Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with Kill Me Kate

Kill Me Kate - Kill Me Kate

Kill Me Kate is the long-awaited self-titled debut from the punk band Kill Me Kate. Fifteen years in the making, this record distills years of raw energy, dark themes, and underground grit into a cohesive and ambitious first full-length. Across thirteen tracks, the album shifts from explosive riffs to bruised emo confessions, tackling heartbreak, rebellion, and the absurd with equal intensity. A DIY statement carved from persistence and passion, Kill Me Kate stands as both an introduction and a culmination — the band’s first full album, finally unleashed.

The Story behind Kill Me Kate

Kill Me Kate began the way most great bands do — by accident and obsession. Ralph Puma and Tom Moretti had been playing together in Remember Venice, a high school band that eventually fell apart when its members went off to college. As RV slowly became a ship of Theseus, Tom decided to introduce Ralph to the drummer from his metal band Cimmerii — Danny Figueroa.

Tom invited Danny to one of Ralph’s infamous teenage parties, and something clicked immediately. They bonded over a shared love of film, music, and that rare sense of “oh — you get it.” After a brief stint under the name Palantine, Danny posted a Craigslist ad for a lead guitarist. Marcus Lindberg — a technical, melodic player from Sweden — answered.

When the day came to meet, Ralph was nowhere to be found. The band eventually discovered him passed out at home the night before. Marcus, instead of being annoyed, laughed, rubbed Ralph’s head to wake him, and introduced himself. That chaotic first encounter set the tone. Their first rehearsal together blew everyone away. Marcus’s precision and flair sealed the lineup.

The band recorded their self-titled debut at Lightning Boy Audio in Buffalo, NY, with the brilliant Mike Congilolsi — frontman of Cimmerii. They spent a wild weekend experimenting with sounds, ideas, and late nights before Ralph returned solo on a Megabus to finish vocals. It was during that session that he and Mike created what would become the album’s opening track.

Then life happened — deaths in the family, a mugging, the wrong kind of nights, and the kind of miscommunication that tears people apart. Kill Me Kate disbanded. Everyone stayed friends, mostly, but the wound ran deep between Danny and Ralph. The pressure to make something meaningful — to be something — had cracked them open.

Years later, Danny and Ralph reconnected and worked through it all. Ralph turned to longtime collaborator and producer Anthony Bilancia of Small Room Studio to see if anything could be salvaged from the old recordings. Anthony didn’t just revive the sessions — he transformed them, producing and mixing remotely while the band reassembled from across state lines and countries. Together, they recorded a new opening track, one final act of creative defiance.

The future of Kill Me Kate is uncertain — but the band has risen again, louder, wiser, and unafraid.

Interview with Kill Me Kate

(º)> What kept this debut album fifteen years in the making?

Honestly, the band broke up. We were in a rough spot. We were working harder than I think any of us ever have at music. We were doing it for 8 hours a day. Living, breathing, sleeping it. Ralph experienced a death in the family, Danny got mugged, we had interest from a manager and A&R folks, and I think the pressure got to us. It took a long time for Danny and me to reconcile with each other and our personal traumas. Technically, it was hard to find someone to mix and master it who could do it justice. The most obvious answer was the best one, and I reached out to my longtime collaborator, Anthony Bilancia of Small Room Studio, and he knocked it out of the park and helped us all record things remotely.

(º)> How does the record reflect the evolution of Kill Me Kate over the years?

I mean, this record is IT. It’s everything that we were working towards. We did these songs over a weekend back in 2010. We poured our hearts, souls, influences, and entire LIVES into this thing.

(º)> What does the title Kill Me Kate mean to you as a band and a statement?

Danny had always loved the name, it’s from From Dusk Til Dawn. We all were thinking something along the lines of revival, rebirth, phoenix-like, but just calling it Kill Me Kate is what we landed on. It’s self-titled because it is what this band was and might still be.

(º)> How did you maintain the raw energy and emotional intensity across such a long timeline?

We didn’t! We completely imploded. Our work ethic still showed up in our lives. And this was like a ghost haunting me for years. I can’t speak for anyone else, but this was always occupying such a huge part of my psyche.

(º)> Which track on the album feels the most personal or cathartic to perform?

My Name is Horace really won me over. It’s one of the last ones we worked on. I didn’t even know what it was about until doing all this work on the release all these years later.

(º)> How did your DIY approach shape the sound and message of the album?

We are all filled with NY grit. We were always on our own. This was recorded to tape, and people just aren’t used to that. So sometimes people are expecting something polished like an MGK track, and that just isn’t us. I like raw-sounding things. I like hearing mistakes and rough edges. We wanted this to represent our home, our scene, our lives. It’s messy and dynamic, dark and beautiful

(º)> What themes were most important for you to confront or capture on this record?

Musically, we managed to fit in what I think is a history of punk rock and emo. All of our influences shine throughout. We were always attached to cinema, and most of our song titles are quotes from films. When I’m working on songs, it’s really difficult to pinpoint what I’m writing about. It’s coming from the aether, but it’s also coming from my subconscious. What I think it ended up being about was trauma, trauma we all experienced, trauma the women I was friends with confided in me about, pain I’ve caused to myself and others. This isn’t about repairing that trauma or solving it. I think this was about acknowledging it.

(º)> How do you balance aggression and vulnerability in your songwriting?

That’s me, Son of Rage and Love, Jesus of Suburbia. Ha. I think my songwriting reflects my home life pretty accurately. I love pop music like Abba and Chappell Roan, but I also love Speed and Turnstile. If I can somehow mix those pop and punk influences without sounding generic, that’s always my goal.

(º)> What makes this more than just a punk revival record?

I think it’s important for right now. People are looking for authenticity, and we were our most authentic selves back then. This was the culmination of us finding ourselves. It’s also me exploring those darker aspects of masculinity and wanting more than what has been offered to men for the last I dunno forever.

(º)> Now that the album’s out, what’s next for Kill Me Kate?

Well, Marcus is in Sweden playing with Mistakes Were Made, Danny is in CT playing with The Lion Faced Boy, I’m in South Jersey doing a solo thing and hoping to release more music next year, and Tom is working on a new metal project. We’re all pretty excited about this and have a group chat. Maybe a show if there’s interest. But I think we might definitely work on NEW music remotely.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out Georgie Oshiro on the Pigeon Spins Playlist