Hello Martin, how are you? 

Hi Nick! I’m very well thank you, Thank you for asking, things are going good, always a pleasure to chat with you.  

How is the new band going? I gather that you have played a couple of gigs, but have you got some more on the horizon? 

Yeah the new band is going really well thank you, we have lots of new things happening, coming up, taking a while to sort but that’s the nature of when the band works full time! Yes we have a few booked in, Hemsby rock n roll weekender in November as well as another festival next year, in talks with some European dates too, but all will be revealed soon.   

Can you tell me what prompted your reversion to rockabilly having played so successfully with psychobilly outfit Knocksville?   

Rockabilly has always been my first love, bands like Restless, Dave Phillips, Polecats etc has always been a massive part of my music and a big influence to how I write. Knocksville was actually meant to be a rockabilly band when I first started it, but with other influences and members influences it naturally developed in to a more heavier style, which I was always happy with, because although I love my rockabilly music, psycho and punk bands were always a big love of mine too, Mad Sin, Tiger Army, the Living End, NoFX, Dropkick Murphys, Social Distortion etc, they all play a significant role in the way I play. 

I began my musical life with a love of rockabilly, then growing into psychobilly before rediscovering rockabilly, I wonder whether it was the same for you? 

Kind of I suppose, because I grew up with rockabilly from my parents, and my dad being a fellow musician also, it was always there, Gene Vincent’s ‘Be Bop a Lula’ was the first song I became obsessed with aged three. I joined a punk band when I was 15 though, with the friends I grew up around I became fond of punk, and I think when I was 15-16, bands like Alkaline Trio, Blink 182 and that kind of style was in the mainstream.   

I seem to remember you saying at the Bedlam Breakout show that you had written some of the new material with your dad. Could you tell us a bit about that? 

Of course, so two of the songs in the set are written by my dad, the ‘Hitman’ (we took our name from this song) and ‘Rollercoaster’, but ‘That’s All’ was co-written by myself, my dad and the bass player Billy, which is on our first E.P   

Could you tell us a bit about your love of rockabilly music? With which artists did it begin? Which artists on the scene do you like today? 

So many to name, but I’ll list a few! Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, Cash, Glen Glenn, Chuck Berry, Joe Clay, Ronnie Dawson, Jake Calypso, Restless, Dave Phillips, Blue Cats, the Keytones, the Tin Cans, Dickie Pride, Mario Bradley, Darrel Higham, Johnny Kidd….etc haha Again I go back to my dad, I grew up watching him go off to gigs with the Riverboys before I could talk, so it’s started then!   

Can we expect to see you play Hemsby and other festivals on the scene

Yes, we are playing Hemsby in November! Really excited to be part of that, and great to see the Guntrips have carried it on and doing a fantastic job doing so, I’ve known James since attending the rockabilly rave at 18 years old, so I’m thankful for the opportunity and trust to play the longest running rock n roll weekender! 

Can you tell us about the line-up of the band?  I seem to remember that Will Bennet from the Zipheads sat in for you at Bedlam?

So there’s myself and Billy Ray Wilkes, we both started the band together, Billy’s dad was also in the Riverboys with my dad, so we’ve been great friends for a very long time, we actually play in the Riverboys with our dads as well, so once we both had free time come up again we felt it right to start the Hitmen. In regards to a drummer, we are having to use stand in drummers, like Will at Bedlam, fantastic drummer as the scene knows too well, and a great guy too. but for the others, we’ve had the pleasure of having Brandon Hoadley for our gigs, a very talented musician all round, guitar, double bass, drums, you name it. He has massive cv to his name and we have the pleasure of calling him a friend, so we’re thankful for him so we can keep playing live until we find a permanent member. So if you know of anyone that wants to play drums for us, please get in touch….. 

Can you tell us about your release?

We can’t wait for this release, ‘Shoulda Stayed In Bed EP’ it’s a 4 track E.P, coming very soon on all good streaming platforms, with a music video to follow (in talks at the moment) but yes, first release, very excited indeed!   

The obvious follow up question, when can we expect a full-length LP from the Hitmen? 

Well, the good news is, we have written it! But this year, we plan to release the EP, video, and a single with a video toward the end of the year, before we think about the album, but I imagine recording will commence around a year from now, maybe sooner? Who knows!   

I was really impressed by the band when I saw you play at Bedlam, can you tell me what the future holds for the band? 

Thank you, I was grateful for the support we have received from everybody, promoters too, with the hitmen, the aim is to just play and have a great time, I’ve really, really, missed the scene, and playing music, and its the best feeling to be back again. The future of the hitmen, is to bring a new, fresh, different style of rockabilly, to anyone that will enjoy it, play as many shows as possible and record and release as much as possible. We’re hoping to release our debut ep on the 1st August, along with a video. And also we go in the studio on the 2nd August to record a new single, which again, will come with a video later on in the year!

Nick Kemp