{"id":17761,"date":"2013-08-21T07:30:25","date_gmt":"2013-08-20T21:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=17761"},"modified":"2013-08-18T12:51:01","modified_gmt":"2013-08-18T02:51:01","slug":"kin-etik-of-twelve-foot-ninja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2013\/08\/kin-etik-of-twelve-foot-ninja\/","title":{"rendered":"Kin Etik of Twelve Foot Ninja"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201cIt\u2019s amazing, and just to see that kind of support for a local band is incredible and it just shows me that there is hope from the music industry and the corporatized structure of it and it now becoming collaboration between your audience and the band, you know for me it\u2019s really exciting. It\u2019s still in its infancy, it\u2019s a business model that\u2019s just really started and bands are only just started to get into or utilise, but it was incredible\u201d<\/p>\n

From tour release: Twelve Foot Ninja\u00a0<\/strong>bring their sharpened live show to Australian venues this August-September-October for their last Aussie tour before heading to Europe, USA, and Canada. Fresh from their national tour with the legendary\u00a0Fear Factory\u00a0and recent praise from the likes of\u00a0Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Dino Cazares (Fear Factory), Wolf Van Halen (Van Halen\/Tremonti), Misha Mansoor\u00a0(Periphery)\u00a0<\/strong>and the folks at\u00a0Soundwave, the genre-bending five-piece have gone from strength to strength since the release of their critically acclaimed debut album \u2018Silent Machine\u2019 in late 2012.<\/p>\n

We chatted to Kin from Twelve Foot Ninja about the last year and some highlights, as well as new material and the amazing show they have planned for their upcoming \u2018Shuriken Tour\u2019 dates, definitely not a show to miss\u2026<\/p>\n

You’ve been busy the last little while, let’s run through some highlights… How was the Fear Factory run?<\/strong>
\nOh it was unbelievable it was definitely a surreal experience and a teenage dream come true, be that a teenage wet dream, come true *laughs* they were such good guys, they were lovely guys and I looked up to them a lot when I was a teenager and I had posters of them on my wall, I basically had to keep pinching myself while we were on tour it was incredible, it was a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

How was the reaction for you guys?<\/strong>
\nIt was actually a lot better than we excepted, we didn\u2019t expect much, it\u2019s kind of better to come from that stand point, metal fans can be pretty open minded anyway musically anyway, some can be close minded, the majority of the people there really appreciated us, or appreciated the heavier end of our spectrum, so it kind of made the reggae and the latin a little bit more permissible, so yeah we got a really good reaction actually, better than we thought.<\/p>\n

Now let’s talk about the amazing response to the Pozible campaign; you broke a record for the highest amount ever crowd funded for a video, how chuffed does that make you feel?<\/strong>
\nOh man, it\u2019s amazing, and just to see that kind of support for a local band is incredible and it just shows me that there is hope from the music industry and the corporatized structure of it and it now becoming collaboration between your audience and the band, you know for me it\u2019s really exciting. It\u2019s still in its infancy, it\u2019s a business model that\u2019s just really started and bands are only just started to get into or utilise, but it was incredible, we thought it was a pretty ambitious project from the start. We were asking for $45K which is a lot of money, I think it was the last week and we were talking to each other saying that this may not happen and we were already formulating a plan of damage control if it didn\u2019t happen and yeah then we had this injection of $10,000 from this guy in Singapore that he wanted us to play his birthday party, it was soon after that that people just started throwing in a few dollars here and there and we actually exceeded our funding target, we reached about $53K and it was just astounding. We never thought that was possible, but it is *laughs* and I feel very humbled by that.<\/p>\n

So how about an update? We hear it’s looking pretty epic, so what are we going to see in it?<\/strong>
\nYou\u2019ll be seeing it soon, it\u2019s still being made at the moment, but we\u2019ve shot the majority of it, but from my point of view it looks very, very cool so the fans are in for a treat. I can\u2019t exactly say when it\u2019s going to happen but I\u2019m pretty sure we\u2019ll be making an announcement on our facebook page, so keep an eye on it.<\/p>\n

For $53K you\u2019d want to make it good\u2026 *laughs*<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely, it better be bloody good *laughs*<\/p>\n

I interviewed Spencer and Mark from Periphery in Feb when they were here for Soundwave and they were raving about you guys and being a part of the video, are there any other special guests you can fill us in on?<\/strong>
\nYeah we\u2019ve got a 7 or 8 foot Alaskan brown bear that makes an appearance, that\u2019s probably our biggest guest I\u2019d say, and also a troll that our guitarist Steve Mackay does battle with as well. That\u2019s about the extent of the guest, also a Penthouse Pet as well, an Australian Penthouse Pet.<\/p>\n

