The Collective’s Flower Moon Festival is a one-day festival, fully run by Chapman students, aiming to highlight bands from all genres and styles. In this interview series, death of the rabbit discusses the festival and music releases with some of Flower Moon’s lineup. Tickets are on sale now here.
DEATH OF A RABBIT: Fuck, marry, kill: laptop, PC, cyberdeck.
COMPUTER KILL: Fuck a laptop, kill desktop computer and marry the cyberdeck, because that sounds adventurous, like we would see the world together. I’m a big laptop fan. I don’t like having to lug around a big old PC. I don’t want to have to go to a room to specifically be able to do everything that I want to do. I want to be able to be mobile.
DOAR: How was the release and reception of your latest single, “what do you want from me?”
COMPUTER KILL: It’s definitely my shortest song yet. I wanted to challenge myself to make the shortest, most direct song I could. Then, out of a bunch of demos I had that I played for some people, they were the most excited about that one. I was like, “I have an EP coming out pretty soon,” but I needed something to keep the people happy in the meantime. So, I recorded that one myself in my room, it got mixed and mastered by someone, and then just dropped without much expectation. But, it’s a cool song, and it did better than I expected! Seems like a bunch of people like it. I played a couple of shows recently, and there was a guy telling me it was my best song. I couldn’t tell if he was being a bit of a dick because I was like, “Are there any other ones you’re liking?” and he was like, “No, that’s the best.” So, maybe I’ll just keep doing that.
DOAR: I wanted to talk about your artwork, because it seems like you have two different vibes going on, with some single covers being similar but then a different vibe for the latest single. What would you define your artwork and aesthetic as, also considering that you call your music Baltimore pop?
COMPUTER KILL: I’m still trying to figure that out, honestly. All the songs before “Always” have the same cover art because that was 2024 when Brat came out; then my label was telling me that I should do the Brat thing and make all the cover arts the same to hype it up. I agreed and then I just never changed that. “Always” and “Voices,” were painted by this guy Sebastian, who is a really great artist, but was a little more than I could afford to keep paying for proper artwork. Then “enoughforyou,” “Never Admit,” and “what do you want from me” are kind of DIY. “enoughforyou” is a screenshot from a video we shot. “Never Admit” was me taking a picture from my friend’s VHS camera which was corrupted.Then “what do you want from me” was a random picture that my friend took.
DOAR: How’s the East Coast vibe?
COMPUTER KILL: It depends where we play. We always do really well in New York and Boston. The cities here are close to each other, but there’s such a different vibe to them. It’s a whole other world between them. There are some places where I don’t do well, like Baltimore. I live here but it’s more of a hardcore town.
DOAR: Is this the first time you’re coming to the West Coast?
COMPUTER KILL: I actually toured the West Coast last year. I was opening for an artist and she had us out for nine shows on the West Coast. I actually love the West Coast, I had never really been out there before last year, but it was very special and cool.
DOAR: I’m also wondering if you have noticed a difference between the West Coast and East Coast audiences.
COMPUTER KILL: I feel like the audiences in California were all dancing and really got into it. Seattle, they were stiff; they did not react to the music whatsoever. But, I was told that the artist we were opening for, they didn’t react to her either. After the show, people came up to me and they were like, “I drove five hours to come see you,” “You’re my favorite artist!” I would have never known since the audience was frozen the entire time. I was told that it’s called the Seattle Stare or something; in Seattle they don’t really move. I will say that overall, on the East Coast, I typically get some form of a mosh pit; people definitely go crazier in general.
DOAR: What are you most excited about at Flower Moon Festival?
COMPUTER KILL: I am a ginormous fan of everything George Clanton does. I love his ESPIRIT project; we listened to a ton of it on tour before we knew that we were going to play with him. I also really love the band Touching Ice; I think they’re awesome, and (I’m) excited to get to meet them. I really like what Mind’s Eye does. It’s a sick lineup, and I’m very honored to be part of it. I also like that venue a lot.
Check out Computer Kill’s music below!
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