KK Hammond is a singer and slide and resonator blues guitar player with Southern swampy grooves hailing from Southern Ontario, who also has roots in the UK blues scene. Going by the stage name The Curse of KK Hammond, she has a new song coming out later this year, “Walk Me Through Fire,” along with a video for the song that is virtually a short film complete with horses and zombie skeletons, a heavy blues imprint that’s styled with both cello and trumpets, and the song was mixed at Abbey Road Studios – an intriguing combination. The video won’t be fully available for a few months but there is a preview available. “She Is My Precious” is another new KK Hammond song with an accompanying video, and KK Hammon has other projects in the works, among them a recent reissue of her album Death Roll Blues last year, and a planned new album on the horizon. We had a moment to chat with KK about the song and lots more.
Americana Highways: Do you have a favorite aspect of the song “Walk Me Through Fire”– either a favorite lyric line or a favorite musical moment? What makes it a favorite?
KK Hammond: My favorite part of the song is the very dark and dramatic instrumental bridge which creates a shift in the mood and leads to a very hard-hitting and gritty slide guitar solo. The song and the music video were written in tandem, in order to be synergistic, and the bridge falls over a very critical part of the visual story. In this pivotal scene in the Spaghetti Western-cum-gothic horror music video, myself and my guest artists Ian Davidson and Kaspar ‘Berry’ Rapkin slowly pull down the bandanas covering our faces. This reveals that we are wildly realistic zombie skeletons (thanks to the incredible work of our makeup artists, Oracle FX, and our talented visual effects post production team.) Up until this point we were only seen from the back by the viewer so this creates a tense and exhilarating horror twist in an otherwise faithfully historical Western story. The drama of the instruments in this section of the song creates a deeply immersive cinematic experience for those watching the music video. However, equally, this part of the song stands out and packs a real punch as an ear pleaser on its own.
AH: What was the process like for recording the video for this song?
KKH: I had very high aspirations for this music video project and it took a year in planning and close to the same in post-production! It was shot over three days at Laredo Western town in the UK. We adapted it to my own fictional town ‘Death Letter Canyon’ (paying homage to Delta Blues legend Son House’s song ‘Death Letter Blues.’) We had a faithful western town hanging sign created to set the scene. It was made by professional western sign maker, Mark J. Westra in Indiana, USA.
I’ve always loved Spaghetti Westerns and the drama of the beautiful film scores of Ennio Morricone. I structured the song to allow for cinematic moments and dynamic shifts which would unfold in harmony with the visual events in the video for a truly punchy and symbiotic delivery. The end result being an exhilaration marriage between audio and visual that would plunge the viewer into a deeply immersive Wild West experience!
Myself and the two featuring artists on the track (Ian Davidson and Kaspar ‘Berry’ Rapkin) had our faces cast by the very talented prosthetic FX artists Max Payn and Thea Mulvey from Oracle FX. They then created incredibly realistic skull prosthetics for us to wear on set. Stunt horses were provided by The Devil’s Horsemen (of Game of Thrones and War Horse fame) for the dramatic bolting horses action scene. Suzi Jones of Brywood Studios created dead cowboy props for the post gun fight scene and to allow safe running of the horses with bodies on the ground (good thing too as one of Suzi’s prop bodies did get thoroughly squished by a horse!) Camera work was done by David Crute of Rocksteadi pictures, David Cox of Nexus pictures, Craig Lorking and Nicole Klein. It was directed by Richard Heeley of BiteTheHand Creative on two days of shooting with the third day directed by myself. First AD was Harry Waugh. Pyrotechnics for the fire scene at night were provided by Aardvark FX.
Post production editing and special effects were done by Justin Ramell, Kacper Cias and myself. We were faced with the huge challenge of transposing a town set in the English countryside into a sun-bleached, dry, rugged and dusty Arizona landscape. This was the most involved part of the project and took many painstaking months of frame-by-frame rotoscoping and colorizing to change the backdrops, sky and surrounding scenery but the end effect was certainly worth it!
AH: How did you link up the producer/ engineer for this song?
KKH: I have my own small home studio and write, produce and record all of my own music. It is mixed and mastered by John Barrett and Oli Morgan at Abbey Road Studios in London, who I started working with several years ago and have formed a great relationship with. They are by now very familiar with my preferences and tastes and have been instrumental in the development of my signature sound.
AH: What’s your favorite memory of recording the video for “Walk Me Through Fire”?
KKH: There are so many great memories to choose from as it was such an involved project! Being able to work with such talented and inspiring professionals across the board is always a great honor that stays in my mind! However, one of the best bits was shooting the running of the horses scene for the music video. I spent many years working with horses professionally myself so it was an absolute treat to witness such exceptionally well-trained and beautiful stunt horses at work. It was a very tense and exciting scene to shoot and there was real excitement and electricity in the air on set as we we prepared from their first run. Of course, working with animals can be unpredictable too and on a few runs our equine actors did decide to go in unplanned directions. However, the beauty of this was the spontaneity and we did get some incredible shots where the horses threw in some unexpected bucks and broncs which couldn’t have been more perfect!
