Kiss Me Deadly

Band of the Week: Kiss Me Deadly
By Jeff Niesel

Meet the Band: Jen Poland (vocals, guitar, mandolin, glockenspiel, vocals, banjo), Evan Lieberman (bass), Madelyn Hayes (vocals, drums)

Doctor's Orders: Kiss Me Deadly started in 2008 as the Poland Invasion. In 2012, they added Madelyn Hayes on drums and vocals, and "the whole thing changed." "That was the turning point," Evan Lieberman says. "Somehow, the chemistry became right. It's magical in a way." Still, members soon decided a name change was in order. "The problem with the Poland Invasion was that everyone kept mistaking us for neo-Nazis, no matter how many Jewish people were in the group," says Lieberman, who has a Ph.D. and teaches at Cleveland State University. "People were viscerally repulsed by the name — not that many people but enough that it was kind of a drag. [The 1955 classic] Kiss Me Deadly had been one my favorite movies and I always wanted a band with that name. I pitched it to Jen and Madelyn and everyone really liked it, even though there's a band called Kiss Me Deadly from Canada. We thought, 'What the hell? Let's go for it.'"

Caught on Film: Lieberman directed the band's first music video for the tune "Ice House" and has been making the band's videos ever since. In all, the group has filmed five more videos. The band also makes videos of live performances. "We're filmmakers and musicians and teachers," says Poland.

Why You Should Hear Them: Recorded locally with producer Chris Keffer at Magnetic Sound studios, the band's latest album, What You Do in the Dark, features vintage sounds. Poland says the studio experience was "very collaborative." "It depends on when I'm writing the songs," says Poland, who adds that the vinyl version of the album, which was pressed locally at Gotta Groove Records, has just come out. The album's title track features seductive vocals and a retro-sounding guitar riff that sounds like it was lifted from a '60s garage rock tune. "I guess we do sound retro," says Poland. "I've been told we sound like '60s, but I didn't grow up on that so I don't know how we ended up sounding like that."

Where You Can Hear Them: reverbnation/jenpoland

Where You Can See Them: Kiss Me Deadly performs with the Old Adage at 9 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, at the Euclid Tavern. - Cleveland Scene Magazine

By John Petkovic, The Plain Dealer
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on November 06, 2014 at 9:04 AM, updated November 07, 2014 at 10:28 AM
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Let's dispense with this right away: Kiss Me Deadly is not a Lita Ford tribute band.

"We have been asked that, and I guess it would be OK if they were asking about the Generation X song," says bassist Evan Lieberman, referring to Billy Idol's old band. "But we have nothing to do with Lita or big hair or that '80s metal."

Ah, but the name does fit.

You see, the members of Kiss Me Deadly are film aficionados. You'd have to be one to know the real inspiration for the band – a 1955 film noir classic called "Kiss Me Deadly" whose glowing suitcase scene inspired Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction."


No, the band's debut disc, "What You Do in the Dark" doesn't glow when you open it. But it rolls out cinematic references, noir concepts and spy-movie concerns to go with the indie-pop over the course of 12 songs.

At 8 p.m. Saturday, the trio – singer-guitarist Jen Poland, singer-drummer Madelyn Hayes and Lieberman – will hit the Beachland Ballroom, 15711 Waterloo Road, Cleveland. $8. Call 216-383-1124.

The band will co-host a record-release show with 45 Spider. The latter, a quartet led by Cleveland artist-singer Hadley Connor, will release a disc of its brand of torchy '60s pop and garage-rock.

It's been a long road to the party for Kiss Me Deadly, whose origins go back to 2006, when Lieberman moved to Cleveland to teach film at Cleveland State University.

"The first thing that struck me about Cleveland was it had this cool look and it had this great musical tradition going back to bands like Pere Ubu that created music that reflected that look," he says.

It was after a film shoot that one of his students told Lieberman about Poland, who was looking for a bass player. Yes, he was a bassist and, yes, she was studying to be a filmmaker – bingo. Poland met Hayes in 2012 through a mutual friend.

"Jen saw me taking a bunch of pictures and out of the blue asked, 'Do you play drums?' " says Hayes. "It was also surreal."

Perhaps, though, there are film styles you could cite.

