Kill Switch...Klick

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Taken from the 2006 CD Mechanoid Collection

Kill Switch...Klick, also known as KsK and Kill Switch (the original) is the name of an American industrial rock band. The band is best known for its releases on Cleopatra Records and Go-Kustom Rekords.

1 Members / History
2 Discography
3 Related Projects
4 External links

[edit] Members / History

Kill Switch...Klick was formed in 1991 by D.A. Sebasstian, a writer, musician and artist who had relocated from San Bernardino, California, to Seattle, Washington late in 1989.

Sebasstian came up with the band name while working at Microsoft as a landscape grunt. As the story goes, the mower he was using started to sputter and cough- so he thought aloud "Better hit the Kill Switch." Says Sebasstian, "As I reached down to shut the mower off, it was as if a light went off in my head. I had been looking for a band name for months and nothing seemed to fit the aggresive electronic direction my music was taking. The words "Kill Switch" kept rolling around in my head all afternoon. This was at the same time Jeffrey Dahmer was all over the news for his canniballistic antics. A random thought of Dahmer with a switch on the side of his head marked "Kill" came to me. I thought what if Dhamer had a Kill Switch that went "Klick" and he instantly changed into the strange creature he eventually became. Klick was an after thought, so I have always written the name with the elipses." Sebasstian was soon joined by drummer Mike Ditmore, the two signing briefly with Urge Ltd in 1993. This relationship did not produce anything more than demo tapes and a rumored track "Big Dub" in the movie Headless Body Topless Bar. The duo signed to Cleopatra Records in 1994. The following year the band released the albums "Beat it to Fit, Paint it to Match" and "Oddities & Versions", and went on their first US tour with bassist Paul Wynia. The tour was entitled "Muzak for the Masses", and also included grindcore artists And Christ Wept. In 1997 Kill Switch...Klick added former Transilvia bassist Jeremy Moss, and releasing the highly acclaimed album deGenerate, with a Alternate Version & B-sides follow up album entitled "ALT.", both on Cleopatra. Later that year, and right before their second US tour, Ditmore quit the band to pursue a career with American aviation giant Boeing.

In 1998 Sebasstian formed Irregular Records ( later Go-Kustom Rekords ) and in 1999 released Kill Switch...Klick's most controversial album "Organica." This album featured new songs and re-recorded versions of KsK classics using only acoustic sound sources. Said CMJ Magazine in Issue 67 "D.A. Sebasstian, has taken to using only acoustic instruments, recorded in his studio and sampler- processed appropriately, to write new songs and recreate older KsK material. The convention-busting instrumentation makes Organica a surprisingly flirtatious, personality-driven album. Just listen to "5 Hotwheels In My Box," which rhythmically alters a sample of a child blurting "five" and juxtaposes the soundbite with the bleating of bagpipes. Organica is a testament to the ingenuity of Sebasstian as well as to the viability of acoustic instruments in making great dance records." Organica was later licensed and reissued by Invisible Records.

In 2001 Kill Switch...Klick came out with a "Best Of" collection called "Milkin' It For All It's Worth" on Cleopatra Records, which included remixes by Spahn Ranch and Sigue Sigue Sputnik. The next year Invisible Records released Almost Ambient Collection Volume One. Said Keybodard Magazine- "The accent in the title is on "almost." Though much of the music is warm and gauzy, there's generally a beat prowling around. The sound effects, while subdued, are sometimes disturbing- love the squidgy filter stuff. The cluster-chord piano solo in "Feeding the Machine (Day to Day)" is downright rude, and "A/B Continuity (Resurgence)" is a full-on industrial/techno song. For my money, mastermind D.A. Sebasstian finds a good balance between energetic and mellow. Eleven of the tracks are previously unreleased, eight are reissues."

Sebasstian also began releasing and producing music and remixes for other bands, including Drag Strip Riot, The Wages of Sin, Faith & Disease, The Bad Things, Melene Marie Brown, OmBili Troupe, The Flathand 5, Billy Dwayne & The Creepers, Gary Numan, Gene Loves Jezebel, and his own solo project D.A. Sebasstian & The Inner Demons. He also expanded his Go-Kustom Records into the realm of public access television with a weekly Seattle-based show called Go-Kustom TV with Hostess Lindsay Calkins.

In 2003 Sebasstian began filming Hot Rod Girls Save the World, a Black & White B-movie style independent film, which includes original soundtrack music by Kill Switch...Klick, as well as many other Seattle area musicians. Filming was completed in 2006. The film went into post-production that same year, and is set for a 2007 release.

In 2006 Go-Kustom Rekords began re-issuing the Kill Switch...Klick back catalog including ALT., deGenerate and Almost Ambient Collection Volume One as well as the edgy collection Mechanoid Collection. Says Sebasstian about Mechanoid Collection, "Most of the disc is older material repackaged yet again- but released more for strategic reasons than anything else. I wanted to get some of my favorite songs on a single collection on my own label and quickly up on iTunes. Mechanoid was the vehicle to do this."