Friday 12 August 2016

"Ascending Keef Mountain": Interview with Dillon Bendetti & Jake Hayde + The Official Video Premiere of "The Ascent"






Keef Mountain, a bong ripping duo from Kansas City, Missouri enjoy nothing more than kicking back and getting fucked on green haze, but add to that, the desire to play crushing shit, Keef Moutain through blood shot eyes, awoke from their drug induced coma to record some of the most invigorating music I have heard for some time in the form of their debut album simply entitled “Keef Mountain” which is set for release via The Company on October 7th


With recording sessions fuelled by drugs, booze and Sunn volume worship, Keef Mountain’s debut record will spread across the underground scene like a rampant forest fire.  People's this band rules and we are beyond stoked to be able to present a brand new video from the band, called “The Ascent” below, not only that I hooked up with the band, namely Dillon and Jake to get the lowdown on how Keef Mountain came to be and why their new record will sit perfectly in your record collection between Sleep and Zeppelin.  




SL: Keef Mountain, welcome to The Sludgelord and thanks for doing this, can you give us an insight into how you started playing music, leading up to the formation of the band and the release of your soon to be release new record?

Dillon,  Drums: I started playing in punk bands at like 13. Started playing drums in hardcore bands like Black Mark, No Class, and some others. Currently, I play drums in Inner Altar and bass in Spine. Jake was always telling me about these songs he wrote for a band he wanted to call Keef Mountain and asked if I wanted in. I was like hell yeah! I was tired of playing fast and ready to start playing some crushing shit. We got super faded one day and ended up writing the whole demo I think. At first we threw around the idea of getting a bassist but as time went on, and chemistry grew we just never looked back on the idea thanks to Sunn. Now here we are about to finally release a long time awaited LP. 

Jake, Riffs/Vocals: The very first band I was ever in was a metal core band in high school that was called Five Graves to Cairo and it was basically all breakdowns and harmonized notes between quick chugs. After that I was in a few hardcore bands. Mostly melodic hardcore in vein of Carry on, verse, and killing the dream. I tried to be in a pop rock band for a bit and it was fun writing leads over everything and using weird pedals but realized I needed to play heavy music because that's what I truly love. So after that is when I started to write Keef stuff. Me and Dillon had a 4 piece band called Kneel that we did for a while as Keef Mountain was still going on. Every song was like 20 min plus stoner/ post metal stuff. A lot of fun but our bass player moved to Oregon.



SL: What can you tell us about your upcoming record and where do you feel it sits within the current doom scene

Dillon Bendetti, Drums: The record will feature the demo tracks rerecorded with some renovations. As well as jams we've never released, and a song  we rerecorded that was originally released on a Kansas City comp. Jake and I both love all types of jams, from coma inducing, to sleazy pantie droppin' bangers. You'll definitely hear a bit of everything on the record blended like a fine mountain of Keef. I think the record will sit well on your shelf between your Sleep and Zeppelin records. As far as lyrical content. More sex, drugs, and the occult to drink from the chalice of doom.

Jake, Riffs/Vocals: The record that The Company is ever so kindly putting out for us is something we've wanted to do for a long time and in lieu of better terms we are lazy stoners that have alot going on and hadn't really saved the money or spent the time to get anything real out there. We vibe really well off each other and it seems every time we practice we get really stoned and write something new and heavy! We learned that we need to record new things every practice because of this exact situation. Dope riffs don't matter if you don't remember them.  But we've had songs and a concept for some time and are really just super excited to get it out there for others to hear. I don't really know where it sits with the current doom scene. I don't think we ever really have a plan on exactly what sound we are going for. Slow is always a good thing that's for sure but we also like to riff out

SL: What was the mood in the camp going into the recording of the record

Dillon, Drums: My mood going into this record was total anxiety, yet complete satisfaction knowing it's finally going to be released. We've had some shady release failures in the past, But Josh at The Co. really got us motivated on this record and has been all in with what the journey to Keef Mountain needed. Our close bud Alex Tunks recorded it, and he killed it every puff of the way. Recording in a huge 100+ year old dungeon basement also set the mood just right.

Jake, Riffs/Vocals: When recording the record we wanted to get a good sound but still keep it as diy as possible. I work at a bar with a huge basement and we are closed on Sunday's so we each grabbed a few six packs, loaded up our dug outs and headed to the dungeon that is the basement of the belfry. Really we just did what we always do. We like to get a perfect d/h (Drunk/high) for optimum playing.  Did that and our boy Alex Tunks got to work on getting the best room sound and taking advantage of the cavernous dungeon sewer we were able to use.


SL:  What can fans look forward to from you over the next 12 months? How is your schedule shaping up?

Dillon,  Drums: We don't have much planned besides a release gig, and possibly some weekend out of town gigs once the record is out. Jake and I unfortunately have life tying us down as far as tour is concerned, but we will see. Our main goal is to chill out for a bit and finish writing for the next release.


Jake, Riffs/Vocals: In the next few months I'd really like for Keef Mountain to get back on tour. Even if it's a small one but we've only toured once and it was when we first put our tape out. It was the most fun I've ever had in my life and everyone in every city was so cool and just wanted to party with us.  We've already got plans for another release and more jams in the works right now as well!



Pressing info:

Available @: thecompanykc.com

225 Limited Pressing
-50 “Bong Smoke” Die hard Editions / Includes Original Demo Tape “Climbing Higher”
-175 “Super Dank” (35 available through the band/140 available Online @ thecompanykc.com)

50 First Pre-Orders received a free T-Shirt: SOLD OUT

100 6-Panel Digipaks
100 Green Cassettes



Band info: bandcamp || facebook