Punk Head: Nasti, you said there were moments in the studio when you thought, “What the hell is he asking me to do?” Take me into one of those sessions. What did Dee ask for, and what did you hear when you played the take back?
Nasti: There was a line in “S.O.S.” where he told me just to talk a line, and I really had no idea where he was going with it… After listening to the mix, I loved it & can't wait to deliver it live… Funny thing is he would always try to explain to me why he wanted me to sing things a certain way… Finally, I told him to stop explaining things & just tell me how u want me to do it !!! We had a good laugh & I think at that point he realized I was open to any suggestions he had…
Punk Head: Dee, what did you hear in Nasti’s voice that you wanted to bring out on Kill This…? Where on the record can we hear it most clearly?
Dee J Nelson: Nasti has a very distinctive voice, and I didn’t want to lose what makes him recognizable. At the same time, I wanted to push him outside his comfort zone. I wanted every vocal performance and every lyric to have personality and attitude without falling into the usual rock clichés. There are examples of this throughout the EP, but two that really stand out to me are the verses in “Get A Life” and the emotional, almost Alice Cooper-esque delivery in “Throw Me Away.”
“Get A Life” really captures that fed up, pissed off attitude of someone who’s finally had enough and is ready to tell somebody exactly what they think. You can hear that frustration in Nasti’s performance, and that’s exactly what I wanted the song to convey.
There are examples of this throughout the EP, but two that really stand out to me are the verses in “Get A Life” and the emotional, almost Alice Cooper-esque delivery in “Throw Me Away.”
Punk Head: Nasti, what’s a move you learned in Diamond Rexx that still works for you in XX? Was there one you had to unlearn to make this record?
Nasti: I believe the two most important things to songwriting & working with others in a band are open-mindedness & trust… When someone throws an idea at me & I'm not quite sold on it, I have to figure out a way to make it mine & own it… I always need to stay true to myself & who I am… "Hungry Like the Wolf" was a good example of that… I may have been a bit unsure at first, but with Dee J's guidance, I'm really happy with the final result… He also surprised me with a pretty cool animated video…
Punk Head: Which of the six tracks took the longest to sound like XX? What finally clicked?
Dee J Nelson: I just want to add, I was kinda stuck on Rexx's original version of this until I saw the new lyrics Dee J wrote for the verses… At that point I could not wait to get back in the studio & record it !!! “Kill This…” was definitely the toughest song for me. This was originally a Diamond Rexx song that had a very promising chorus, but I felt really needed to be reimagined musically and it took me a lot of convincing to get Nasti to agree to my vision. There was a lot of resistance at first, but once he gave my vision a chance and ultimately it became the title track of the record.
Punk Head: What did you discover while making Kill This… that you want to take further on the next XX song?
Nasti: I had so much fun doing this one, I just wanna get out & play this stuff to feel it's energy live... 8346 8346 !!! Nasti XX
Dee J Nelson: The next one? OMG, we barely survived this one! In all seriousness, I think there are so many directions we could go. We’re walking away from this record feeling really good about what we created, so I don’t see any reason to reinvent the process. I’d like to build on what worked while leaving plenty of room to experiment.
As a writer and producer, I get really excited just thinking about all the possibilities!