You left mentioning that until last?<\/strong>
\n*laughs* yes\u2026<\/p>\n

It’s now time for your own headlining tour starting at the end of this month, what surprises have you got up your sleeve for this run?<\/strong>
\nWell, we\u2019ve got quite a few actually, Russ our drummer is going to set my hair on fire, Stevic the guitarist is going to do a 43 minute maraca solo, our bass player Damon is going to do a one man solo tribute to Kanye West using only his glow in the dark sneakers. Rohan our other guitarist is going to be doing the entire gig on horseback, we\u2019ll be handing out apples at the door so you can feed him, Rohan that is, the horse will be well fed before the show *laughs* it\u2019s going to be a laser light show and pyrotechnics and all that sort of thing, but seriously it\u2019s going to be five guys giving it their all and just pumping out the hits. *laughs*<\/p>\n

So for those who have never seen you live, and shamefully I must include myself in that list, aside from the above how would you describe a typical Twelve Foot Ninja show, to me the word that comes to mind is energy?<\/strong>
\nYeah absolutely, I think that seems to be the feedback that we receive more than anything else, the energy of the show is high and dynamic, we put everything into the show, all that we\u2019ve got, blood, sweat, tears, body and soul and that\u2019s our goal, we\u2019d love for people to walk away with a smile on their face and at least give them some time away from their daily grind or whatever that is, and that is definitely our goal to give them as much energy as possible.<\/p>\n

And free apples\u2026<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely, free apples and laser light spectaculars.<\/p>\n

‘Silent Machine’ has been out for around eight months now, have you already been working on new ideas and new material?<\/strong>
\nWe\u2019re constantly working on new material because we\u2019re a band relatively in our infancy, we\u2019re not afforded the luxury of taking several years between albums, so it\u2019s really important for us to keep working and developing our sound, but we\u2019re definitely in the process of working on the second one, \u00a0but it\u2019s like we\u2019re focusing more on the tour and also subsequent tours that are coming up.<\/p>\n

With so much going on over the last little while, have you found inspiration?<\/strong>
\nThere\u2019s so much inspiration to draw on, there\u2019s so much music coming out constantly that I myself seek out new music and new bands all the time, all of the bands I love have some sort of influence, we\u2019ve also toured with a lot of bands that do things different and bring a different approach so that rubs off too.<\/p>\n

Are there plans to take the Ninja overseas?<\/strong>
\nYes we do, we\u2019re actually as an extension to our \u2018Shuriken Tour\u2019 the national tour, we\u2019re heading over to Germany for a couple of shows over there, we\u2019re playing Euroblast over there, and I think we\u2019re doing a sow in London as well and yeah it\u2019s amazing, it\u2019s the first time we\u2019re heading overseas, across the trenches so we\u2019re all really excited about it.<\/p>\n

Have you had much feedback from overseas?<\/strong>
\nYes we have, I think we\u2019re actually more popular overseas than we are in our own country *laughs* so we\u2019ve had quite a lot of people contact us from Europe especially, and now we\u2019re getting more and more fans from The States as well, and so it definitely feels like there\u2019s a warm reception for us over there, so we can\u2019t wait to get over there and do our best to convert and convince people of what we do, and represent Australia.<\/p>\n

I love that you guys seem to have fun with what you do. What is it about being in Twelve Foot Ninja that you enjoy the most?<\/strong>
\nI myself, I couldn\u2019t really speak for the band as I\u2019m sure everyone has a different take on it, I enjoy every element from writing to recording to rehearsing to doing shows I think I get the most out of playing shows as the response between the audience and the band is kind of immediate. I just watch people having a great time and having a great time and singing along to the music is just the best feeling in the world, there\u2019s nothing like it. So I think the top of the pile for me would definitely be live shows, because of that interactivity.<\/p>\n

As I shamefully mentioned before, I haven\u2019t seen you perform live yet, but do you throw in any covers by any chance?<\/strong>
\nNot any more, we have chucked in a couple of covers in the past but we\u2019ve got enough material now to do our own stuff, but I wouldn\u2019t rule that out for the future, we\u2019ve been speaking about perhaps bringing a couple of covers into the sets, but we\u2019ll see what happens.<\/p>\n

In that case I do like to ask that if there was one song in the entire world that people may not expect you\u2019d cover but really want to, what would it be?<\/strong>
\nHmm\u2026 that\u2019s a really good question, I\u2019d say and it would be for us, and it\u2019s been our theme songs for a very long time, it would be The Doobie Brothers \u2018What A Fool Believes\u2019 *laughs* we just may do that one day.<\/p>\n

