KASMs are London-based Rachel Mary Callaghan, Gemma Fleet, Scott R. Walker and Rory Brattwell. Gemma and Rachel met in late October 2007 when Gemma spotted Rachel dancing to Nirvana and decided that she should be the singer in her new band, irrespective of whether she could sing or not. They then bumped into each other a week later at a Get Hustle show and met up with likeminded musicians Scott and Rory at the bar afterwards. All were inspired by what they had seen and decided to start a band together.
All four members have been other bands: Rachel was the singer in spazzcore band Sin o the East, along with Rory on guitar; Gemma was in London based grunge-pop band Wolfie; Scott was in an ethnic/improv band called Aum Sahib and Rory was in quite a few bands, the most well known being short-lived NME favourites Test Icicles.
I guess you could say KASMS sound is Punk/Deathrock but they coined the genre Shriekbeat to describe their music, which pretty much encapsulates the essence of what KASMs are all about. Taking in varied influences starting with dark, pulsating, rhythmic bands such as Trial, Crash Worship, Live Skull and better known dark 80s stuff such as Bauhaus and Death in June, they cite their sound as being more heavily skewed by recent Alternative American punk bands such as Subtonix, Nation of Ulysses and Six Finger Satellite.
