Greetings Kim and welcome to the Metal Pit.



Metal Pit : You are the singer for the band "Thismeansyou", can you tell us how the band came together?

KIM DYLLA:  The band was formed in early 2002 I think? Tim and Branden were the original members, and we had different bass players and rhythm guitarists for a while, and Mike our current bass player was actually toying with vocals. They were looking for a chick who could scream to front the band, and we had some mutual friends who knew of my infamous growl, basically from screaming along to Morbid Angel in the car and things like that, as I had never been in a band before. Anyway, they asked me to come out and audition, and I screamed in the microphone once and I think that sealed the deal. A few years later we got Nick on guitar and Mike moved to bass, then we recently got Cory on lead guitar as Nick is now playing with Arsis.

Metal Pit : "Thismeansyou" is kind of an unusual name for a band, any particular meaning behind the name?

It doesn't have any particular meaning, it just sounds aggressive- I believe it was just the only name in a list we made that no one hated. The name was actually chosen before I joined the band. I like it because it doesn't immediately pigeonhole us into a sub-genre of metal like if our name was Bethlegorgorazagoth or Another Dying Day Bleeds in October or something...

Metal Pit : Can you tell us a little about the other members of your band?

Thismeansyutangclan brings tha mothafuckin ruckus with Ghostface Dylla, TZA, MZA, Ol' Dirty Branden, and Ol' Dirty Rabbi :p

Seriously, we have Tim Clark the riffmaster on rhythm guitar, who is also an ordained reverend in the Church of Heavy Metal, Cory Teitelbaum aka Zohan on lead shred, who is a recording engineer and also a member of an elite Israeli task force, Mike Casey holding down the low end on bass and also fighting crime with the power of his Wolverine-like sideburns, and Branden Shores aka Cashmoney on the battery, who has invented his own language through the power of alcohol.

Metal Pit : The band's cd is called "Reviving the Apparently Dead",can you describe your sound for someone who may not have heard of the band before?


We don't really have a specific sound or subgenre that I feel like directly describes the album... we try to pull together influences from everything from melodic death to old thrash to power metal to rock to Robert Goulet. A scathing review we got in Metal Maniacs magazine once said that we were a "tangled mess of convoluted influences", meaning he couldn't say that oh, we sound like Opeth, or we sound like Burzum, or we sound like new In Flames...but I took that as a high compliment. What I will say is that we have made a metal record with heavy, driven riffs, technical and intriguing leads, strong, solid, percussion work, vocals that range from John Tardy to Gwen Stefani, and production that could put radio rock to shame. We named the record "Reviving the Apparently Dead" because we felt like that's what this record could do.... That and the fact that we found a mysterious xerox on our rehearsal spot's floor with that diagram on it, and we couldn't think of a better title.

Metal Pit :I really like the tune "River" and the guitar at the beginning is very cool,what are some of your
favs on the cd?

First of all, thank you! It is one of my favorites as well, but it also by far the most melodic. My real favorite is "Order 66", which is one of the heaviest. I think that is one of the best riffs we have ever written. "WTFWW" shows off some of our thrashier elements and is a frequent favorite, but I also really like "Spreading Thin" because of the ground it covers from extremely melodic to extremely brutal, but we never play that one live.

Metal Pit :  As the singer for the band, do you write all of the lyrics or is it a team effort?

I write all of the lyrics and do all of the vocal arrangements and melodies. Everyone writes all of their own parts actually. What I realized after joining a few side projects how amazingly democratic Thismeansyou is. We all jam together and give each other input and feedback, but everyone generally comes up with their own ideas for their own parts.

Metal Pit :  How did you get into Heavy Metal and what bands or performers influenced you to do so?

