Comeback Kid – Interview

Keith S | October 1, 2011 | 0 Comments

By Max Giffin and Hannah Lintner

Comeback Kid is a hardcore punk band from Manitoba,Canada. The band was originally a side project formed by Andrew Neufeld and Jeremy Hiebert, and later joined by Scott Wade and Kyle Profeta. We sat down with the drummer of the band, Kyle Profeta, before the show to discuss the band’s music, their tour, and their zombie apocalypse plan.

CMB: For those who have never heard of your band, introduce yourself and describe your music.

My names Kyle, I play drums for Comeback Kid and we are a punk-hardcore band based out ofwinnipeg,Canada.

CMB: What do you think makes your band unique or stand out?

I think we do a good job of blending different elements of punk rock and hardcore because you know we al grew up listening to a lot of hardcore and a lot of punk rock and a lot of just, lots of different music. So, I really think we bring that to the table and we just sort of -without having too much of an ego- we kind of pioneered some of the sound we’re doing. We’re just happy with the elements we blend with what we do.

CMB: How is tour life different than you expected it to be?

Well, we’ve been touring for almost 10 years now so it’s pretty much, it is what it is. What I expected it to be? I expected it to be a lot of fun, and it was and it has been and it’s still. I mean I’m almost 32 years old now and I’m still really enjoying it so I mean it lived up to it’s expectations and then a lot more. Absolutely.

CMB: Do you guys have any crazy tour stories?

Crazy tour stories, man we get asked this one a lot. There’s always a crazy tour story.

CMB: What’s the most recent one?

Most recent.. I mean crazy as in dangerous: our bus, we were in a bus ineurope, our bus went off the road and almost flipped. That was kinda scary. We’re okay and no one was injured and our bus was just fine just really damaged and it had to be like swapped out or whatever. I slept through it for some reason. I was out cold, but apparently we hit the rumble strip and we were in the ditch and then the next day everyone was sort of freaking out and I was like “What’s going on” and they were like “come!” and brought me to the side of the bus and the whole side of the bus was like dented and stuff. But, yeah I totally slept through maybe almost dying so that was pretty crazy.

CMB: How is touring with Underoath?

Awesome! We’re only on the second date and we haven’t really, we’ve played shows with them in the past but we’ve never really done a tour with them but they’ve been very good friends of ours for years so we’re looking to this next five or six weeks we’re on the road with them and we’re just really enjoying our time together. Actually I was talking today with Daniel and we had been wanting to do this for so long over the years and our schedules just didn’t match up and it finally worked out so we’re just really excited about it.

CMB: If you guys were to battle, who would win?

Battle, as in battle like with swords? I dunno, I mean we’re all pretty lovie guys and they’re all pretty lovie guys. He’s really big (points to Jeremy from Comeback Kid), he’s a really big guy. But Jeremy’s also weird and scary and strange so.. If we were to battle who would win? They would. They’re from the south, man. They’re tougher than we are.

CMB: What’s the hardest part about being a professional band?

It can get pretty crazy being away from home. That can get a little nuts, but I don’t know. There’s nothing really too hard about it. Playing shows on next to no sleep sometimes, that can be pretty hard dealing with like when we’re over seas and stuff doing a lot of fly outs and a lot of airplanes. Like you’re up at six in the morning for your flight and you’ve gotta do a sound check too and you play at eight or nine o’ clock. Like you’re literally only getting a few hours of sleep a day and you really learn to have a lot of fun with that too but that takes a lot to get yourself to that positive delirious point where you’re exhausted but you’re having fun with it. It’s very easy to see the negative side of it.

CMB: What’s the most rewarding part of being a professional band?

The most rewarding thing, playing all over the world to everyone. It’s so cool and so surreal and that will never get old. Absolutely.

CMB: You’ve been playing music since 2002, how has your music evolved?

Well we’ve had some member changes and we’ve had our singer leave after a couple records and our guitar player, Andrew, moved up to do vocals. We really evolved in, I really feel we’ve just progressed all around in our music. Not that Scott was holding us back at all, he did a great job and he moved on to do his own thing and we love him and bless him for that. For us Andrew is one of our main song writers so having him up on vocals really let us do a lot more with melody and stuff like that

CMB: You guys were originally a side project, why did you decide to change that?

It was, it was just like Andrew and Jeremy’s other band Figure Four was very busy. One day I was hanging out with Andrew and he was just like “Hey I wanna start this punk kinda hardcore band, would you be interested in playing drums?” Because I’d played in another sort of side project band with him and it just sort of took off. Figure Four slowed down and we just rode it. There was no real, “ok we’re not a side project anymore”.

CMB: Where did your name, Comeback Kid, come from?

It’s actually from a heading in a newspaper. A Hockey Player from the Pittsburgh Penguins, he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease and he had to retire. He wound up beating Hodgkins and coming back to the NHL and the heading in that was “The Comeback Kid”. It just sort of stuck, it just sort of fit with what we wanted to do, and we’re like Canadian so hockey. It was something we where just like, “huh, cool”. It had some meaning.

CMB: What is your favorite city to visit and play in?

Well, my favorite place to be in the world to be isNew Zealand. I loveNew Zealand. Eventually I want to move myself and my family there. Just gorgeous. To play in, we always have great shows inGermany.Germany’s always a really good time. We love playing shows inSouthern California. We love plain shows everywhere, it’s tough but off the top of my head my favorite place to be in the world isNew Zealand. I loveAustraliaas well butNew Zealandtakes the cake, sorry Aussies.

CMB: What is your Zombie Apocalypse plan?

What is my plan? That’s funny because I just started The Walking Dead with my friend Dave here. We’re gonna move up to Lactive Monty (???) inManitobaand live on the lake in a pontoon boat.

CMB: What weapons will you use?

Water wings, to keep us alive. That’s our weapon to them is that they can’t get us and we won’t drown.

CMB: If a genie gave you three wishes, what would you wish for? Jeremy! If a genie gave you three wishes, what would you wish for?

Jeremy (Comeback Kid’s Guitarist) : Instead of teaching people what to think, be able to teach people how to think. I wish I had that power!

Three wishes.. let me think. He answered one so I’ll give you two more. One wish would be for drinking and driving. No one to ever do that again. That is my big thing that I just cannot stand and it drives me absolutely freaking mental. So if the whole world would just stop drinking and driving that would be awesome. Also, if the whole world respected each other and all living things. I’m not saying go vegan, although I am vegan.

We’re both vegetarian *high five*

Well there you go! Stop eating meat. It’s ruining the earth, and your bodies! More importantly, in my opinion, it’s ruining your body. So yeah, what he said: Teach people how to think not what to think. Number two, no one drink and drive ever again. Number three, no one eat meat ever again.

CMB: Of your music, what would you say your personal favorite songs are?

Well right now I’m really into our new record. I really enjoyed playing the songs live and what not. I would say my favorite song would be on that record and to play live would be balance.

CMB: If you were to play a show with any musician alive or dead, who would it be?

Oh man, that is a very very very good question. We’ve had so many of our prayers answered, that’s why this is so difficult. It wouldn’t do anything for our band but I’m really into the new Foo Fighters record and the put on an amazing show and I would love to share the stage with those guys. I couldn’t think of anybody dead. I was trying to look back and make myself all old school but that didn’t work.

Comeback Kid played with The Chariot, This is Hell, and Underoath at the Aggie Theater inFort Collinson September 17. The theater was filled with devoted fans excited to see some of their favorite bands. Underoath has an exhilarating, high-energy show that isn’t quick to forget. Everything in the show, including lights, the set list, and crowd involvement was done beautifully.

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