Jim McTurnan And The Kids That Killed The Man are working on a debut, but aren’t rushing through it

Last year, it seemed like you couldn’t go anywhere without running into Jim McTurnan And The Kids That Killed The Man: The new Denver band turned up at the UMS main stage, at Monolith, the Starz Denver Film Festival, even the local evening news. With such an auspicious start, you’d better believe that Mile High’s scorekeepers are ready to pounce on the group’s forthcoming album to prove or to discredit their rapid ascension to scoring those coveted gigs. But bad news, impatient shit-talkers: The Kids aren’t going to rush through their yet-to-be-titled debut. 

McTurnan And The Kids—which features members of Fell and The Pseudo Dates—are only five songs into the album, and are taking the recording process slow and steady. Straightforward guitar-pop has been McTurnan’s calling card since his days slinging distortion in Denver’s Cat-A-Tac, and the foursome have been ramping that up in the studio, dressing songs with synthesizers, layers of guitar, and backing vocals—all in ways that they couldn’t pull off onstage. “Recordings these days have become so complex and we’re so ADD that if you have space in a song and it’s just empty space, it’s boring,” McTurnan explains. “Instead of putting a song against a plain white background, what kind of weird background noises are you going to put in that only peek through in those songs? It’s stuff you never have to worry about live that really makes a night and day difference in how interesting a recording is.”

And, hey, even if you end up hating on the album, McTurnan just might be right there with you. “To date, I still have yet to make a record that I’m really proud of,” he admits. “I feel like stuff I’ve done in the past is the best I could have done at the time. I have yet to make something that I really love after the fact. I hope this time around, we’ll get it right.”