Nine years spent following a band can certainly insure any photographer would fill a few rolls of film. In the case of Kenneth Cappello that would be 600 and roughly 20,000 photographs in all. After a chance meeting in Paris when recording documentary ‘I Hate The Way You Love’ the duo hit it off with the Texan and never looked back, photographer and band becoming a unit.
With The Kills celebrating their 10th anniversary this February it’s only right that a band should take a look back at their beginnings and recent successes, after all not every group survives so long or rises so high.
Expertly put together the near 200 hundred page book captures the The Kill’s spirit perfectly – the shots bouncing between the glamorous, dangerous and sweat soaked. In most simple terms it’s rock n’ roll encapsulated.
From back room stages in nowheresville America all the way to the Conan O’Brien show, the photos paint a varied picture of their assent without having to stick them in linear order. Airports, motels and alleyways act as a near constant backdrop, the band a touring machine rather than studio creation. Moments of calm and tourist like wonder are thrown in with the cigarettes, booze and skinny fit chaos.
It’s clearly been an insane and rewarding ride and such captured moments have without a doubt informed the music. Let’s hope that the next ten years proof as important to Jamie/’Hotel’ and Allison/VV. The Future Starts Here.
Words by Sam Walker-Smart