POP EVIL's LEIGH KAKATY Would Have 'No Problems Making Singles' Instead Of Full-Length Albums

In a new interview with "The Dark", an active rock music program that airs nightly from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. on 94 Rocks KFML, POP EVIL singer Leigh Kakaty was asked if he and his bandmates still like putting out full-length albums or if they are starting to think about maybe focusing on singles going forward. Leigh said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, we're still a little old school with putting out an album. It's selfish, right? I grew up with albums, so putting out an album, especially as an artist perspective, it's still the dream. When you get it done and you open the booklet, you smell it, and seeing your visions come to fruition, there's still something very appealing about that. And certainly it's whatever your record label wants you to do. And for POP EVIL, it's make an album. So as long as we get to make albums, I wanna go all in. But if it was me, yeah, I'd make singles. It's more fun for me personally, 'cause I don't have to… Trying to put together a collection of work, it can be very daunting. It's very hard. It's very challenging. And then all these great songs, especially if you're only pushing one to three to four of them, somewhere in that vein, depending on how many singles get pushed, what do you do with these other great songs? So streaming has at least given bands an opportunity to have songs that don't even — some hit harder than singles… Every band's different with their journey, and whatever works best for you to be able to pay your bills so you can continue to do that, I'm all about it. But for us, for POP EVIL — obviously, I can't speak for other bands; I can speak for me — we're in a blessed position to make albums. So until we are not able to do that, we're gonna try to make the best albums that we can for our fans. But, yeah, if it was up to me, I have no problems making singles. I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. As long as I'm able to make the art that I'm trying to make in the way, at the highest level I can, it's a win for me. It still doesn't make it any less stressful. One song or 10, you still want it to be the best of the best, and you're still gonna stress in that way."

He continued: "But, yeah, man, it's interesting how it's changing. We're in this time or this kind of moment in music history that, we're shaping it now. It's so weird. It's not like it was even when we started, so it'll be interesting. Hopefully we're doing our part to pave the way for that next set of bands to come up, which is our kids' generation to come up, and hopefully it's a little bit more figured out and a little more ironed out where they can take what we did and hopefully it's a little more enjoyable, their road, with the hard work that we've put out here now. So we'll see."

This past May, Kakaty was asked by Rocking With Jam Man if he was "shocked" by the recent departure of the band's drummer Hayley Cramer. The U.K.-based musician, who joined the Michigan rockers in 2016, announced her exit from POP EVIL in a social media post last December. Leigh said: "[It was] shocking, for sure. We all go through things that we're going through personally. And she's got her family, she's got her friends and she's from another country, so there's a lot of variables for her and reasons for her, why she probably didn't wanna be here anymore. But definitely to lose a band member is always shocking for me. But you've gotta go on. Our personal families, everyone's counting on the band to provide. And the fans wanna see you keep going, so we just knuckle up and face adversity. You've gotta just meet it head on and keep going."

Asked how new POP EVIL drummer Blake Allison is adjusting to the band, Leigh said: "Blake's been incredible. I mean, he's learned the whole catalog in about two months. So to have Blake here, he's been so helpful to POP EVIL on and off the stage for the past three or four years now, so now to have him in the band hopefully as long as we can keep him is an honor. And he's just such an incredible talent on and off the stage. And we're looking forward to seeing how long we can run with this lineup now."

When Hayley announced her exit from POP EVIL, she wrote in a statement that "reached a point" where she wanted "to branch out and find new paths and adventures - into the unknown!"

Cramer joined POP EVIL in May 2016 as the replacement for Josh "Chachi" Marunde, who exited the group in April that year.

POP EVIL's latest album, "Skeletons", was released in March 2023 via MNRK Heavy.