Q&A: Killmoves Rip Open Their Wounds on “Bleeding Out on the Couch” EP
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
GRIEF DOESN’T ALWAYS END IN HEALING — Sometimes, it just lingers—bloody, brutal and unresolved. This emotional pillar of bleeding out on the couch is what drives the visceral and vulnerable second EP from Chicago-based independent band Killmoves. Across just four tracks, the band plunges listeners deep into the messy, painful realities of substance abuse, personal trauma, and the kind of grief that doesn't heal cleanly—or at all.
“This album is about anger, addiction, the acceptance of loss and abuse, whether that looks like personal or substance abuse,” says Love of Killmoves. “Because all are valid forms and are not okay.” That raw honesty pulses throughout the EP, which was recorded, mixed, and mastered entirely by the band themselves—a true labor of love that bleeds with personal meaning.
What unfolds sonically is a volatile yet cohesive storm. Frontwoman Gaby delivers haunting, emotionally fraught vocals that oscillate between ethereal vulnerability and full-throated desperation. Guitars shimmer and stab in equal measure, while the rhythm section provides a steady, pulsing undercurrent. Killmoves doesn’t shy from their emotions and creates an atmosphere that is at once devastating and deeply immersive.
The band describes the EP as more than just a collection of songs. “It’s like walking through all of those emotions, and it's not even walking, it's dragging you through it,” Gaby says. The record doesn't offer redemption or resolution. Instead, it sits with the pain and invites the listener to do the same.
The final track, and the one that gives the EP its name, is its most haunting. “bleeding out on the couch” is a poetic depiction of holding onto life in the throes of overdose.
“I see this record going through different stages of grief,” Gaby explains. “And it’s not even walking—it’s dragging you through it.” The EP doesn’t promise clarity or closure. In fact, it resists it. There’s no final act of forgiveness. “Life can really kick you in the ass, and it sucks,” she adds. “I see that this record is finished, but there is no happy ending or 100% acceptance.”
It may be short in runtime, but bleeding out on the couch is a monumental expression of emotional weight. Killmoves don’t offer neat resolutions or silver linings. Instead, they deliver something far more honest: a visceral portrait of grief in its rawest form. It won’t tell you everything will be okay. But it will remind you that you’re not alone in the wreckage.
LUNA: Thank you for talking to Luna. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more. For any readers who aren’t familiar with you yet, what inspires your artistic style and sound?
GABY: I feel like all of us take inspiration from all punk, hardcore and post-hardcore music. Some general influences include Deftones or Loathe. I personally am really inspired by pop and particularly really strong, powerhouse vocalists like Adele or Lady Gaga, or really big rock ballads from the 80s where they’re letting it all out on the field. I really love big, aggressive vocals, and I love the softness too, and just juxtaposing those two. Nothing gets me going quite like a powerhouse vocalist.
LUNA: What kind of atmosphere or sonic world do you aim to create for your listeners?
LONSO: A lot of our songs, especially on this EP, were very moody and depressing, but in the past and moving into the future, we have a lot of music that's on the opposite end of that spectrum, a lot more of a happy, uplifting vibe. Speaking for myself, I really enjoy our juxtaposition with how we write our songs where it’s hard time giving a definite genre, so we just throw a wide net.
BRENNAN: I think one theme that you can really see through all our songs is power. And it's what Gaby was saying about powerhouse vocalists, within all the instruments there's a feeling of power, intensity and strength—from the guitars to Gaby's vocals to the rhythm section. On our moodier songs and on our more uplifting songs—especially on the new project—there’s a feeling of power. We have a song that's not out yet called “The Pain of Healing,” but it's going to be out before the end of the year. I think that song really encompasses that feeling of power. It's a melancholic but hopeful song, but it just has this pushing, driving feel like you're going to fucking make it and be okay. I just love the way that it feels. Power is a great way to describe it. Power, intensity and strength.
