

High Octane Psychobilly
The Koffin Kats are ready to rock in 2025 with a new album release Higher Lows featuring 8 new tracks completely written, produced and engineered by the band and a new US tour kicking off January 10th in Columbus, Ohio at the Ace of Cups. Not only do the band feature new music, v ideos and a live tour but also includes the original member of the band who originally formed over two decades ago in the summer of 2003 and the band with various line ups over the years has been touring since 2004 released three albums and not looked back.
The Koffin Kats bring together lead singer and upright bassist Vic Victor, vocalist/guitarist Tommy Koffin, and Eric Koffin on drums. The band fuse together swing, psychobilly and hard rock creating an energetic sound that will keep you hooked and hopping with their energetic vibe that cuts with a hard edge. The band are fueled up with plenty of wild energy on stage and keep the crowd jumping with their intense psychobilly music that draws from the Stray Cats to the Reverand Horton Heat to the Misfits. “”Yeah we have been around. We started back in 2003. Yeah June of 2003 and we have been a touring band since 2004. We are fortunate that the current line up right now is the original line up. Kirby and I started the band together and then after the first six months of the band then it came together. The Three of us had all been playing in different bands and the drummer Eric he and I played in a band together and we went to high school together, and into our 20s we had all been playing in bands around the metro Detroit area but each one of us wanted to do something more with it, uh, we all wanted to go out on the road and the stars all aligned and we all ended up togethern and that was the whole goal to be in a band and go out on the road instead of playing downtown Detroit every weekend. I looked at it that if we didnt do it then we were never going to do it. That was the time. Our personal responsibilities we didnt have anything like we have now. We were young and if the tour failed it was whatever we were young and could always make money back. That was the idea, to go out there and do it paid off and every tour after that did also and we were able to put money in the bank and pay the bills and that is what we have been doing for the past two decades.”
Not only does the band maintain the original lineup again they also have a unique working arrangement. “Yeah we are the original line up here. We are very fortunate with the personal life set up that we have here. I nthe summertime we generally stay in the michigan area where we have our normal jobs which we work and all of us work together installing irrigation systems. laughs So we are sprinkler install guys. The ground isnt frozen so that is when we put the sprinkler systems in . what is funny is our merch guy is our guy who sells all our mechandise at shows, Big Joey we actually work for him in his sprinkler business. So we work for him in the summertime and then in the winter he comes and works for us. We have a very good working relationship because whenever stuff comes up for the band we can all put in our pink slips and take time off together.”
The new album release this new year is Higher Lows. “The album just came out a couple of weeks ago, said Vic, and we always try to make every release sound a little bit different, so it doesnt sound like we are getting staginate, but its just that the songs were written in the manner of time and what we have been doing the previous year and we are really happy with how it came out. Its just its been very cool that we have been able to record with just ourselves. In the past we go into the studio and the clock is ticking and the bank account only has so much money so you know you have to get this done and you are pretty much stuck with whatever you got. Now we are at a point where we can also do the production as well.
“Yeah after the new year we start our heavy touring schedule. We will be hitting the road on January 10th in Columbus, Ohio at the Ace of Cups which is a very cool venue. We are going to head South and go into Cincinnati and play the Southgate House. that is a pretty cool place. and the Rumours? Oh they are wonderful.
I can tell you last week we just got back from Alaska. What was cool about that it was the 50th state we have played and were finally able to check it off. We have performed in all of the States. It was Ankorage in the winter time so it was a nice 15 degrees out so we didnHdo much sight seeing, but our guitar player tommy was outside smoking at about 4 in the morning and did see a moose. that was cool. he was so excited to get a picture of this thing and he forgot he had his phone with him and came running into the lobby and was yelling do you have a camera and then he went to our drummers door and banged on his door and yelled you have to come out and see this Moose and the girl at the desk goes okay I will come out and she like sees this same moose every other day and takes the photo. But he was out there freaking out and Eric is out there too and they are walking down the road to try and find this Moose again and the whole time Tommy had his phone in his pocket.
Before Alaska we had just gotten back from a European run and just before that we had done a run with the Reverand Horton Heat. You know he is a big influence of ours and we have been very fortunate we have done quite a number of tours with him at this point, They are very nice guys and very down to Earth, and it is a very cool situation to play with the band that the koffin Kats exist. And those guys are buddies of ours and we talk to each other on the phone. That’s the thing with us, we are just normal dudes and anytime we are in a situation where we are playing shows with or do a tour with bands that have influenced us we are always fannin out geeking out ‘I can’t believe it’ you know? This tour will take us down to Florida and then back to Detroit and then we will be starting another run down into Texas in February which will take us into Southern California, and we will take a few weeks off and take a run up into the North and play the Pacific Northwest area and working our way back to Detroit, so we will be doing a full North American tour in the winter into the spring time.
The Three of us had all been playing in different bands and the drummer Eric he and I played in a band together and we went to high school together, and into our 20s we had all been playing in bands around the metro Detroit area but each one of us wanted to do something more with it, uh, we all wanted to go out on the road and the stars all aligned and we all ended up togethern and that was the whole goal to be in a band and go out on the road instead of playing downtown Detroit every weekend. I looked at it that if we didnt do it then we were never going to do it. That was the time. Our personal responsibilities we didnt have anything like we have now. We were young and if the tour failed it was whatever we were young and could always make money back. That was the idea, to go out there and do it paid off and every tour after that did also and we were able to put money in the bank and pay the bills and that is what we have been doing for the past two decades.
“I initially fell into it from Reverand Horton Heat. When i was growing up at first I had gotten into punk rock and then discovered Reverand Horton Heat on Beavis and Butthead because Beavis and Butthead were always playing the different music videos and then I saw the Psychobilly Freak Out video and I thought that was really cool and really liked the upright bass, and also becoming familiar with the Brian Setzer Orchestra and all that kind of stuff, that was the mid nineties and then the later nineties when the Swing movement started happening again, and you started seeing more bands with upright bass’s on TV and whatnot and that caught my attention. Then I got into wanted playing the upright bass and once I discovered there was upright bass mixed with punk rock it was psychobilly that was it and then that is when I knew what I wanted to do.
We tour quite often, you can find us and our tourdates on Koffinkatsrock.com and our music is streaming wherever you get your music streams from. Lately our drummer has taken it upon himself to calling a lot of the independent record shops accross the country to get our catelog in there so you will be able to find our records if you have a local record shop in your town. We do everything ourselves and it is up to us to get that distribution out there.
You will want to make sure to catch this band live as they are always on tour and delivering high octane psychobilly along with a great show and music that will have you rocking. There are plenty of albums and streaming sites you can catch them on but be sure to catch this band if you can!