"We all love movies, but it always goes beyond just trying to copy something we saw," says Poland. "One song, 'Shallow Focus,' was written while Evan and I were watching 'Blue Valentine.' "

The film uses a lot of "shallow focus" – a cinematographic technique where one image, usually the one in the foreground, is in focus and the rest is not.

"It was driving me crazy watching this," she says. "So Evan started talking about how everything in our society is this way, because there's little depth beyond the most obvious things that are shoved in your face.

"You spend all this time looking at a smartphone 2 feet away from your face," she adds. "And it warps the way you see the world."

So she pulled out a glockenspiel and came up with a song. A video followed soon thereafter.

They have a lot more planned.

"We have vignettes for all the songs planned," says Lieberman. "It's going to have a surveillance theme -- a sci-fi, horror film that looks at how we are being watched at every turn, with drones being the most profound violation of privacy everywhere."

The band has a couple songs addressing the subject, "Agent" and "Drones."

"One of the vignettes is going to have a spy theme and includes a naked chick in a trench coat," says Poland.

Lieberman has cast himself out of that one.

"I guess I've been signed up to play it," she says. "But first we have to do our record release show." - The Plain Dealer

From the dark, perpetually rain-slicked streets of Cleveland, Ohio comes a new sound, one inspired as much by film noir, pulp fiction, and the gritty textures of their post-industrial hometown as the myriad musical influences that flow through their songs, the sound of Kiss Me Deadly.
Their debut album, ‘What You Do In The Dark,’ stands as the culmination of the years of battling to rise through the miasmic Cleveland music scene by singer-songwriter-guitarist-mandolinist- glockenspieler-mistress of the electric bouzouki –notorious femme fatale, Jen Poland. Raised in a musical family surrounded by guitars, fiddles and banjos, Jen began her musical career in the coffee houses around Kent State University.
After decisively rejecting her folk heritage, she formed the band Poland Invasion, which became a fixture of the Cleveland underground with their electro-mandolin fueled rock sound. The band included Evan Lieberman who had moved to Cleveland from Atlanta by way of Los Angeles to run the newly formed Film Program at Cleveland State University. An AFI-trained screenwriter as well as an award winning director and cinematographer, all Evan really wanted to do was play bass as he had done for popular Athens, Georgia ska-rockers, The Little Tigers, gender-bending L.A. noise band, Glue, and Blues legend Blind Joe Hill.
After going through other band members at a fairly rapid clip, they came upon Madelyn Hayes, a drummer with a powerful, soulful voice like a post hip-hop Aretha Franklin. The sound they had been looking for was finally realized, and it is this sound that can be heard on ‘What You Do In The Dark.’ Smart, tuneful songwriting with lyrics that are equally heartfelt and passionate whether Jen and Madelyn are singing about the karmic retribution due those who have done them wrong (Ladykillers, Agent, Crawl), the inspiring characters who surround them (Fire, P$, Sherry Don’t Hide the Rum), or the social issues that concern them (Drone, Shallow Focus).
‘What You Do In The Dark’ is a movie for the ears. It is about the strange place we find ourselves in 2015 – a place of surveillance and paranoia, of double-dealing and backstabbing competition, a place where despair and alienation make it so hard to find love and connection and where music may be our best hope for deliverance. A place called Cleveland. A band called Kiss Me Deadly. Produced by the band along with Chris Keffer, the 10-song treatise (plus two bonus tracks) is an exploration of groove-infused film noir pop. Imagine mellifluous muscle lassoing a jangly wave of moody surfer rock and you’re on your way to the precipice of visceral melodies that keep you company as they kiss you deadly.
Hot on the heels of releasing their debut album, the band has announced a two-week fifteen city North American tour from June 27 – July 11. Kicking off in Cleveland, with a daytime appearance at the Waterloo Arts Fest, the tour then heads to the East coast (Pittsburgh, DC, Baltimore, Philly, NYC, Boston, Providence, Burlington) before a trio of Canadian dates (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto) and a final leg in Detroit, Ann Arbor and Toledo. - Icon vs Icon Everything Pop Culture

By Alex Sukhoy

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice.

Cleveland is a hotbed of activity for local bands. But how many actually succeed? And what is the definition of that success? Is it selling a few hundred CDs and filling a downtown pub? Or is it receiving national recognition by going on tour and having a hit record on the Billboard Top 100?