My parents were pretty much only into classical and jazz and oldies, but we used to go to thrift stores all the time, and I would pick up records that I liked the covers of. I found Metallica's Kill Em All and it totally blew me away. I then searched for heavier and heavier stuff and got into death metal via Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse, etc...the tip of the iceberg. At the same time through some friends I got into electronic and industrial music and sort of discovered a whole subculture of underground music that I became fascinated with. I joined some online forums and got some recommendations and made friends who made me tapes of black metal bands, and that's where I totally fell in love. I became obsessed with collecting vinyl and demo tapes of underground black metal bands from around the world, and through the people I met I also got into a bunch of amazing thrash and death as well. I have always loved live music and concerts, and through a lot of friends I met just from being into the music as a female back in the day, which was unfortunately somewhat of a commodity, I often times got to stand on the stage to watch the show... I remember the energy of that, particularly at the arena shows, where you see a sea of people to the horizon inspired to utter chaos at every move of the performer... I thought, wow... metal... that is real power.

Metal Pit :   You seem to have a pretty wide range as a vocalist, were you self taught or professionally trained?

I actually have formal vocal training, but it was more in operatic and choral realm, as I used to do musical theater and accapella choir in high school. I think I took voice lessons for about 5 years, but I was a high soprano... Not much of that actually translates to my rock voice nor my growl, but the underlying ideas like breath control and the way you form notes and sounds do. I think I take a lot with me from that training instinctively that I don't realize comes through.

Metal Pit : Do you enjoy performing live and what are some of the more memorable shows you did in 2009?

We got to play the stage of the National in Richmond, which is a great venue and probably the biggest stage we have ever played... I had a blast running from one end of the stage to the other and in my mind that night I was Bruce Dickinson. Our dressing room had a hot tub in it. That's how you know you've made it. Just kidding. Sometimes the gigs with the lowest production value are the most fun. On the other end of the spectrum, we played a birthday party in a field and our "backstage" area was a riding lawnmower and an old couch in a garage, and it was just no stress but a lot of kids came out and got drunk and rocked out and we all had a blast.

Metal Pit : If you had the chance, who is the one musician or band you would love to go on tour with?

Well, Iron Maiden is my favorite band of all time, and I think they are amazing live, even after all of these years, but I don't necessarily think they'd be a good fit for us to tour with. I think our friends and fellow Virginia metallers Lamb of God would be a way better fit for our sound and style if I had to say anyone. They are actually playing in China later this year, and I thought metal was outlawed there, so that is pretty impressive. I'd also love the chance to get us over to Europe for some festival gigs, because I think we'd go over well in that crowd.

Metal Pit : Ok, along those lines what would be your dream venue to play live?

Wacken Open Air!

Metal Pit : When you were a child you had to deal with some pretty heavy stuff as you were diagnosed with alopecia
areata, can you tell us about that and how it affected your life?

In a way I think that every adversity you face shapes you as a person more than anything else, and that was certainly the case with my alopecia. I was struggling to find myself and 'fit in' before I lost my hair, and I guess I didn't really realize before I lost my hair at age 16 and then was obviously ostracized from the societal norm for teenage girls that the point wasn't to 'fit in' but to be an individual. It took me several years after losing my hair to stop hiding it and to be confident in my new identity as bald chick and human mannequin, but I shudder to think at the meek, confused individual I might be if that hadn't had happened. It's something different, and sometimes it's frustrating now that I don't enjoy the attention as I once did when I was younger, but it's my thing and I'll rock it until I die.

Metal Pit : The one thing Metal fans love more than their music is a fighter Kim and you are that my friend. Do you
consider yourself a role model for young women who may want to follow in your footsteps and if so,what advice would you give to them?

Thank you, actually one of the lyrics in one of our newer songs "Bleed Me Dry" is "I am a boxer, not a queen.", and I feel like that holds true for not only what I aspire to be, but what I would also advise young women to be. This is not to say that you should not be a girl or do girly things, but I feel like it is unfortunate that so many women aspire only to be an attractive piece of eye-candy, and Hollywood certainly enforces that as a valid mode of "success" for women. Certainly putting effort into your appearance is important, but you must also do things to gain respect- have a passion, have a brain, have a hobby, have a career, and take them all the way. Live your own life and be a strong, fighting individual, rather than a fragile flower.