In the five years you’ve been together, what would you say was the biggest change you’ve seen as a band take place?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019d say it would be the synergy within the band, I\u2019d say we\u2019ve grown not only with our skills but also our relationships we know each other a lot bete we did when we started out, that can definitely change the dynamic and brings a band closer, and I think that reflects in our performances as well and in the music we\u2019re writing, so the biggest shift we\u2019ve experienced is getting closer to each other on an interpersonal level, enhance sort of a stronger chemistry a stronger chemical make-up.<\/p>\n

You mentioned before that you think you\u2019re bigger overseas than you are here, what is it do you think about the Australian rock \/ metal scene that isn\u2019t really working over here at the moment?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s just small, it\u2019s just really small and I don\u2019t think there\u2019s much commercial representation of that particular genre of music or that particular scene, at the moment it seems to be dance music, dance pop and hip hop really and indie, and I think there\u2019ve very little exposure for that type of music. We\u2019ve actually been watching it over the last five years and that tide seems to be shifting quite a bit which is a really encouraging thing, we\u2019re seeing more and more bands of sort of our ilk getting played on radio, especially on JJJ, so I think the tide is turning, I think the key is to expect to see a lot of the awesome bands that are a part of that scene in the future.<\/p>\n

2013 is nearly over… So let’s predict the future. In the next year Twelve Foot Ninja will…<\/strong>
\nOh good question\u2026 more tours, definitely more tours, we\u2019re also planning on hopefully releasing our second album as well. We\u2019re also working on hopefully, not playing our shows but we\u2019re contacting the company that created the holographic Tupac that appeared at Coachella a couple of years ago, so I think most of our future shows will be holographic versions of us and hopefully there will be a bit more pyrotechnics and all of that stuff as well.<\/p>\n

Worse comes to worse you could always have a holographic Doobie Brother\u2026<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely, why not? *laughs*<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0 Melbourne, Australia<\/p>\n

Band members: <\/strong>Damon McKinnon \u2013 Bass, Kin Etik \u2013 Vox, Shane \u2018Russ\u2019 Russell \u2013 Drums, Steve \u2018Stevic\u2019 Mackay \u2013 Guitar, Rohan Hayes – Guitar\/Vox<\/p>\n

Website: <\/strong>http:\/\/www.twelvefootninja.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong> Silent Machine (out now – Volkanik\/MGM)<\/p>\n

Catch Twelve Foot Ninja out on their \u2018Shuriken Tour\u2019 at these dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fri 30 Aug \u2013 Ferntree Gully Hotel<\/strong>
\nWith Engine<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Thu 5 Sep \u2013 Coffs Harbour Hotel<\/strong>
\nWith Shepherd<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Fri 6 Sep \u2013 Tempo Hotel, Brisbane<\/strong>
\nWith Caligula\u2019s Horse + Humality<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Sat 7 Sep \u2013 Parkwood Tavern, Gold Coast<\/strong>
\nWith Caligula\u2019s Horse + Humality<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Thu 12 Sept \u2013 Zierholz Uc, Canberra<\/strong>
\nWith Meniscus<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Fri 13 Sept \u2013 Waves, Wollongong<\/strong>
\nWith Breaking Orbit + Meniscus<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Sat 14 Sept \u2013 Manning Bar, Sydney<\/strong>
\nWith Breaking Orbit + Meniscus<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Thu 19 Sept \u2013 Small Ballroom, Newcastle<\/strong>
\nWith Teal + Let The Number Be X<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Fri 20 Sept \u2013 Entrances Leagues, The Entrance<\/strong>
\nWith Teal + In Hydes Shadow + Bleeding Gasoline<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Sat 21 Sept \u2013 Mona Vale Hotel<\/strong>
\nWith Meniscus + Dividers<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Thur 26 Sept \u2013 Prince Of Wales Hotel, Bunbury<\/strong>
\nWith The Meaning Of<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Fri 27 Sept \u2013 Rosemount Hotel, Perth<\/strong>
\nWith The Meaning Of + Ron Pollard Quintet<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Fri 4 Oct \u2013 Corner Hotel, Melbourne<\/strong>
\nWith Caligula\u2019s Horse + Toehider<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Sat 5 Oct \u2013 Fowlers Live, Adelaide<\/strong>
\nWith Quiet Child + Red Light Sound<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Tickets from\u00a0www.twelvefootninja.com<\/a><\/p>\n

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