LUNA: You guys are part of Chicago’s hardcore and DIY circuits, and for any readers who aren’t familiar with Chicago’s music scene, how has the scene and its community inspired or impacted your sound?
LOVE: I think the scene is so welcoming. Everyone's super nice and I think it really makes you want to push to also be just as nice with your everyday mood. I think it's really inspired all of us to go to other artists’ shows. I think hearing their music and seeing how people move and are reacting to their music pushes us to want to also want to do that and inspire other people. I also think that listening to the music supports them and gives you more of a light under your ass to want to make some dope shit.
BRENNAN: There's so many awesome bands that in most local scenes you just never hear about, because it's really hard to make it big. Part of creativity from being in that scene is hearing other stuff, and then you hear something and it inspires you to incorporate it into your own writing. There are opportunities to do that are amplified by just being around a ton of other super creative artists.
LUNA: You just released your newest EP bleeding out on the couch and huge congratulations! What is the inspiration behind the project and what themes and emotions do you explore?
LOVE: It's only a four song EP, but I think it really encapsulates a lot of grief and guilt that comes with that. This album is about anger, addiction, the acceptance of loss and abuse, whether that looks like personal or substance abuse, because all are valid forms and are not okay. One of the songs “beneath the grass,” is about my brother that committed suicide. I think that song itself really speaks to me in a way that is grieving and helps me accept that in some form of way when playing it.
GABY: It's like walking through all of those emotions, and it's not even walking, it's dragging you through it. It helps me feel every little bit of emotion in each of the songs. I see this record going through different stages of grief. Grief usually ends with acceptance. I see that this record is finished, but there is no happy ending or 100% acceptance. There's no happy or hopeful ending. Life can really kick you in the ass and it sucks. Sometimes it's not okay, and it's okay for it to be not okay. It's essentially walking through all those somber emotions.
LUNA: This EP touches on deeply personal experiences like addiction and mental health. How did you support one another as collaborators while processing such heavy material?
GABY: I think it's a beautiful thing. All of us can rely on each other and lean on each other for that support. I remember hearing the instrumental to “bleeding out on the couch” when I first joined Killmoves and I started crying. I thought that the way the music just swelled and got up to its climax and then dipping down, it was like an emotional roller coaster. It felt safe and comfortable to feel that and feel that with my brothers. It's very rewarding. I am very grateful that I can freely express these kinds of emotions freely and safely with all of Killmoves. I feel like it's a beautiful thing that we can all feel this way and also lean on each other. All of us as a unit really can get through this together.
BRENNAN: There's just that environment of trust and closeness that is a good foundation and environment to make really personal shit.
LOVE: We've had sessions in the studio where we're literally crying talking about our shit, and it's really good being safe. It makes the creative process so much easier, because if you get to see the reasoning and the catalyst for why I'm feeling this way and why I'm making this music.
GABY: All of us are pretty vulnerable with each other and I think all of us really uphold the fact that this is a safe place to do that.
LONSO: I feel like once Gaby really got in the mix, we really were able to get to a point where we could actually be comfortable drawing from a real place. I think that's what makes it authentic.
LUNA: Can you walk us through the creative process behind bleeding out on the couch? How did the songs evolve from the initial idea to its final version?
LONSO: It can vary. We have songs that just happen right away. We have a song called “chinese cigarettes” from our first EP. One of us was playing a riff and we tried to build upon that. We tried to be very cognizant of the details we add and the elements we think serve the song. Speaking for myself, one of the things I didn't like that I did on the first EP was have an idea and ran with it the whole way through. I feel like on the second EP, we had more intention behind the things we wrote and the things we played. I really like that route of going about it. I hope we keep that up.
LUNA: Did you take any creative risks or explore new directions on bleeding out compared to your self titled EP?
