Illinois Entertainer December 2014 | Page 35

THE by David Eldredge Photo: Rotten Photography Kickback Only Bleeding T he Kickback have been generating some good buzz locally for some years now, and IE finally at down with three members of the band– frontman/chief songwriter/guitarist Billy Yost, lead guitarist/keysman Jonny Ifergan and bassist Eamonn Donnelly – in the NYC office of their publicist in the midst of its showcase gigs at the annual multi-day CMJ indie music extravaganza. The band's roots stretch much deeper into the heartland – to Vermillion, South Dakota, to be exact, where Billy and older brother (and former drummer) Danny were raised and cut their teeth in various bands in their teens and into their college years. Packing The Kickback name along with all their other personal belongings in the first of four vans to come, Billy and Danny moved to Chicago in 2009 where, through the magic of Craigslist, they found Jonny and Eamonn to re-form The Kickback. So it's only natural to start at the beginning with a question to Billy. IE: Why did you choose to move to Chicago as opposed to a closer big city like Minneapolis? or break for the West Coast? Or, heaven forbid, the musical hipster heaven of Brooklyn? Billy: Two reasons, and probably the most pressing was my girlfriend and now my wife had accepted a job here a year prior and we were tr 她