©Wyatt T. Photography
METAL PULP AND PAPER: Hello Mike. So glad to be catching up with you. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us here at Metal Pulp And Paper. We appreciate it. Now give us a little run down about your band Kissing Candice and what we need to know, and especially tell us if you have any new music coming out soon.
MIKE GRIPPO: Kissing Candice is a heavy band rooted in Long Island NY, even though we now have members in five different states, this is still home base. We are super theatrical and believe the live show is just as important as the music, so we reflect the chaos of our music on stage and in our image. We just returned from a quick 10 day run through the Midwest/south US. We also just self-released two songs, "Magic Show" and "Crash and Burn."
MPAP: We’re going to change up this interview and do something different. I’m going to pull some recent headlines from the Metal Injection website and get your reactions and comments on them. Here we go:
1. Celtic Frost Frontman Wishes Metallica Had Left 'Their Millionaire Fingers' Off His Song
MPAP: So, at a recent Metallica show in Switzerland, Kirk and Rob played one of Celtic Frost’s song "The Usurper" during a break in the show. According to Tom Warrior, vocalist for Celtic Frost, the two of them butchered it. He said, 'Maybe I should go onstage and do a really miserable version of [Metallica’s] "Hit the Lights" with, like, 200 mistakes to set the balance.' What do you think about this? If someone was going to cover one of your songs, do you think it should be done in good taste and without any mistakes, or it’s Metallica, and they can do whatever they want, it's no big deal?
MIKE: Metallica can do whatever they want with our music. I would just be beyond stoked to know that any single one of them had even heard our name.
2. A Fan Died In The Slipknot Mosh Pit This Weekend
MPAP: Very sad. So, apparently, a 62-year-old Slipknot fan died while in the mosh pit at a Chicago show. Corey Taylor had recently stopped a previous show because he saw the mosh pit was getting too violent. Accidents do happen, but do you think mosh pits at metal shows are becoming more dangerous?
MIKE: From my time growing up spending most of my time at hardcore shows, I believe it is less dangerous. Where I am from, there were a lot of 'hardcore crews' that would just turn the pits into just non-stop fights. However, metal and hardcore have totally different mentalities. I think with metal, especially at amphitheater level with someone like Slipknot, there is a mentality to help each other out. While this is super unfortunate, I am saddened to hear about it. I feel most metal pits are generally safer now than they were. Especially with some of the bigger bands getting older and having families, that call for violence isn’t really there anymore.
3. Slayer Pulled As Primary Sponsor Of NASCAR Due To Complaints From Other Sponsors
MPAP: Really? C’mon., it’s just a band name. It’s not like Satan himself will be driving the car, right?
MIKE: It definitely sucks as it would have been hilarious. But big brands always have been and probably always will be afraid of being associated with anything 'counter-culture' unless they think it’ll get them more sales.
4. Maynard Got Death Threats Over How Long The Tool Album Took
MPAP: Talk about some diehard fans. I think that is going a bit too far, even if you’ve been waiting 13 years, right?
MIKE: That’s just annoying, the guys clearly been non-stop busy with other ventures. Let the guy live his life. There’s been 10,000 other albums put out during that time.
5. Controversial Video Shows Rob Zombie Grabbing A Female Fan By The Hair After Being Gropep
MPAP: His shirt was pulled, but, nevertheless. I guess during a show Rob went out into the crowd, and an enthusastic fan reached out and pulled on his shirt. After this headline was posted, quite a few bands like Shinedown, All That Remains, and Bad Wolves defended Rob’s actions. What are your thoughts, do fans need to keep their hands to themselves?
MIKE: Fans definitely need to keep their hands to themselves in this day and age. Ever since what happened with Dime, the mentality has changed. You never know someone’s intention when they touch you without consent. Especially in the heat of the moment, you never know what is happening with so many people around you. I do think Rob should have been more mindful and not grabbed her hair, but he probably just knee jerk reacted to a situation where someone invades your personal space. On this last run, I walked to the front of the stage, we had no barricade, and a girl reached straight up the hole in my pants and gave it a little honk. I just took a step back. We are a disgusting band, so when disgusting things happen it’s like eh, whatever.