Metal Pit : There seems to have been an explosion of women in Metal in the last few years,in your opinion is this a
good thing or do you feel at times some bands with lesser talent tend to use a female frontperson as a gimmick, like they are jumping on the bandwagon?


I have always been disappointed at the amount of women in metal, and certainly women in bands. Unfortunately this also still renders being a woman in a metal band as a gimmick, which makes it hard to get objective criticism about your sound. I am constantly being compared to bands with other female screamers that are most mainstream like Otep, Arch Enemy, Kittie...when in reality I don't feel like I sound like any of those vocalists, but perhaps male screamers have a closer sound to mine, but they are immediately ruled out as contemporary because of gender. On the other hand, I would be lying if I don't like the fact that we seem to get added publicity because I am female. There are plenty of females out there in metal bands every bit as talented as the males, but I do get frustrated when I feel like a record label is simply placing an untalented "model" in a band to get more record sales. I will refrain from naming examples because I think it is bad form to make disparaging remarks in interviews, but stuff like putting a Slayer shirt on a Suicide Girl and telling her to scream at the top of her lungs just makes the rest of us look bad.

Metal Pit : When you are not performing with the band,what are some other things you enjoy doing and do you still have a full time job?

Metal Pit :   Is your family supportive of what you are doing?

My parents have always been supportive of everything I do, but then again I think I've always pretty much been a good kid- got good grades, graduated college, held down good jobs, so they never really had a reason to judge me for the music I listened to nor the way I dressed. My parents are scientists and atheists so it wasn't like I grew up in a judgemental Christian environment. Despite being scientists though they have always been supportive of my art. My mom comes to most of our shows actually and dresses up in one of our band shirts and combat boots. She rocks.



Metal Pit :   So, what is up for you and the band in 2010, any tours in the works or plans for a new cd?

We have a whole new album's worth of material written, but we are struggling to find the money to record it at the production quality we had for "Reviving the Apparently Dead". We finance everything independently through small business loans, and we get producers and entertainment lawyers and radio promotions people and do it all ourselves, so that is a lot of overhead. I will say that the new material is wayyyyy heavier than the old material so I hope that we can find a way to bring that to the world. Another setback is that Branden, our longtime drummer, has taken a pretty much full time gig playing with our brothers in Bella Morte, so it has put our tour plans on hold until we can find another permanent drummer that can fill his shoes. We are still having auditions, and using session players to play a few live gigs here and there, but that doesn't help the financial problem either.

Metal Pit :  Where can fans find out more about "Thismeansyou"?

We have an official website, www.thismeansyou.com, which has a webstore you can buy our merchandise online at, as well as a myspace: myspace.com/thismeansyou, facebook: facebook.com/thismeansyou, twitter: twitter.com/thismeansyou, and our ever-entertaining ThismeansYouTube page: youtube.com/thismeansmetal - be sure to check out our hilarious tour videos and Thismeansyoutube episodes of backstage drunken debauchery and live footage!

Metal Pit :   Kim, is there anything you would like to add to this interview that maybe we didn't cover?

This was probably the most extensive interview I've had in a while, so no... I guess that just about covers it. I guess Thismeansyou always has to say Rest in Peace to our inspiration Robert Goulet- we have a framed portrait of him in our practice space, moustache and all, signed "God Love Thismeanyou...". Now that he is dead it might be worth some money. Also, if you think that a unicorn would win in a battle between a dragon and a unicorn, you are not metal.

Metal Pit : What does it mean to you to be chosen as Metal Maiden of the month?

I am very honored! It is impressive that I get to hold this title for a whole month, which is a big step up from being Goth Babe of the Week :p

Metal Pit:  Kim, on behalf of myself and the Metal Pit,we want to thank you very much for taking time for us today.We wish you and the band the best of luck in 2010 and beyond.

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