“Oh, The Places You’ll Go” is one of the most inspiring children’s book every written, and it is with that same energy and passion that suburban rockers Kid, You’ll Move Mountains released their debut album, Loomings.  For a self-released album it is extremely professional in sound and appearance, and the fact is it could have been released on a label. Yet, like many independent bands they wanted to get their music out there quickly and let it spread. With a sound that cuts straight to the roots of rock, they may just mountains and go to places they had only dreamed of. The will officially launch the album at The Metro on January 2^nd with three other great Chicago bands The Sapiens, Pool of Frogs, and Picture Books. Recently, the band was kind enough to answer a few of my questions and you can read the full interview here.

The Deli (TD): The new album, Loomings, is your first as Kid, You'll Move Mountains. What has the writing process been like and why did it take two years to complete?

 Kid, You’ll Move Mountains (KYMM): For the first year we were a functioning band, I was commuting between Elburn, IL and Milwaukee, WI on weekends for practice and I'd have to drive myself separate to all the shows, which got to be a pain. So in Summer of 2007, I moved to Illinois and now four out of the five of us all live in the same town, so it's much easier.

I think we started physically recording in Spring of 2007, so it's been a long process, for sure. We had the ability to record ourselves, so that's the route we chose. Corey and Andrew are well versed in that stuff. But with that comes the ability to either do things when you want, on your own schedule or because you're not under the gun to meet deadlines or not being charged for the time at a studio, you get lax and you put it off. We did both those things in spurts, so when we were on a roll, we couldn't stop but then we'd sometimes not visit a song for two months, go back and realize that it didn't sound how we wanted. In the end, everyone had lots of ideas and we were able to give the songs a new life after playing them live for two years. We'd play it one way, record it and come up with new ideas and sounds, and now I think we try to incorporate those things live, so I feel the songs have grown since their inception, and that's always positive.

TD: I love the cover art for Loomings, do you feel it fits with the sound of the album and look that the band was wanting? Who designed the cover?

KYMM: I feel it fits. The reference of a whale comes from the song "Volts" which I wrote from different points of view from people whose lives revolve around music. There's a line that goes "My ink's still warm / The whale just washed ashore" and that's meant from the point of view of a critic, and the whale being a metaphor for hype. So Marky Hladish of Midwest Love Design, and who also plays in great bands like The Felix Culpa and Venna, came to us with this whale drawing, not knowing about that line and I thought it fit really well. It was kind of silly almost, in a good way, because to me, the whale meant hype so why not have it on the cover? Then as we kept making the record, I was thinking about how, at least to me, bands or people in general shouldn't live within their own hype, if that makes sense. To me, you always want to create a song better than the last one or venture out and do things you want and not cater what others may put on you. So this idea of living in this big hype machine then led to the plan for items from an apartment falling out of the whale - like furniture or a camera or clothes. We just liked the idea that when you turned the packaging over, it was unexpected to see that. I tossed the idea to Marky and he came up with some great additions, so that's where it came from.

 TD: You guys don't actually live in Chicago. Do you feel the suburbs provide enough opportunities for bands trying to play on a bigger stage?

 KYMM: I would say so. DeKalb and Rockford, for instance, have been extremely kind to us. I think if we all lived in the actual city of Chicago, it'd be harder to get out and do shows elsewhere, whereas living in Geneva, we have the ability to hit several different areas. We're kind of in the middle of all three of those places. And the booking in DeKalb has been great. It's become a stopping place for bands in between Des Moines or Minneapolis and Chicago. So many good acts come through there now, thanks to John Ugolini and his work with Kickstand Productions. We've played with anyone from Joe Lally from Fugazi there to Headlights and Maritime, who are good guys, so we've really been welcomed.

The Rockford scene is more geared towards high-schoolers and I think and that's awesome, too. They all want to dance and sing along and come be part of the show. Like any city, though, it'd be nice to have more all-ages venues. I think kids in the suburbs either have it really good, with legion halls and churches still allowing shows, or they don't have anything and they feel their only option is somehow borrowing a car or taking the train to the big scary city. Bands just want to play and if there are enough people who care to help them and help area folks who love music, it's bound to have positive results.

TD: How was the decision made to self-release this album? Does it have anything to do with what happened with Lookout Records and Troubled Hubble? Is the band looking for a label?

KYMM: We had discussed working with a label but in the end it's probably best that we do this first release ourselves. This disc took so long to finish that waiting any longer for a label to promote it would've been an additional six months to a year, for sure.

We really would like to play as much as possible but we all have jobs and unless someone wants to pay our rent for three months, we just can't afford to drop everything right now. Andrew and Nate, when they played in Hubble, had that life though. They had moved back in with their folks so they had no bills aside from credit cards and cell phones and they could just criss-cross everywhere. But since Hubble had split up, they had gotten pretty full into new careers, so it's like learning to swim again. I don't think our decision to do it ourselves had anything to do with Lookout specifically, but by all means if someone who we wanted to work with was interested, we'd be very open to it.

TD: Your release show is coming up on January 2nd at The Metro. What can someone expect to see at a KYMM's show?