Kill The Silence return stronger than ever with “Hide & Seek.” In this interview, the band reflects on their hiatus, renewed creative vision, cinematic inspirations, and the new era shaping their 2026 comeback.
1. “Hide & Seek” marks your long-awaited comeback. What moment or shift made you feel it was finally the right time to return?
Before COVID, we’d started picking up a bit of traction with our first EP,
Bloodlines, supporting some of our favourite bands in our hometown (Mallory
Knox, We Came As Romans, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, to name a few). When the
pandemic hit and the UK’s live scene basically shut down, it completely halted
our momentum. We struggled to write, record, even function as a band. That hit
us quite hard. Our mental health was all over the place. We managed to put
together a few singles, about two a year, but after a while we knew we needed
to reset and go back to the drawing board.
After we released Lost At Sea in March 2023, we decided to put our heads down
for a bit and just get busy writing - taking all the lessons we'd learned over
the years to create something bigger. Since mid-2023, we’ve been writing,
recording, rehearsing, and planning a real comeback. Hide & Seek was always
a natural choice for that first single - even our producer, Matt Heap, said,
“this is the one”, after the first vocal take went in.
We have a lot planned for the year to come, but we wanted to give people a taste of the new Kill The Silence before we got there as an early christmas present. We’re so thankful to the fans that have stuck around and been so patient for so long. It feels so good to be back and we can't wait for everyone to hear the new track!
2. The new single is inspired by the film Ready or Not. What drew you to that movie, and how did its themes influence the emotion and structure of the track?
Ready or Not is a fantastic film. For anyone who hasn't seen it - do it. I won't spoil anything, but it's got a fantastic twist. For me, the movie felt pretty different to a lot of other media I'd seen at the time. It's got a similar premise to things like Squid Game and Battle Royale, but I hadn't seen that particular genre of horror explored through a game of hide and seek before, and certainly not as a comedic horror. Something about it just stuck with me.
It's hard to describe, but when I was working on the lyrics for the song, there was something about the structure and the flow of ideas in the music that really reminded me of the movie.
The way the energy builds up from that first verse through to the chorus,
mirroring how the game was getting more and more intense as it developed - I
could see the set up, the countdown/hiding phase, the game beginning, the
protagonist finding out whether their hiding spot is good enough etc. Once I'd
locked in on that vibe, we really tried to capture the energy of the film as we
worked on the song.
3. You’ve often woven film and TV references into your songwriting, from
Hannibal to the MCU. How do visuals and storytelling from cinema shape the way
you build a song?
We’ve always loved to write songs based on films, series, games - any sort of media we enjoy. It’s definitely the storytelling that inspires us. The songwriting process in our camp tends to start with the instrumental ideas, building up the structure and melodies, then when I listen to those ideas and start thinking about the lyrics, I try to see what particular themes it’s pulling me towards and what stories I can map onto that. Even though we sometimes write from the perspective of a persona or character, we draw a lot from our own personal experiences. Sometimes filtering those feelings through another person’s eyes can really help a song find its voice.
4. Since spending the past year writing and refining your sound, what core changes define this new era of Kill The Silence?
We’ve always been proud of our songs, but taking this much downtime has really given us the opportunity to focus on our songwriting process and figure out how we all work best - individually and as a group. We wanted to push ourselves creatively and try something new with every song, doing our best to avoid any ideas that felt safe or derivative. We wanted every song to feel unique and that meant holding ourselves to a higher standard than our earlier work. We’re a much tighter unit now, and we know how to get the best out of each other going forward.
5. Your early releases received attention from Kerrang! Radio and BBC Introducing. Looking back, how did that early support shape your growth and expectations as a band?
