Killian Wells

It's no surprise that musician, songwriter and melodic dude Killian Wells hails from New York City. Only the eclectic energy of a town like NYC could produce a pop star whose music appeals to dance freaks, new wavers and rockers alike.

Although he struggled with anxiety and panic disorder since he was a boy, Killian learned to masterfully harness that nervous energy into his music.

Marked as "someone to watch" by bloggers, critics and fans alike, the buzz about Killian is growing. With his latest single and video co-starring GloZell and featuring Nixon... yep, Killian, "It's Like That"!

MS: You only produce singles on your label, "Inferno Records," correct?

KW: That is our focus. We don't follow the album format; that is sort of a dead medium.

MS: Yeah, I have friends in the music industry that do one single at a time. I think it's a better way to go at this point.

KW: This generation seems easily distracted. You have to keep feeding them new material and [releasing an] album is not the thing you do to keep people's attention. You don't get as many singles off of an album like you did five or six years ago, when Brittney Spears would release one and have several hits.

MS: A lot of the time the songs on albums seem like filler.

KW: Albums now are more a formality to qualify for awards.

MS: Who the hell called you the male Ke$ha?!

KW: I've gotten it from a lot of people. Various blogs and articles have written that about me. My favorite comment about me on a video I did was: "It looks like Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert had a kid". (laughs)

MS: So, let's talk about your music. I was watching the video for "It's Like That" just before you called. Would you be the bored employee at the diner you portrayed? (laughs)

KW: Probably not. (laughs) I am kind of an overachiever. I'd probably be running the diner within a month.

MS: Well, sometimes creative people tend to check out.

KW: Yeah, I definitely go into my own little world sometimes, and taking Klonopin for anxiety disorder doesn't help. (laughs) That helps me check out. Society in general these days suffers from some form of anxiety, there is always something to be anxious about; some people just don't tolerate it well. I have anxiety disorder since I was sixteen.

MS: Tell me about your fascination with music, when did it start?

KW: I've always been involved in the arts. I, funny enough, I wanted to be a movie director when I was a kid. That is one of my fascinations with my music videos.

MS: The video for "It's Like That" is great, by the way.

KW: I always have a hand in everything I do with my my music videos, which is really rare for a pop artist. Most people have handlers who are doing all the stuff for them.

I've always wanted to be in entertainment to some degree. I initially wanted to be a director, then I wanted to get into acting; when I was twelve I met with New York agents who said the problem was that I looked my age, they wanted older who could play younger. Well, I said "fuck this". I was so upset that I couldn't do something that I wanted to do because of the way that I looked.

Pop music was something that I have always been into. I thought, if all these other kids can do this, then why can't I? I've always been very entrepreneurial driven, so I saw not just as a talent, but as a business. So I started studying the music business and seeing how I could do that. I did my first demo at the age of fifteen... then I um, um... I lost my train of thought. Klonopin! (laughs)

MS: (laughs) Oooops!

KW: Oh yeah, now I remember. I had a background in music, I used to sing in a chorus at an old folks' home. (laughs) And at five years old I used to sing "Spoonful of Sugar" from "Mary Poppins". Not gay at all. (laughs)

MS: (laughs) Not at all. So what made you decide to go "when rock was fun" retro with "It's Like That"?

KW: Well, that was not the initial sound; after I recorded it I got this image in my head of this fifties diner, so then I retro-fied the song. So I added the old school hand clap pattern into the verses, but I wanted to keep the modern sound. I've always been fascinated by retro stuff from the fifties and eighties. I did the eighties in my first video,"V.I.P.," so I wanted to do something that was a throwback to the fifties. My next single and video is way different, it will most likely offend people.

MS: Hey, I love offensive! (laughs)

KW: (laughs) The song is called "Starfucker". There will be an edited version called "Starlover". I don't like it as much. I never like the edited version of songs as much as the explicit ones. On the record I really shouldn't say too much about it, but it is going to be very sexual.

MS: One of my favorite quotes from the video of "It's Like That" that I have to ask you about is: If Lady Gaga said sesame seed buns were all the rage this season, would you wear them?

KW: Uh, no. I actually wrote the line "Lady Gaga says sesame seed buns are all the rage this season."

MS: It's very funny.

KW: Thanks. It's funny because GloZell gets all the credit for it; everyone thinks it's her line because she says it. Little does everyone know, I wrote the treatment for the video. (laughs)

Lady Gaga says check out Killian Wells at www.killianwells.com.