The Queen Killing Kings

As their name may indicate, The Queen Killing Kings is an unusual act. Eschewing the classic rock line-up, they feature two keyboardists and no guitars. Their lyrics are filled with references to demons, witches, and condemned killers, yet they’re hardly gloom-filled Goths; instead, their music is inviting and catchy. So how do they describe their musical approach? "It's just rock-n-roll," declares singer/songwriter/pianist Coley O'Toole. "People try to tag us 'prog' or 'art-rock,' but to me it’s just a slightly different way of playing rock music." In fact, the group’s debut album Tidal Eyes gets off to a straight-ahead rock thump with the galloping "Dark Hearts," a tale of marauders who will spare no effort to "make the world our prisoner," while the thumping, piano-pounding rocker "Naked in the Rain" wouldn’t sound out of place on Genesis' classic The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. "I like records that get right into it," O'Toole says of "Dark Hearts." "The song's aggressive and intended to grab your attention." Thematic similarities to Led Zeppelin III opener "Immigrant Song" are impossible to ignore, a fact that O'Toole calmly acknowledges. "I can think of worse things to be compared with," he laughs. But the pomp that such '70s behemoths were sometimes guilty of is refreshingly absent from Tidal Eyes, serving as notice that a noteworthy new voice has arrived on the scene. And though lyrically the going may get rough at times – "These are songs that were mostly written while I was experiencing a truly broken heart for the first time," O"Toole says" – the positive energy radiated from the collection’s 11 tunes never wavers. "We're listeners too," O"Toole points out. "We like the pop sides of things. We just want to get away from the cookie-cutter format." The roots of the New Haven, CT-based band stretch back to junior high school, when O'Toole and bassist Joe Ballaro started hanging out and kicking around musical ideas. As the son of a baritone horn player in a drum corps, O'Toole says he was regularly exposed to new records. And, although he gave up drumming for piano as he got older, O'Toole maintains a great interest in percussive arrangements, which partly explains why Tidal Eyes comes off so well rhythmically. "I've been writing since I was about 13," he says. "I didn't know who I was then, but it laid the groundwork for developing the sound that we have now. And I still explain the songs to Joe, Dan (Duggins, drums) and Zac (Clark, organ/vocals) percussively – 'This one’s got a shuffle beat, this one’s like a rock 'n" roll tango' – and we all fool around with the vibe until we feel it happen. These guys are much better at their instruments than I would be, and the more I learn that they can do, the more we can grow." O'Toole describes himself as "a miner for songs. I'm always writing and playing, every day. It's imperative that I do so. Sometimes I may just come up with a chorus or a good verse, and then I just catalog them to pull out later when the time’s right. It’s a cliche, but the good songs really do write themselves." They had some help with Tidal Eyes, as O’Toole found himself delving deeper into his own emotional experiences than before. "Having that relationship end the way it did led me down some roads where I made some bad decisions," he admits. "It was a pretty scary time for me." Thus the "witches who were the children of an Indian tribe" in "Naked in the Rain" are actually a pair of friends at a college whose mascot is a Native American figure, while in the deceptively upbeat-sounding "Into the Woods," failed love is compared with a sexually-transmitted disease. Even moodily atmospheric numbers such as "Like Lions" (from whose lyrics the album takes its title), O'Toole says, "Show that the narrator is trying to do everything he can for everyone he loves. It’s a sad song, but it’s also hopeful; I never leave it on a completely negative note." O'Toole and The Queen Killing Kings have become local legends across Connecticut for their engaging performances. The singer shares, "Recording's great, but my heart is with the live show. That's what gives people a real sense of what we're doing. The album, to me, is all talk until we can show what we can really do live. I’ve had too many experiences where a band puts out a record that I love, and then I go to see them and come away disappointed. That's not going to happen with us." Both live and on record, O'Toole says he hopes The Queen Killing Kings prove that "There’s hope for imagination and creativity in coming up with new forms of music. We reflect a lot of different styles in our music, but at the end it's all about music that can be believed in – by me, by the band, and by the listeners."