6. Behemoth Frontman Confronted At YMCA For Wearing Darkthrone Shirt & Kicked Out Not Believing In Jesus
MPAP: It was just a shirt, and he was going there to workout. It wasn’t like he was going to sacrifice some virgins and spill blood everywhere. What do you think?
MIKE: Some people will always be afraid of what they don’t understand. It sucks, but it just happens. You’ll always get dirty looks and get preached to when you wear clearly controversial clothing. Comes with the territory.
7. Former Weedeater Drummer Arrested For Allegedly Spiking Wife’s Drink With Meth
MPAP: Umm, this doesn’t look like they have a very good marriage going on for this to have happened. Do you think they need some marriage counseling or what?
MIKE: I mean it says 'allegedly', so I hope this didn’t happen. But I’ll develop an opinion after it goes through the legal system. Hit me up then! But this is definitely not ok if true.
8. Walmart Shoppers Call The Cops On Metal Band for… Sitting In A Van Parking Lot
MPAP: This happened right after the tragic Dayton, Ohio shooting where ten people were killed, including the shooter, and 27 others were injured. The gunman just happened to be a metalhead because he was wearing a The Acacia Strain hoodie. It’s good that people report things, but this could turn out that every traveling metal band that’s parked in a Walmart parking lot are going to get reported now. What do you think?
MIKE: This sounds like an isolated incident. We’ve slept in Walmart parking lots for our seven years of touring. Some Walmart's actually don’t allow overnight parking and will call the cops on you. We’ve had the cops called on us at Planet Fitness during the daytime because people thought we were planning on moving into the parking lot or something.
9. People Are Going Wild For This Rant Tommy Lee Shared Against Donald Trump
MPAP: The rant/tweet is quite a bit long, so I'm not going to torture you to read it, but I will say this: should musicians talk or write about politics? In a way, it’s like their forcing their beliefs down our throats. What are your thoughts?
MIKE: We are not a political band, and we keep most of our opinions to ourselves. But that’s just us, there are plenty of political bands whose main purpose is to spread a message, so it makes sense for them.
10. James Hetfield Calls Woman Who Used Metallica’s Music To Fend Off Cougar
MPAP: A young lady, was out walking her dog when off in the distance a cougar began to stalk her. She eventually played a Metallica song on her phone to scare it away, and it worked. She definitely had luck and the power of music on her side, right? What song of yours do you think would scare off a hungry cougar?
MIKE: When I read this at first, I thought you meant older woman on the prowl for young men. I was like damn, that’d probably attract them more! But if it’s the animal, I’d say our new song "Magic Show" will probably keep those kinda cougars at bay.
11. While She Sleeps Release Free T-Shirt Design To Clue Fans Into How Much Streaming Doesn’t Pay
MPAP: This is what the design said: One T-shirt is the equivalent to 5000 streams on Spotify. 76% of all music is streamed and not bought physically or digitally. Band merchandise is the most direct way of supporting a band. Sadly, buying music isn’t the same anymore. Back in the day, it used to be fun to buy an actual album or CD, don’t you think?
MIKE: I still buy CD’s when I can, but it’s hard because not enough people buy our CD’s for me to afford to buy other people’s CD’s. So, it’s just a huge terrible cycle that we have to adjust to.
12. David Hasselhoff Teams Up With Ministry Frontman For "Sweet Caroline" Cover
MPAP: All I can say is, this should be interesting. Hopefully, it’s not a train wreck for the Hoff. It's worth a listen to when it comes out though. What do you think of this collaboration?
MIKE: Anything Uncle Al touches is gonna be gold in my book. He’s the Godfather of industrial, what he says goes.
MPAP: What tv/movie actor would you like to cover a song with someday?
MIKE: Leonardo DiCaprio, so he can do the thing from Wolf Of Wall Street where he bangs the microphone into his head while biting his lip. That’s metal.
MPAP: On behalf of Metal Pulp And Paper, I’d like to thank you, Mike, for taking the time to answer these headline questions. We look forward to what Kissing Candice does to finish out 2019 and beyond. Any last words for all your fans out there?