It definitely gave us the confidence to keep going, knowing we were doing something right. We’ve never taken for granted the support we’ve had from people in the industry, especially in those early days. Everyone in the UK scene knows how hard it can be to get noticed when there's so much great music competing for people’s time and attention. When we get the kind of feedback we've had from Kerrang! and BBC Introducing, it encourages us to keep putting ourselves out there and trying to grow our audience. We've had some dark times in the last few years where we’ve almost called it a day, but everyone in the band believes in each other and what we're capable of creating together. I think that's helped us stay together as long as we have.
6. Kill The Silence has introduced new members over the years, with Daniel joining as rhythm guitarist in 2023. How has the dynamic evolved with the current lineup?
Before Dan joined the band, Kill The Silence had always been a four-piece with myself on rhythm guitar and lead vocals. As the band's sound developed, it was getting increasingly difficult to play and sing these songs at the same time, so I wanted to focus solely on my vocal performance and stage presence. It was definitely strange at first, not having my guitar on stage, but Dan taking that off my plate gave us the freedom to really maximise our potential, writing more complex guitar parts and more challenging vocal performances - I didn't have to worry about compromising one for the other anymore. Dan's also been a huge help with our live setup, which has also gotten more complicated over the years. Many hands make light work, and we're lucky to have him on board.
7. You’ve supported acts like We Came As Romans and Mallory Knox. What lessons or inspirations have you taken from sharing the stage with such established bands?
The most established bands we’ve played with have actually been some of the nicest people we’ve met in the industry; always willing to help out, share advice etc. We’ve learned a lot about touring, equipment, merch, and we’re always taking inspiration from their performances; what kind of things they’re saying/doing, what the crowd responds to, everything. One of the biggest lessons I'd say we've picked up is to not sweat the small stuff that can go wrong at a show and just have fun with it.
8. Your music blends post-hardcore energy with melodic emotionality. How do you balance heaviness with vulnerability in your songwriting?
During songwriting, a lot of deeply buried feelings tend to come out. Emotions are rarely two-dimensional; they're messy, complicated. So, we try to find that push and pull in our music, moving in waves, mirroring that emotional journey and trying to get some catharsis over the course of three and half minutes. Blending those highs and lows without losing consistency and having a song turn into a jumbled mess of ideas is one of those challenges we love to work through.
9. The band name comes from Doctor Who. Do you think your love for nerd culture—gaming, horror, DnD, Warhammer—naturally seeps into Kill The Silence’s identity?
All the time! When you write a song from the perspective of Thanos, I think it's pretty clear for everyone to see where your influences are coming from. I think it would be silly if we didn't pour our own personalities into the identity of the band. What makes us who we are, that's what we’re interested in, and we hope that connects with like-minded people.
10. What was the most challenging part of the creative process for “Hide & Seek,” and what was the moment that made you feel the song was complete?
There's an awful lot going on musically, so it was definitely a balancing act to make sure none of the melodies and riffs got lost in the arrangement. But I think the hardest part for a lot of songs is knowing how to end it. The thing we struggled with the most was the final section after the guitar solo and breakdown. Originally, we just went into another chorus, but it felt like it needed something to really bring it all home, something a bit more ‘epic’. When we cracked that final vocal hook (“time to take it in, the silence deafening…”), everything clicked in our heads. It flowed straight away and that final section actually came together quite quickly. We're really, really proud of this one.
11. Fans have waited patiently for new material. What can they expect from your upcoming releases heading into 2026?
It's no secret that this is the start of a new era for the band. We’ve got a lot of new music that we can't wait to share with everyone. We just hope everyone enjoys Hide & Seek, and that they’ll stick around to hear from us again very early in 2026 with some more announcements of what's to come.
12. If you could choose one movie, series, or game to inspire your next track, which universe would you dive into next and why?
I feel like we’re spoilt for choice but if I had to choose one we haven't
written about before, I think either Squid Game or Stranger Things have very
interesting worlds with lots to explore. As for movies, I think I'd go for
another horror with a great twist - Barbarian. We're actually going to be
starting up a D&D campaign together in the near future, so who knows, maybe
that'll spark something.
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