AH: Who else plays with you on the song and how long have you been playing with them and how did you get introduced?
KKH: Three fantastic guest artists feature on the track: Ian Davidson playing a beautiful, rich and mournful cello track, Kaspar ‘Berry’ Rapkin playing a gritty and furious slide guitar solo and Lewis Taylor who provided the catchy, mariachi style trumpet licks. Kaspar and Ian are my very good friends who I know through the U.K. blues scene, we have done several tracks together over the past couple of years and it’s always a great pleasure working with them. Kaspar knew Lewis through the greater music scene and introduced him to me for the project. Lewis did an incredible job on the trumpet licks and they lend so much character to the song!
AH: How did you decide to go by the stage name “The Curse of K.K. Hammond”?
KKH: It’s a little tongue-in-cheek jibe at the less positive, defining qualities that make me (K.K. Hammond) “me” as a person and musician. For example, my tendency towards low moods and dark thinking, my macabre tastes and sense of humor, my hermit-like levels of introversion and a manic drive for absolute perfection in my work that stops me from sleeping for nights on end. These are the qualities that shape my songs and make them unique but are also my personal flaws… or curse. Of course, channeling your burdens into something beautiful is the very essence of the blues.
AH: If there are folks who haven’t listened to your music yet, what would you want to say to them to draw them to listen for the first time?
KKH: Going from what I have been told by a lot of my fans (which I find really surprising and cool) is that my music appeals to those who were never previously drawn to blues or Americana. I often hear this from people who were metal heads, death metallers or other alt style music fans prior to hearing my music. My music is eclectic and doesn’t really fit into a single definitive pigeon hole. It has elements of 1930s Delta blues, blues rock, alt folk, dark country, rock and even a tiny pinch of pop here and there so has the potential to appeal to many folks across genres, and also those who didn’t think they typically liked blues and Americana leaning music.
AH: What were your favorite albums as a kid?
KKH: Oh boy, good question! I listened to a wide array of genres from classical to flamenco, blues, blues rock, folk, bluegrass, grunge, country, alt rock, new wave, heavy metal, hardcore, hip-hop, reggae, film soundtrack and drum and bass! Some of my favorite albums were Nirvana’s Bleach, Bob Marley and the Wailer’s Legend, The Door’s (self titled) and Nick Cave and the Bad Seed’s Murder Ballads. As an older teen I started to really discover the old roots blues and fall in love with it!
AH: Are you working toward an album in the future, to gather your songs together?
KKH: Definitely! My debut album Death Roll Blues was released a couple of years ago now and I think it’s time to put the pedal to the metal and get going on writing album number two! I do prefer to write new songs with view of creating albums featuring mostly new material. However, fans keep asking if some of my recent singles will be appearing on my next album so I may do so to satiate the demand.
AH: Time machine question. If you could jump ahead 10 years and get a glimpse of what your music career looks like a decade from now, what would it be like?
KKH: I think, with this current, fast-paced digital world and the ever-shifting tech climate (that can present indie musicians with a great deal of hardships and unknowns) I would just be incredibly grateful if I were still enjoying the success I am today and making people happy with my music! I am concerned about the issues musicians could face due to AI.
It would thrill me if I had several more charting blues albums under my belt and had grown my fanbase all the more. It would also be my greatest pride to see my music featured in films and videogames. I am very much hoping there may be some licensing deals in the future and I’ll do my best to get it out to the right channels.
I don’t think I’d ever want to explode and become a household name, there is a magical charm in being an underground roots artist that appeals to me so much. I have walked away from tempting record deals in the past as I don’t ever want to lose my sense of direction and control as a roots blues artist, or be pressured to create more commercially leaning music. I have no doubt I will grow as an artist and try new things over the next decade but I wish to stay loyal and true to my fanbase who put me where I am today.
AH: Back to the present: what are your plans, musically, for the rest of this year?
KKH: I tend to work quite slowly when writing new material and do ruminate on ideas in order to allow them to fully blossom. My plan is to spend the rest of this year working on what I hope will be a very special second album! At some point in the year I will also do another run of my first album on vinyl. I sell them in periodic limited batches and hand package them with my team so it’s quite a lot of work for us!
AH: Thanks very much for chatting with us!
KKH: Thank you so kindly for the interview, I very much appreciated and enjoyed it
The forthcoming video is an amazing project layered with details, and the music is thoughtful, brooding and heavy at the same time with more than a dose of darkness in the mix, and the mystical and foreboding: “tonight we ride.” Find more details here: https://thecurseofkkhammond.com
