Ahead of the release of their third album, we sat down with Pop Evil frontman Leigh Kakaty to talk about ghosts, listening to rock music and eating waffles with Snoop Dogg.
What is your favourite smell?
“I’ve got a lot of ‘em. I’d say my favourite is when you get up in the morning and your partner is cooking up some fresh bacon. Hopefully it’s not a hangover morning. It’s a morning where you’ve got eight hours of sleep and you wake up to the smell of bacon in bed.”
Have you got any phobias?
“I’m superstitious. If we have a good show I’ve got to walk out of the tour bus the same way. I’ve got to wear some of the same clothes that same day – obviously only until it’s super dirty. You always get some sort of superstition on the road.”
If you were king for the day, what rules would you impose?
“That’s easy. If I were king for the day it would just be rock music on all the big radio stations and TV channels. BBC Radio One would be all rock, all day. You’d have to listen to rock songs instead of putting in passwords – you’d have to listen to a song to unlock your phone.”
Do you have a secret talent or party trick?
“The hand train. I can make a train out of my hand and it makes the noise of a train. It was passed down to me from my dad, ever since we were kids it was like ‘Do the train dad, do the train!’ Soon I’m going to have to pass on how to do the hand train, but for now only I know the secret.”
Have you ever had a supernatural encounter?
“All I do is watch haunted stuff, I’m fascinated by the paranormal… and I haven’t. Or maybe I have but I wasn’t aware because I’ve always wanted to see them. But I’m terrified to go looking because I don’t want anything following me. I’m really passionate about ghost hunting and paranormal research – it’s all I do back home and it’s all I watch on the tour bus. The coolest thing about coming to Europe was the history, I’d love to spend a night all by myself in one of the chambers in the Tower Of London. But then again I don’t want anything following me.”
What is your favourite TV show?
“Anything ghost related. Or History Channel stuff. Once you start touring you become fascinated about other cultures, you have so much appreciation for things you didn’t expect to see in life. It was interesting coming to the UK and seeing it’s so similar to London because we studied about it in school. You grow up loving London and everything England then suddenly you’re there.”
If you could live as anyone else for a day, who would it be?
“There’s two if I was in the UK – Robbie Williams, because I’d have a butler named Scrotum. I remember his MTV Cribs episode and he had a castle! Or David Beckham because he’d get to eat chicken and waffles with Snoop Dogg, so that would be pretty gripping. Back home I’d like Michael Jordan after his basketball tenure ‘cause he’d just be partying and living it up, man!”
What is your favourite book?
“War And Peace because it’s the one book you can never finish – I never know the end! I’ve figure out the end of the book though, the end of the book means peace.”
What has been your most embarrassing moment?
“My most recent one is that I fell off stage and tore something in my knee so I had a to do a couple of songs on my knees ‘cause I couldn’t stand back up. That was pretty bad.”
What band epitomises metal?
“For me it’s Five Finger Death Punch. When we did the Trespass America tour it was our first real taste of metal hammer. They defined that to me. It’s so much harder now for bands compared to back in the day, and I have so much respect of bands that I remember coming out in the late noughties and watching their rise.”
Draw me an elephant.
Pre-order Pop Evil’s upcoming album Onyx here on iTunes.
