Tourist Magazine

TOURIST magazine: Who are you?
Jeremy Mullins: Jeremy Mullins, 1/2 of KKF

Tm: When did you start making music?
JM: I have been creating music right after getting my first fender strat during the summer of 2001. With KKF, however, it's been a wonderful, blissful 5 months since we started collaborating together.

Tm: What makes a kiss fantastic?
JM: The person I'm kissing, most often my wife.

Tm: Do you look up at the stars alot?
JM: More than I probably should, but we can chock it up to my insane fascination with space and my undying love for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

Tm: Where do you make your music?
JM: In my living room on my mac mini.

Tm: What does the process look like?
Well it looks like me trying to play guitar into a mic that's hardwired into the computer and then spending oodles of time fiddling with everything in Audacity and GarageBand. After that I send the stems to Rachel and she fiddles with things and sends them back... We usually have a song mixed and ready to go within 3 passes.

Tm: Sad little rocks is such a great song title, it makes me instantly sad.
Does a lyric writing process start with lyrics or a title?
JM: That song is about my parents' divorce when i was a child. Seems a little cliché, but it just worked out that way. I have an admittedly flawed method of writing lyrics, and that's just a stream of consciousness. I just write it after I've created the whole song structure. I listen to the song, see how it makes me feel, and then just write as I listen. I then sing the lyrics and tweak them to fit the song as best as possible, and then I come up with a title. Sometimes it has everything to do with the song, sometimes nothing. Depends on my mood really.

Tm: How does music become art?
JM: When it's created, in my opinion. I say that not to validate my own creations necessarily, but to validate others who may or may not have the platform(s) KKF have in terms of getting their music to a public. When I was in my bedroom with a tape recorder just playing live versions of songs, where mistakes were constant but they created a personality to the song, I felt like that was art to me. It's really a subjective process. I guess it really is determined by what definition of art you go by. I do believe art as a form does require some sort of analytical critique of methodology and statement, but in order to be called art for any one person, it truly is subjective. Believe me: I've tried so many times to convince my mother that Daniel Johnston is an artistic genius. I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.

Tm: What are you most fantastic kiss memories?
JM: Well, it's funny, and not to burst anybody's bubble, but the name of the band has really nothing to do with fantastic kisses at all. It's an amalgamation of two of Rachel and I's favorite movies of the last few years (I'll let you figure that riddle out). As far as fantastic kiss memories, nothing beats my wedding day kiss. That was honestly the best. Again, apologies for any and all clichés.

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Sanna Helena Berger