent likes for money. However it is important to have an online presence. The old adage about paying you dues on the road still holds true I think. People love live music and touring as often and as widely as possible is till the best way to pick up fans and improve musically.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
Spike Summers: The dead ones would be John Lennon and Kurt Cobain, because you can tell what they are singing is real and it bleeds out of the music. Alive it would be Gaga and Taylor because a) it would be great exposure and b) I admire them as artists.
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Spike Summers: Yes, As I said before PMKS is a relatively new project and we our currently based in Saudi Arabia. We are currently in the midst of writing and recording our first album (Demos of some of the songs can be heard on Soundcloud or YouTube). We touch on the issues of women’s rights and freedom of speech, which are very salient here, in some of the songs. We hope to have this finished early in the New Year. Live music concerts are banned in this country so we are planning to stream a show to the World via the internet from Saudi Arabia [Quite possibly the first time this has ever been done] ahead of touring in the summer.
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Spike Summers: Recently I’ve been involved with directing and editing some of our low budget videos. I’ve enjoyed this so I’d like to think I’d be involved in movies somehow. Either acting, directing or working behind the scenes. However I currently have to do a bit of teaching to keep the wolf from the door.
Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
Spike Summers: I remember going round to my cousins’ house in London and they had a copy of Spark’s Kimono My House. This was the first album I’d come across with a lyric sheet and I was smitten. From that point on I started writing lyrics. When I got home I saved up my pocket money until I could buy the album. Shortly afterwards it was my birthday and I persuaded my parents to get me Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. I think it’s the best album of all time and it also has great lyrics.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Spike Summers: Living in Saudi there are very few distractions: no gigs to play, no bars, no cinemas and very little social life so I get up early and practice in the morning and work on new songs in the afternoon. At the weekend I rehearse with the band, shoot videos and do some recording.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Spike Summers: As I said before; there’ll be our debut album around February or March time; a gig streamed live from Saudi Arabia in the spring and in the summer we’ll be escaping Saudi to do a few shows.
Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/Psycho-Melodic-Kill-Switch-514629242030308/
Twitter Account
https://twitter.com/PMKSmusicNow
Instagram Account
https://www.instagram.com/psychomelodickillswitch/
YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH8XDcZWijgS6hB2ixfod-A
SoundCloud Profile
Bandcamp Profile
