Walter Maguire, the bassist in Columbus-based band Kill Gosling, performs at Marlboro Manor on Sept. 24, 2023. Credit: Josh Brown
Local rock band Kill Gosling is shedding its baby feathers and taking flight toward a new direction of sound.
Kill Gosling consists of vocalist and guitarist Chandler “J.M.” Maguire, guitarist Violet Eadie, drummer Christian Gehring and bassist Walter Maguire. Drawing inspiration from genres like ‘90s indie rock, punk, emo and pop punk, the quartet operates under an all-encompassing “rock music” label that allows for a greater sense of creative liberty, J.M. Maguire said.
“I want to kind of just call it rock music because I feel like [if] we’re not really too pinned into doing anything, then we can do whatever we want,” J.M. Maguire said. “I know that we’re always gonna rock, but I just feel like what we do within that, it could definitely change over time.”
The band is planning to release a currently untitled single Feb. 28 prior to its full EP, which is set to be out on April 24. With these new releases, J.M. Maguire said Kill Gosling plans to retire its past songs and transition into a new era of music.
J.M. Maguire said the group’s forthcoming Friday performance at the Design Collective — a Cincinnati art gallery and event venue, also known as (DSGN)CLLCTV — will mark one of the last times songs from Kill Gosling’s December 2022 EP, titled “On Going Bald & Giving Up,” are performed live.
Beginning as their own solo punk project with a heavy political focus, J.M. Maguire said “On Going Bald & Giving Up” was made in their brother Walter Maguire’s attic before the band evolved into the four-member group it is known as today.
“[I] put out the first EP just solo, didn’t expect to do anything,” J.M. Maguire said. “I pretty quickly got kind of burnt out on the idea of deliberately and overtly speaking about politics in music because I felt like it just kind of started to feel a little hacky to me.”
Now, J.M. Maguire said Kill Gosling wants to move away from the blunter sound and style of “On Going Bald & Giving Up.”
“I wrote the whole thing in basically a month, just so we had songs to play live,” J.M. Maguire said. “I think lyrically, it’s much more interpersonal than it is overtly political. Even with the autobiographical moments, I try and write it in a way where it’s sort of a scattershot, where you can piece it together rather than like very overt.”
Eadie agreed.
“The band has progressed so much,” Eadie said. “I haven’t been here for a lot of it, but even just from knowing, learning a lot of the old songs, from still having them in the rotation, until having the new songs that we’re playing and kind of knowing the direction that everything’s going. I think it kind of makes sense.”
Eadie said she joined Kill Gosling in April 2023 after seeing the band perform live for the first time.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is sick,’ and then [Chandler was] like, ‘Do you want to play guitar?’ and I was like, ‘F*ck yeah,’” Eadie said.
Violet Eadie, a guitarist in Columbus-based band Kill Gosling, plucks strings in the basement of Marlboro Manor on Sept. 24, 2023. Credit: Josh Brown
Notably, J.M. Maguire said their personal growth also plays a role in the decision to retire old songs. As a former alcoholic, J.M. Maguire said the old music they wrote for Kill Gosling reflects an era of their life from which they wish to step away.
“I just don’t like them, I don’t like listening to them, I don’t like playing them,” J.M. Maguire said. “They’re very personal, and I hear so much of myself and it’s just uncomfortable, I think, or my past self, I should say.”
Now sober, J.M. Maguire said they can navigate the topic of alcoholism differently than in prior songs.
“It just feels like I’m talking about it in a way that is a bit more true to my perspective on it now versus like some of the lyrics about alcoholism on the Ongoing Bald EP,” J.M. Maguire said. “I think the new songs come from a place of me trying to honestly just kind of engage with what it is to develop an emotional dependency on alcohol.”
Going forward, J.M. Maguire said one of their foremost goals for Kill Gosling is touring more outside of Ohio.
“My dream is definitely for this to be more of a touring act, but it’s hard, especially these days,” J.M. Maguire said. “You take time off work, you have to book it.”
Receiving attention for the band’s talent in the Columbus music scene has felt immensely validating, J.M. Maguire said.
“Obviously it would be cool to make money doing it because then you can justify continuing to do it,” J.M. Maguire said. “At the core of it, you just want people to listen to it and be like, ‘You’re so good at this.’”
More information about Kill Gosling’s new releases and its Friday show can be found on the band’s X, formerly known as Twitter, page and Instagram page.