For each musician earning a living here, that goal may look different. And whether the artists are competing for crowds against other local bands or branching out to a national platform, the only thing that will ensure any level of commitment is practice. And a lot of it. Per Malcolm Gladwell’s best-selling book Outliers, it takes 10,000 hours to get from novice to recognized pro.

I first met Evan Lieberman back in 2006, when we were both neighbors at The Statler. He even played bass on a song I co-wrote with Vanessa Daffron called “Cleveland Rising.” Then on Valentine’s Day, 2009, at one of the small theaters on Detroit Avenue in Lakewood, Evan played in a show with a new band and introduced me to Jen Poland. Since then, and over the past five years, the two have been playing music together. All kinds of music. And playing it with the consistency of a steady metronome.

The band names and members have shifted, the norm for the music industry, and now the trio — Evan, Jen and Madelyn Hayes — go by Kiss Me Deadly. The sound has also evolved. I know this because I was there in 2009 and I’m still there in 2014, coming to their shows, taking photos, shooting raw video, supporting them as a good friend — and now fan — should.

This past May, upon my return to the 216, the couple, both Cleveland educators, generously let me be their flatmate for eight long weeks, so I witnessed them in action. Going to rehearsals, to the recording studio, to Becky’s, to a suburban gig. Discussing song tracks, coordinating outfits and rushing out the door with music equipment just moments after returning home with cameras and lighting from an all-day film shoot.

This tireless dedication has paid off. During my stay with Jen and Evan they announced the fantastic news that Todd Kwait offered Kiss Me Deadly a deal with Kingswood Records. Evan, who grew up in Atlanta and spent time with R.E.M., explained, “I’ve been doing this for over thirty-five years. It finally happened.”

It finally happened because Jen and Evan don’t stop. As in ever. Luckily, one Sunday afternoon, when surprisingly they weren’t expected to be anywhere, they sat down with me, with their beloved green-eyed black cat Professor at their side and shared their path to Kingswood.

You just signed with Cleveland-based Kingswood Records. Congratulations! Why is this record company a good fit for your sound?

Jen: Todd Kwait does live here in Cleveland but everyone on his label label is national, from San Fransisco (to) Brooklyn. We’re the only Cleveland band. We’re a good fit because he is a filmmaker and loves folk. His label has a bunch of folk musicians on it. There is some root of folk (in our music). I come from a family of musicians where we kinda came from the folk area and so he could kinda hear that. But where he wants to go is into the rock (genre) and so he thinks we’re a good fit to bridge his own personal journey and bringing the label into a more rock element. We’re happy to do so.

Evan: Kingswood Records is an ideal home for Kiss Me Deadly primarily because of Todd Kwait, who has a pretty strong dedication to music in general, to support his artists and maintain a kind of lineage. And while we’re certainly an indie rock band, we have elements of jazz and blues and R&B and even folk music in what we do because of our very backgrounds. Kingswood I think values these things. And also values that Jen and I are filmmakers. Todd himself is a very accomplished filmmaker. As a result, there could be no better home for Kiss Me Deadly than Kingswood Records.







Tell me about your musical backgrounds. Please include info on Madelyn.







Jen: I come from a musical family. My great-grandfather was a trombonist in the speakeasies. My great-uncle Bill (Workman) on my mother’s side was a folk musician who claims to have started the Kent State Folk Festival. He played in many bands. I inherited my uncle’s Martin guitar and that’s where I write a lot of my songs. I’ve been playing for a while. I play mandolin and guitar. Wrote songs mostly about people who make me upset.

I developed my own style from playing. I listen to all sorts of stuff, from hip-hop to bluegrass and you’ll hear elements of all that in songs I write. And then Madelyn, she has a soul and blues background and you can hear it in her singing. But by the time you wrap it up together it’s not like you will say, “This is blues” or “This is soul.” It’s like this melting pot or amalgamation that makes us unique and that’s what Todd likes about it.

Evan: I’ve been playing bass since I was 13 and guitar since I was 14. Initially my influences were The Beatles, The Rolling Stones,The Who and all those great bands. In the ’70s I got very interested in jazz music. I played jazz and became influenced by bass players like Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius.