GABY: I feel like we were way more intentional with a lot of the choices that we made. I think from a personal standpoint, Lonso and I engineered the whole record. We tracked, mixed and mastered it. I personally played around more with the vocal effects and some of the production aspects, and I really have the intention of how we can make this feel so somber. For example, “smile!” is in your face and it’s an aggressive but sad song. It's about being betrayed. It's angry and ugly, it's essentially lashing out. We really wanted to explore these uncomfortable themes by really utilizing a wall of sound and picking out different aspects of the song. There's a reverb effect that's like a motif throughout the record, and it's ethereal, but also chaotic, which I feel represents going through grief.
LOVE: While making these songs, we're 100% vulnerable with each other and what the song is about. In our shows, we say it's like being hungover on a Saturday. Who wants to be hungover on a Saturday? I think putting our deepest emotional sadness into our new EP is a risk in itself. Lonso was saying for our first EP, we were just making these songs because they sounded loud and proud. With this new EP, we had 100% more intention, because you can see the intention with our cover art of the EP. I think that's a risk in itself, just putting your emotional sadness into your music.
GABY: “Smile!” is the first song that I wrote with Killmoves front to back, like from the ground up. That song is super special to me, just because it literally was born of a random jam. It felt more cohesive since all of us are as a unit right now. We're locked in.
LUNA: Do you have a personal favorite song on the EP— one that feels closest to your heart or most revealing of who Killmoves is right now?
LOVE: Personally, my favorite song is “beneath the grass.” I think it really covers the grief that I was going through at the time when I had lost my brother. It was super sudden. When I wrote that song, I was literally crying, and I was actually focusing on what I was doing. I hold that song really close to my heart, because I put myself in the shoes of my brother and what he was feeling. I hold them really close to my heart and I still do.
GABY: “Smile!” has a special place in my heart, because it's the first song I wrote with Killmoves. “Bleeding out on the couch” is very special to me because of its emotionality, and it feels very much in the direction of where we're going with our future work.
LUNA: What messages or emotions do you hope listeners can take away from the EP?
GABY: The EP rears the ugly head of grief, and it takes you to different ways of experiencing and dealing with it. Hopefully, people who have felt like this before or they've been experiencing these kinds of emotions, that they can feel validated and not alone. It's okay to feel these feelings and it's important to feel and get that out. I hope that folks who check our stuff out can take solace in that comfortability and vulnerability.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would like to share with Luna?
GABY: I'm personally really stoked to see that people have been resonating with the music we've been putting out, because we're just having fun and writing what we want to write. I'm very grateful for the fact that people are resonating with it like we are. I'm excited to write more with my brothers and whatever comes, comes. I'm happy that I get to be with my bros and write music that we find fun and enjoyable. We've got new stuff coming this year, and even more new stuff next year.
LOVE: I personally feel great. I can't just wait for what comes next. But whatever comes, I'm super happy I get to do it with these amazing people. I had such an intention of being in a band and it's a dream come true. I've wanted to play music for people, and I want to keep making dope music and just be with these beautiful motherfuckers.
BRENNAN: We're taking a little break from shows for a minute here, and then we got a couple in the fall, but then we're going to take a break over the winter again for writing. For the first time in our whole existence, we're finally caught up to the point where we don't have a bunch of songs that we've been playing live forever that are not recorded yet. I'm looking forward to the future too. Hopefully we keep growing, but with everything we've done up to this point, like if something happened tomorrow and we couldn't do this anymore, I would just sit back and be like, ‘damn, we really did some cool shit.’
LONSO: I remember a time where, when we first started playing shows, we were all tripping hard about if people were going to come out. We're at a point now where we don't even ask ourselves that. That's proof enough to the come up. Killmoves is making moves.
LUNA: Is there anything that I didn’t ask that you would like to add?
GABY: Shout out Brain Graffiti. They've been instrumental in the DIY scene, especially the part of the scene that we're involved in. World Renowned Failure, Aaron, and has also been filming people's sets and taking the time to do that is insane. I’m very grateful to them and all the folks in the scene and our friends.
BRENNAN: Shoutout to the entire Chicago scene.
