Fifteen minutes after the appointed meeting time I look up just in time to see Emmett Kinsella of The Walking Dead coming into the hotel lobby with a bottle of coke in hand. He's wearing a grey t-shirt underneath a vest that looks like he rescued it from the salvation army and a pair of jeans with holes in both knees. His black all-star tennis shoes look like they've seen better days, the rubber soles covered in indistinguishable words written on with a permanent marker. As he spots me he lifts a hand and pushes his black plastic sunglasses off and up into his messy mop of brown hair. "Sorry I'm late... traffic around here is a bitch..."
spin magazine you mean you actually drive yourself? Most celebrities come equipped with drivers nowadays, didn't you hear?
emmett kinsella if I wasn't such a cheap bastard you bet your ass I'd have a driver. Actually, I used to really like driving but that was when I lived back in Louisa. That county has about twenty-five thousand people in it. I can drive however the fuck I want and all I have to worry about is some state trooper who is having a bad day.
sm so you'd rather be back in Louisa then?
ek [he laughs] don't even joke about something so horrible as that. I might hate Los Angeles but this cesspool actually has a breath of life in it. I'm probably going to have nightmares now because you even suggested it. [he sighs dramatically and sinks down into the sofa even more, pulling his feet up onto the edge of the cushion] anyway... enough trying to scare me, let's talk about music. that's why you are here, isn't it?
sm It is... so you've officially come off of hiatus with the walking dead and you're putting out a new album this year. how does it feel to be back?
ek feels like I never went anywhere in the first place, to be honest. The whole time I was on hiatus I was working on my side project. We put out two albums with the side project and did a little tour or two and had a pretty damn good time. It was just time to get back on with The Walking Dead. The stuff I was writing just seemed more like a Walking Dead album than a Near Miss album.
sm when you first start writing a new album can you tell right away which band it is going to be for?
ek sometimes. When it's a Near Miss album I know that I want it to sound softer, maybe more poetic. The Walking Dead is trying to give a message, you know? We're trying to make a statement. It's my little fuck you when I think one needs to be said. And all the shit I wrote for the new album just felt like that fuck you, so it's definitely a Walking Dead album. There is no question about that.
sm do you write all of the music for the albums yourself or do you let the other band members give you any input?
ek I'm a little bit of a control freak, lyrically. I spend a good majority of my time obsessing over what word fits best with what line and whether or not I think certain lyrics flow as well as others. The rest of the band does a little bit of writing but for the most part they just act as a sounding board when I'm stuck on something. The guys will show me stuff they've written but they have to catch me in the right mood. I'm not afraid to tell them when I think something is complete shit, and likewise I expect them to tell me when they think something I've written is shit. And then I promptly throw a hissy fit about it and they leave me alone.
sm you are sort of notorious for that aren't you? Having hissy fits?
ek [he scoffs and looks proportionally offended before bringing a hand up to his mouth so he could chew on his thumb nail. after a second he drops his hand back down to tug at his shoe strings before he glances back over at me again] yeah I sort of am I guess. Last year I made the top twenty on stage meltdowns count down that some magazine did, I can't remember which. Probably better for you I don't mention any other magazine names but it wasn't this magazine, anyway. They put me on the list for a show we did in Birmingham during the tour for Lateralus. We were right in the middle of a set and the sound started going to shit. We stopped to try and fix it and fans started throwing shit at me so I started getting pissed. I ended up trashing like three guitars and screaming at the fans to sit down and shut the fuck up and blah blah. No one really cares now that was like, five years ago. The countdown was some bullshit anyway, I've seen better on stage meltdowns than that.
sm well that's not the only countdown you made last year was it? If I remember right you made the top twenty-five hottest guys in rock. What do you think about that?
ek I think that countdown is a load of shit too. Who comes up with this shit, honestly? Who doesn't have anything better to do with their time than to come up with these meaningless countdowns? It's not like the number one person wins anything anyway. It's a totally arbitrary list.
sm so I take it you weren't number one on the countdown?
ek no! What kind of shit is that? I'm not even going to tell you who was number one because it's just embarrassing and I don't want to talk about it. Let's get back to just talking about the album or about the tour or whatever. It's gotta be more entertaining than reliving horrifying moments in my life.
sm sorry. We'll get back on topic now. You called this new album a breath of fresh air. What did you mean by that and what should fans expect when the new album finally comes out?
ek after spending three years away from the band it just felt good to come back to it, I guess. That's what I meant by that. The music is new, so it's going to sound different from the other stuff, but it's not drastically different. We're not leaping musical genres here, we're just... it's just new. Maybe heavier, I don't know. Basically the record is going to be for the fans of our band. It's going to be enough like the stuff that they like for them to want to keep listening to us but it's going to be different enough that it's not monotonous. I hate that. There are some bands that you can just pick up one album and then you've heard them all and there isn't any need to get the others. With the Walking Dead I like to think that each album brings something new to the table that will keep fans interested, but not something so drastically far away from the other stuff that people are like, what the fuck is this?
sm well with the new albums comes a new tour and you've always surprised us in the passed with your choices for opening bands. Are you the one that picks them and what should your fans be expecting for this up coming tour?
ek usually we decide as a whole band. And by whole band I mean, I pick the opening act and if the others don't like it they can blow me. And yeah, I do like to mix it up. I think everyone was pretty surprised the year we had Barclay tour with us. I really just pick the bands that I like and bands that I think are going to sound good live and Jayda Barclay has a kick ass voice and a pretty great band to back her up.
sm didn't you date Jayda Barclay while you were on tour with her band?
ek no, we didn't date. Though everyone seems to think we did. Any time I get close to any girl for any reason at all people seem to think that we are dating or hooking up or whatever. It's all speculation. It's always speculation unless I say any differently.
sm what about indie actress Lola Baraeli? you've been seen with her on several occasions in the past and you've even gone to a few indie film festivals with her. Is there something else going on there?
ek Lo is just... I don't know. Lo's the kinda girl that when you're with her there isn't anyone else around, do you know what I mean? We could be in a crowded room together and the only person I see her is. We aren't dating or anything but she's a really close friend. She's just magnetic like that, I guess. [he trails off and looks a little distracted before glancing back in my direction]
sm well we're almost out of time. Are there any parting words you'd like to leave our readers with?
ek [he's already standing up, tugging his sunglasses back down into place] uh, no I don't think so. Buy our new record, I guess.