In the last few years, the pop-punk scene has become a lot more than guys with microphones and instruments. It has become an outlet for those who don’t play music to show the world their creativity, whether it be photography, clothing companies, anything really! Kill Brand Clothing creator Jonny Smith is one of the many leaders in designing what your favorite bands wear onstage every night, he even designed a line with Zack Merrick of All Time Low! 

Introduce yourself and who you are.
My name is Jonathan Smith and I’m the owner of Kill Brand Apparel.

When did you begin the line?
It actually started in 2001. I was spray painting t-shirts kind of like as a joke, when I was playing in this band called Tokyo Rose. I was on the road and I was wearing a hot pink t-shirt all the time and I just spray painted K-I-L-L on it really big, just kind for shock value and as a joke cause they were making fun of my t-shirts. So it started a long time ago and then actual production started in 2002 and I had a screen printing machine so I started sub screening shirts myself. It was like that for a while and now we have an office in Asbury Park. We get our stuff from different printers and whole salers.

That’s awesome! So basically you started from spray painting shirts?
Yeah! It was just one shirt, and it was kind of like a joke, really. I was just wearing it and my friends were like, “Oh!” and luckily the bands that we sponsor now and that we have sponsored were smaller as well, so as they got bigger, they remembered that I was doing that, so that’s how we got a lot of help, through music.

Do you have a main focus for the line, or a purpose in designs?
With the new stuff, we kind of went a little darker with everything cause we were getting so bright and trying to be universal for everyone, but we kind of lost touch of the fact that it was an edgier brand. So we went back to the basics and still working with mainstream bands and mainstream artwork but throwing a lot of pieces in the line that I didn’t know if everyone would like but I liked the artwork and I thought it was a cool, darker image that we were going for. But, people who appreciate art might like the designs a little more rather than just wording or on a t-shirt. It’s kind of a gamble but we were willing to take a chance.

What does the line include? T-shirts, tanks, zip-ups?
With this line, we have a little bit of everything. We do have a couple of zip-ups, one which I thought was really cool because it’s a two piece. It’s kind of like a mummy tomb on the outside and then when you open up the zipper, there’s a mummy inside, kind of alive with its tongue out. So you buy it as a set. We also have bandanas, gloves, pins and stickers, shirts obviously. And for summer, we’re gonna try to get jean shorts, possibly board shorts.

Do you have a target fan base or a certain group of people that you try to sell to?
Well, we promote through music and we do have a younger crowd but I’d like, for some of this stuff, I’d like to think that it would appeal to people in their late twenties. So from around 16-late twenties.

Is there a message in your clothing or is it based more on style? Is there something you try to include in all of your designs?
It’s kind of like writing an album. You have a few where you’re like, “Wow, that’s a really great design.” And it’s usually the simplest ones that do the best as far as sales. But then again, since I come from music, there might be a song that you’re super proud of that shows you’re an artist but people don’t always love it. It’s the nine-minute song on the album. Same with artwork and what we do. People might hate it but some people might love it, so that’s kind of what we keep in mind. We’ve been around for a little while so we have kind of a fanbase, but not a huge fanbase. So we have a support group who are excited for each line, so we try not to piss them off either.

Speaking of music, why is that aspect important? You’re so close with music and the clothing line. Do you see it as a positive thing? How does that help?
Well, it helps because that’s what I did before all this. I was working at Island Records, so I learned how the music industry worked and it’s been such a huge help for us. I look at it, kind of like a band like Green Day, who started off small and earned fans along the way. They hit a level of great success, but no one really thinks of Green Day as a big sell-out or anything like that. It’s just that they earned that. So if we get to a level of great success one day, I hope to have the same kind of response from people. Like, “Oh, I remember when they only had 3 shirts! But they’ve been trying and struggling. They’ve been eating peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for years.” 

What was it like when you saw people wearing your line for the first time?
I was really excited because I was a drummer for a while, so it was the first time where I could be the front man, I guess. It’s always cool to be able to see that. Like, Dr. Phil’s son was wearing a shirt on that show ‘Doctor’ the other day. It’s really fun to see someone like that who went out of their way to wear it. Or even just people at the mall who you see wearing it.

What inspires your designs?
You know, I’m always just kind of thinking about designs. I’m not the greatest artist but I’m a really good doodler. So I’ll always be jotting down ideas. There are just lists of ideas in my phone, and I have a doodle app on my iPhone, so I just draw shirts or lion faces or whatever here. It’s whatever strikes me at that moment, it’s not like I sit down for 8 hours and say, “Okay, let’s do designs.”

What do you think makes your line unique?
Well, the name helps. It’s a memorable name. I’ll look at what some people are doing, not that I’m some kind of connoisseur of t-shirt designs, but I’ll look at what some of our competitors are doing and say, “Well, let’s do something totally different!” We don’t just fall into the Warped Tour or Bamboozle t-shirt brands. You know, ideally, we’re really all kind of in it together. We’re all friends and look at it like a band and help each other out. There’s Rockett Clothing that we’re good friends with and we’ve done collaborations, so it’s kind of goes back to music, where you take your friends on tour and whatnot.

What does Kill Brand mean? Or how did that name come about?
Well, honestly, I just threw it on that one shirt to make it edgier and add more of a shock value thing. But it’s totally tongue in cheek and it’s not violent at all. It’s encourages kids to living life, which at first was kind of just to get me out of trouble with moms. But I try to stand by that motto anyway, so we’ve been pushing kids to living life. It’s really not a violent thing at all, it doesn’t mean to murder or anything.

If you could pick any artist, band or celebrity to model your clothes, who would you pick and why?
Oh wow. Oh man. I need to think about this one for a second. Let’s see. You know what, I’m such a huge Foo Fighters fan that if Dave Grohl, I mean, he only wears black t-shirts, but if he wore a shirt supporting our brand, that would just be so cool for me to have in my little notebook journal. Just because I’ve looked up to him since I was such a young person. That would be the band I would love to sponsor.

What do you think a person’s fashion sense or style says about them?
Well when I was younger and before I got into all of this, I always went out of my way to support and wear brands that not everyone had. Like, going out and finding a new company. When I was in high school, people asked, “Why are you wearing that?” or “What is that? That’s not Quicksilver” or whatever was popular when I was younger. So I’ve always been into supporting smaller brands and I’d like to think that we’d get that same audience who wants to support someone who’s not that huge, and it’s cool because you don’t know about it.

Do you have anything else to add or have comments?
Well, actually, we’re doing a line with Zack Merrick from All Time Low. He’s a really good photographer and we’re just finalizing all the artwork now but we’ve been getting pictures from him on this last tour and pictures he’s had. And we’re kind of making his prints and putting his photos on shirts, along with a couple of other cool design ideas. Each shirt comes with a trading card and stuff, so it should be pretty cool. He’s a good friend of ours and we’re pretty excited about that. It comes out next week so we’re gonna try to promote that. December 6th is the official release at their show in Philly, we’re gonna have a little party. I should have everything done in a week or so.