MIKE: Thanks for your support! We hope to keep releasing new music and have our fingers crossed for some cool stuff in the new year!
MIKE GRIPPO: Kissing Candice is a heavy band rooted in Long Island NY, even though we now have members in five different states, this is still home base. We are super theatrical and believe the live show is just as important as the music, so we reflect the chaos of our music on stage and in our image. We just returned from a quick 10 day run through the Midwest/south US. We also just self-released two songs, "Magic Show" and "Crash and Burn."
MPAP: We’re going to change up this interview and do something different. I’m going to pull some recent headlines from the Metal Injection website and get your reactions and comments on them. Here we go:
1. Celtic Frost Frontman Wishes Metallica Had Left 'Their Millionaire Fingers' Off His Song
MPAP: So, at a recent Metallica show in Switzerland, Kirk and Rob played one of Celtic Frost’s song "The Usurper" during a break in the show. According to Tom Warrior, vocalist for Celtic Frost, the two of them butchered it. He said, 'Maybe I should go onstage and do a really miserable version of [Metallica’s] "Hit the Lights" with, like, 200 mistakes to set the balance.' What do you think about this? If someone was going to cover one of your songs, do you think it should be done in good taste and without any mistakes, or it’s Metallica, and they can do whatever they want, it's no big deal?
MIKE: Metallica can do whatever they want with our music. I would just be beyond stoked to know that any single one of them had even heard our name.
2. A Fan Died In The Slipknot Mosh Pit This Weekend
MPAP: Very sad. So, apparently, a 62-year-old Slipknot fan died while in the mosh pit at a Chicago show. Corey Taylor had recently stopped a previous show because he saw the mosh pit was getting too violent. Accidents do happen, but do you think mosh pits at metal shows are becoming more dangerous?
MIKE: From my time growing up spending most of my time at hardcore shows, I believe it is less dangerous. Where I am from, there were a lot of 'hardcore crews' that would just turn the pits into just non-stop fights. However, metal and hardcore have totally different mentalities. I think with metal, especially at amphitheater level with someone like Slipknot, there is a mentality to help each other out. While this is super unfortunate, I am saddened to hear about it. I feel most metal pits are generally safer now than they were. Especially with some of the bigger bands getting older and having families, that call for violence isn’t really there anymore.
3. Slayer Pulled As Primary Sponsor Of NASCAR Due To Complaints From Other Sponsors
MPAP: Really? C’mon., it’s just a band name. It’s not like Satan himself will be driving the car, right?
MIKE: It definitely sucks as it would have been hilarious. But big brands always have been and probably always will be afraid of being associated with anything 'counter-culture' unless they think it’ll get them more sales.
4. Maynard Got Death Threats Over How Long The Tool Album Took
MPAP: Talk about some diehard fans. I think that is going a bit too far, even if you’ve been waiting 13 years, right?
MIKE: That’s just annoying, the guys clearly been non-stop busy with other ventures. Let the guy live his life. There’s been 10,000 other albums put out during that time.
5. Controversial Video Shows Rob Zombie Grabbing A Female Fan By The Hair After Being Gropep
MPAP: His shirt was pulled, but, nevertheless. I guess during a show Rob went out into the crowd, and an enthusastic fan reached out and pulled on his shirt. After this headline was posted, quite a few bands like Shinedown, All That Remains, and Bad Wolves defended Rob’s actions. What are your thoughts, do fans need to keep their hands to themselves?
MIKE: Fans definitely need to keep their hands to themselves in this day and age. Ever since what happened with Dime, the mentality has changed. You never know someone’s intention when they touch you without consent. Especially in the heat of the moment, you never know what is happening with so many people around you. I do think Rob should have been more mindful and not grabbed her hair, but he probably just knee jerk reacted to a situation where someone invades your personal space. On this last run, I walked to the front of the stage, we had no barricade, and a girl reached straight up the hole in my pants and gave it a little honk. I just took a step back. We are a disgusting band, so when disgusting things happen it’s like eh, whatever.