And then punk rock happened. Even though I was a little late to appreciate it, really, I totally embraced Elvis Costello, The Clash, Talking Heads, British bands like XTC, Wire and the Buzzcocks. And then American independent bands like Husker Du, The Replacements. All of those indie rock bands of that period were a really, really big influence. On a personal level I was influenced by spending some time playing with a blues singer named Blind Joe Hill, who ironically enough was originally from Cleveland, but this was in Los Angeles. Joe was really adamant about me finding the groove, listening very hard to what everyone else was playing, not overplaying but waiting for my time.







How did Kiss Me Deadly come together?







Jen: It was a trial. It was a big trial process. We started as The Poland Invasion and I found Evan. In the beginning, I was out on my own, writing my own songs and I was trying to form a band. Unfortunately I was meeting all these men and they thought I was dating them. They’d like pull their wiener out at me. I’d be like, this is a serious practice session. So those guys didn’t make the cut.

Finally, after a three-year process, Evan was still with me on bass and I met Madelyn at Parade the Circle. She was taking pictures. For some reason I thought, “Oh, look, she takes pictures with a nice camera. I take pictures with a nice camera. I bet you she plays music.” I asked if she played drums, she said yes and I was like, oh my, god, ok. And then I got her number and then she emailed me later on Facebook, “And, oh yeah, I sing.” And that’s what you have now. You have a drummer singer, me — a singer/songwriter and you have Evan on bass.

Evan: I was playing in band that dissolved and I was looking for another band. I mentioned it to some people on a movie set that included several of my students. One of my students was Jen’s roommate at the time and said her roommate was looking for a bass player. I auditioned, I suppose. I joined the band. I’ve always been in bands and I was impressed by Jen’s songwriting. I thought it would be fun. Though the other two members of the band at the time, particularly the guitar player, were not really musically up to professional standard. That was five years ago. (Jen) and I have been together ever since.







How would you describe your sound? Who are your influences?







Jen: Blues, rock, folk, jazz, all the stuff. Really comes from listening to anything from hip hop to folk music to punk rock to rock, classic rock. But also I really like Amy Mann. Some of that song writing comes through even though she’s a little slower. We’re more rocky.

Evan: British Invasion stuff of the 1960s. I often think of The Zombies, a band I love, who have the same mysterious, minor key thing to what we do. (The name) Kiss Me Deadly derives from a film noir and a pulp detective novel before that and not the Lita Ford song nor even the Generation X song or album.

The reason we took that name is because we do have this dark, mysterious sound a little bit that is fairly unique but people who have heard us will come with connections like The Pretenders, sometimes, Talking Heads, Fleetwood Mac. If Fleetwood Mac was a punk rock band, with a soul singer, that’s kind of where we’re coming from.

You’re both also filmmakers and educators. How does that support the music? And how do you juggle it all?

Jen: The cool thing is we’re filmmakers and educators of film. So that helps there. We’re bringing up our skill level of film by also teaching it. As far as the band goes, we practice twice a week and have our shows on the weekends. Since we don’t have shows every weekend, other weekends we do (our) film productions. So that’s how we juggle it all. We don’t stop. (And), the fact that we can make music videos to support our music absolutely helps promote and was one of the selling points that helped sell us to Todd.

Evan: I think that there’s a creative link between music, film and education. Designing a course or even a daily lesson plan is like writing a script or writing a song. They’re all really similar. They have to have structure, they have to have a point, they have to have a certain amount of repetition, a certain amount of variance. It takes the same level of creativity to teach, to make films and to play music. I don’t see there being a great sense of difference. They all kinda merge together.

On some level, we take a scholarly approach to music. We have a gigantic music collection. We’re always listening to new stuff of whatever is coming out. New artists, new types of music. We’re always plugged into what’s going on television, particularly, which to me now is much more important than feature film. Feature films matter to me almost not at all. Television matters to me. We’re scholars of that.

We’re both giving scholarly talks, in August, at the University Film and Video Association Conference on contemporary trends in television. I’m also doing one on cinematography and Jen is doing another one on cinematography as well. We’re interested in trends. We’re interested in technology. We’re interested in storytelling. And all of this fits together. - Cool Cleveland