Kissing Judas

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about here, I don’t know what to say. The music on here is simply FANTASTIC!

If you happen to be in Houston on August 12, I’d like to invite you to come out to the BFE Club on Jones Rd. to experience the sounds of Kissing Judas. I think it will make for a fun evening for you, and the band would love to have you attend their “Kissing Judas Album Release Party” this night. They will have both vinyl and CDs there for you to purchase and will probably autograph them for you. Here’s a great opportunity for you to catch a band that’s on it’s way up, not to mention experience some great music.

We sat down with Kissing Judas this past month to gain a little insight into the band, the album, and the music and it really made for an interesting evening and we’d like to share it with you right now.

Music News: So we’re sitting here with kissing Judas. I guess the first thing is, the name of the band is quite unusual. Whose idea was for the name of the band? And how did that arrive?

Dave Sullivan: She (Morgan Sullivan) kind of brought it up. We had a whole list of band names we were trying to go through and that was one that she had brought up, that Morgan had brought up and it kind of... We’ve been asked several times what it means, what it is, oh my god, you you’re praising the guy that betrayed Jesus and stuff. No. It’s when Judas kissed Jesus. It was the ultimate betrayal. Kissing Judas means you’re flipping the script and calling somebody out before they have a chance to screw you over. So it’s, it’s basically the opposite.

Morgan Sullivan: That’s kind of his take on it.

Music News: And your take, what was your take of it?

Morgan Sullivan: Forgive your enemies, but don’t trust them.

Music News: Okay, so it had nothing to do with Judas Priest.

Dave Sullivan: Nope.

Bret Gyrich: I figure there was a Judas Priest influence in there somewhere to be honest with you, but apparently not.

Music News: Probably not.

Bret Gyrich: Apparently not. No.

Music News: Okay. Tell me about the recording of the album. Where did y’all record the album?

Dave Sullivan: Well, we got the main drums and rhythm guitars, mostly at Magik Studios. And then vocals were both at Magik and 2 The T studios and then a lot of overdubs and stuff like that we did in my studio here.

Music News: Okay, and who was the engineer on the project?

Dave Sullivan: We had Karim Khorsheed doing some of it. I think I pronounced the name right. Yeah, he did some of the engineering on the first stuff. And we had Chubbs Malone also as well, and then myself. And then mixdown. Tracks were sent to California to Matt Thorne. He has worked with several large artists and stuff like that. So he’s phenomenal and the work he does. So he would call me up... a lot of times I’d be working out of state and we would do zoom meetings and go over the songs and what I was looking for, how we wanted it, and he’d send me mixes. I’d call him back say ‘Okay, up this, up that, what to do and what I wanted to hear a little bit better or more’, and he’d do it again. And on some songs we had several mixes before we got it right. Then mastering was done by Dave Donnelly, who when he was mastering this, he actually took a day off of working on Aerosmith’s 50th Anniversary Album Boxset to master this, so we had a lot of really good people to make it sound the way it does.

Morgan Sullivan: And now Aerosmith knows that.

Bret Gyrich: Yeah there were a lot of cool people. Actually, I have no I’ve no clue what he’s doing with the rest of us. So…

Music News: No clue. Okay, and all the songs are well... describe what your music is. Describe the sound you’re trying to do.

Bret Gyrich: Who wants to take this one?

Dave Sullivan: We can each give a description. I don’t know, hard rock, metal, more.

More towards the hard rock side, the rock side, because the vocals are very discernible. You can understand everything. ‘I’m not really into the ‘cookie monster in desperate need of anger management’ vocal style.’ So that was one of the things I love.

Corey Sullivan: Speak for yourself.

Dave Sullivan: So a lot of people like it. For what we write, it didn’t really... it doesn’t fit. So we got Brett, and his vocals are incredible.

Bret Gyrich: Oh, how kind.

Dave Sullivan: You gonna Zelle me the rest of money for saying that.

Music News: Well, how would you explain your disco influences. (laughing & joking) on this...

Bret Gyrich: Who doesn’t want to go dancing from time to time, right.

Morgan Sullivan: We just play what we like and we play well. Yeah.

Music News: Well, all kidding aside, we know it’s not disco. But you think it leans more towards the harder rock or more towards the melodic type rock.

Corey Sullivan: There’s a big mix of different sounds on the record. There’s a few songs that are more, more modern rock. There’s a lot that calls back to the 80s Hair Metal type of stuff, but putting a modern twist on it. But yeah, but I mean, we’re... all the members are all kinds continued on next page