Singled Out: Kissing Candice's Tapeworm

Keavin Wiggins | 12-30-2020

Cover art courtesy The Label Group

Industrial metal band Kissing Candice recently released their new single "Tapeworm" and to celebrate we have asked Mike Grippo, AKA Grip, to tell us about the song. Here is the story:

Grip: After 8 years of being a band from NY, most of us moved away (I'm the only one still in NY). So writing and recording can be a challenge. After 4 years without a follow up full length (we had a bunch of new music in the meantime) we KNEW it was time we had to gather everyone together and just slam out a new album. The first issue was getting everyone together in one space with our producer and engineer to do this. We used to go to VA to record with Zach Jones (beginning with our single Taken). However, Zach began taking off and moved to where the music is... LA! We are all super stoked for him and being able to watch him climb the industry ladder. However, it's super hard as a band with no backing to go rent an AirBNB in LA for a month to bust out our album.

Our vocalist Joey had moved out to the outskirts of Las Vegas and had an empty room in his house. Most of us had never spent time in Vegas, so the idea of turning that spare bedroom into a studio was very cool to all of us. Zach was also on board to take a little vacation from the grind in LA so we made it happen! Joey drove to LA, picked up Zach and everything he would need from his studio to record a killer album, and drove him back to Vegas where they set up shop. The rest of us packed our bags, drained our bank accounts, and flew out for a month in Vegas! There is a common misconception that we are on a record label still, but we are currently NOT!

So we crowdfunded a portion of the album from our fans and pulled the rest from our own pockets... we knew it had to go down and were willing to go to whatever means necessary to make this happen! We were in the studio for a month, ending in... mid February 2020.

As always happens with us, we pick the worst time to do things. We had hoped to put the album out in June 2020. Weeks after getting home from the studio everything was locked down and music was essentially put on hold. As a band doing it on our own with no label, we just didn't have the resources (not to mention tours to sell copies on and promote) to put the album out when we wanted. Since then, we have been carefully polishing the album and hoping for everything to return to normal. It got to the point where we had to just go for it. Fans have been asking about the album since we recorded it. We realized we needed to drop SOMETHING and start the rollout of the new album, COVID or no COVID.

Tapeworm is a song that is HEAVY. Possibly our heaviest yet... We decided it was the perfect first single because we could make an absolutely grotesque music video for it and it showcased the heavy part of KC for the die hards who have been patiently (but kinda pissed off) waiting for some pissed off music. We met up with our filmographer Tom Flynn (who has done all our music videos since (de)generation along with videos for lamb of god and Body Count), and told him we wanted to do something DISGUSTING. He was on board, we locked in a filming location, once again emptied our pockets as a self funded band, and got to filming. Halloween was coming up and for us to NOT put something out would be very messed up on our part, so we set the music video up for a Halloween release with streaming following up on FRIDAY THE 13TH (another day we can't NOT do something for)!

It felt GREAT to give people their first taste of our upcoming album (none of the other singles released prior will be on the album. It includes Tapeworm and all completely new songs). Once it was out, we felt like we exploded out of a hiatus and the flame was reignited. We already have a date booked with Tom Flynn for our next music video/single from the album. We are super excited to get this second single out, it means that we are on track to get the album fully out! With everything going on right now, we can't stop going, we just have to push forward harder. Tapeworm was just the beginning. We are super excited for everyone to hear and see the rest of the album. We have to thank our fans who helped the funding of the album for being so patient. We are MONTH over on the promised release, but just know we are taking the time to make the album BIGGER and BETTER!

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below or via your favorite streaming service here