For two years, the future of Kill the Broadcast remained murky, adrift in a sea of static.
In that time, front-man and guitarist Anthony Dallarosa had relocated from the Lehigh Valley to Delaware. The rock 'n' roll bug that had bit him was losing its sting.
While lead guitarist Justin Fava and drummer John Patterson continued to perform with other projects, the desire to relaunch Kill the Broadcast continued to spark below the surface. By March, Dallarosa had begun writing new music and, after some prodding from Fava and Patterson, decided to get the band back together.
"It sort of rekindled my love for rock 'n' roll music again," Dallarosa said during a recent phone interview. "It's a really exciting reincarnation of the group. I feel everybody plays off each other very well."
After auditioning several bassists, the trio settled on veteran axe-man Nick Capozzolo, who also fronts Nazareth-based soul-rock act The Moondogs. Dallarosa praised Capozzolo fretboard skills and ear for melody. "All of us in one way or another are lead vocalists in different projects, which opens up a lot of room for harmonies."
With three of the four members living in the Valley and Dallarosa in Delaware, the latter said he and the other members started penning songs in a "satellite" fashion. They would record and trade riffs and melodies and send them electronically to one another.
"It made it easy for us to be super productive not having to be in the same room once, twice a week," Dallarosa said.
Dallarosa said the new tunes reflect a more sophisticated sense of songwriting, without eschewing the fuzzed-out prog and spacey alt-rock that made Kill the Broadcast one of the Lehigh Valley's must-see live acts. (Kill the Broadcast won the 2012 WZZO "Backyard Bands" competition at the Allentown Fair.)
"There's a similarity to it, which is kind of natural. The chord-voicing choices and certain things about the way we play that's just kind of there," he said. "I always wanted to play piano but picked up a guitar as a teenager. That element of it is still there (in my playing)."
Fava added their blending of styles makes it hard for others to put Kill the Broadcast in a categorical box. "Honestly, if I listen back to the old music and listen to the new stuff, I can tell it's from the same band, but it's not the same feeling you get from the music," Fava said. "People have a really hard time comparing us to other bands. We're hoping to keep driving that forward and use that to our advantage."
Dallarosa is hoping to get the band in the studio between now and the end of January. Kill the Broadcast is scheduled to perform Jan. 18 at Chicago Restaurant & Nightlife in Allentown and Jan. 19 at SteelStacks in Bethlehem.
"As of right now, we're being very selective with the shows we book," he said. "We want to make sure the shows we play are as good as we possibly can be for that date. We're coming out and giving you a performance... I just want to be genuine."