6. Behemoth Frontman Confronted At YMCA For Wearing Darkthrone Shirt & Kicked Out Not Believing In Jesus
MPAP: It was just a shirt, and he was going there to workout. It wasn’t like he was going to sacrifice some virgins and spill blood everywhere. What do you think?
MIKE: Some people will always be afraid of what they don’t understand. It sucks, but it just happens. You’ll always get dirty looks and get preached to when you wear clearly controversial clothing. Comes with the territory.
7. Former Weedeater Drummer Arrested For Allegedly Spiking Wife’s Drink With Meth
MPAP: Umm, this doesn’t look like they have a very good marriage going on for this to have happened. Do you think they need some marriage counseling or what?
MIKE: I mean it says 'allegedly', so I hope this didn’t happen. But I’ll develop an opinion after it goes through the legal system. Hit me up then! But this is definitely not ok if true.
8. Walmart Shoppers Call The Cops On Metal Band for… Sitting In A Van Parking Lot
MPAP: This happened right after the tragic Dayton, Ohio shooting where ten people were killed, including the shooter, and 27 others were injured. The gunman just happened to be a metalhead because he was wearing a The Acacia Strain hoodie. It’s good that people report things, but this could turn out that every traveling metal band that’s parked in a Walmart parking lot are going to get reported now. What do you think?
MIKE: This sounds like an isolated incident. We’ve slept in Walmart parking lots for our seven years of touring. Some Walmart's actually don’t allow overnight parking and will call the cops on you. We’ve had the cops called on us at Planet Fitness during the daytime because people thought we were planning on moving into the parking lot or something.
9. People Are Going Wild For This Rant Tommy Lee Shared Against Donald Trump
MPAP: The rant/tweet is quite a bit long, so I'm not going to torture you to read it, but I will say this: should musicians talk or write about politics? In a way, it’s like their forcing their beliefs down our throats. What are your thoughts?
MIKE: We are not a political band, and we keep most of our opinions to ourselves. But that’s just us, there are plenty of political bands whose main purpose is to spread a message, so it makes sense for them.
10. James Hetfield Calls Woman Who Used Metallica’s Music To Fend Off Cougar
MPAP: A young lady, was out walking her dog when off in the distance a cougar began to stalk her. She eventually played a Metallica song on her phone to scare it away, and it worked. She definitely had luck and the power of music on her side, right? What song of yours do you think would scare off a hungry cougar?
MIKE: When I read this at first, I thought you meant older woman on the prowl for young men. I was like damn, that’d probably attract them more! But if it’s the animal, I’d say our new song "Magic Show" will probably keep those kinda cougars at bay.
11. While She Sleeps Release Free T-Shirt Design To Clue Fans Into How Much Streaming Doesn’t Pay
MPAP: This is what the design said: One T-shirt is the equivalent to 5000 streams on Spotify. 76% of all music is streamed and not bought physically or digitally. Band merchandise is the most direct way of supporting a band. Sadly, buying music isn’t the same anymore. Back in the day, it used to be fun to buy an actual album or CD, don’t you think?
MIKE: I still buy CD’s when I can, but it’s hard because not enough people buy our CD’s for me to afford to buy other people’s CD’s. So, it’s just a huge terrible cycle that we have to adjust to.
12. David Hasselhoff Teams Up With Ministry Frontman For "Sweet Caroline" Cover
MPAP: All I can say is, this should be interesting. Hopefully, it’s not a train wreck for the Hoff. It's worth a listen to when it comes out though. What do you think of this collaboration?
MIKE: Anything Uncle Al touches is gonna be gold in my book. He’s the Godfather of industrial, what he says goes.
MPAP: What tv/movie actor would you like to cover a song with someday?
MIKE: Leonardo DiCaprio, so he can do the thing from Wolf Of Wall Street where he bangs the microphone into his head while biting his lip. That’s metal.
MPAP: On behalf of Metal Pulp And Paper, I’d like to thank you, Mike, for taking the time to answer these headline questions. We look forward to what Kissing Candice does to finish out 2019 and beyond. Any last words for all your fans out there?
MIKE: Thanks for your support! We hope to keep releasing new music and have our fingers crossed for some cool stuff in the new year!