Review Fix Exclusive: Infrared’s Kirk Gidley Talks New Album And More

Review Fix chats with Infrared’s Kirk Gidley, who discusses the band’s reformation, creative process and goals for the future, as well as their new album, “No Peace.”

Review Fix: How did you guys get together?

Kirk Gidley:
We were four young teenagers that were all huge metal fans and wanted to create our own music. None of us in Infrared had any music training, just a love for metal.  In 1985 we formed and began to write original songs. For the next few years we played gigs in the Ottawa, Canada forming a loyal following, but then disbanded in 1988. In 2014, We reformed, with the exception of original bass player Shawn Thompson, to do a reunion show with another local band. We also had the intention of recording our original songs written in the 1980s. We felt that our songs needed to be recorded or they would be lost forever.



Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?



Gidley: Usually someone will have a main riff they have written and the song will be written around that one riff. The songs are written with the guitar riff in the forefront being the nucleus of the song. The lyrics are usually written after the music is completed and we usually have a working title that will drive the lyrical content.



Review Fix: What do you think makes this bad special?



Gidley: Infrared was around when thrash metal started. We literally witnessed the birth of thrash.  We were lucky enough to live in a city where local bands like Exciter and later Annihilator began and with all these influences have a very true and genuine classic thrash metal sound. All the members of Infrared have careers and families and are not creating music to attempt to make a living.  Infrared only want to create metal because we have fun doing it and we are huge fans of metal.

Review Fix: How would you describe your style?



Gidley: Infrared is a thrash metal band with a punk influence. The punk influence came from going to metal shows and seeing punk bands on the bill. Punk and Metal bands seemed to have the same musical aggression and passion.  Infrared is heavily influenced by the big 4 of thrash as we listened to those bands 24×7 in high school. Like all metal fans we never stopped listening to metal.

Review Fix: What are your goals for this album?



Gidley: We want to reach as many people as possible to listen to our album. We are attempting to spread Infrared’s music all over the world via social media. We love getting feedback from metal lovers and it is very interesting when people tell us they hear certain band influences in our songs. Having a metal album with your original songs is a dream come true and learning that people are digging it is an incredible feeling.

Review Fix: What’s the standout song? Is there a story behind it?



Gidley:No Peace, but it changes on a regular basis for us. No Peace was the first song Infrared wrote. It started off with the opening riff and built from there. When we were teens all there was on the news was war and this song is even more relevant today than ever.



Review Fix: What’s next?



Gidley: Infrared still have some songs from the ’80s that have not been recorded, but we are writing new songs as well.  We are very eager to release our second album as we are more curious than anyone to see what they all will sound like. We would love to travel anywhere and play our metal for whoever wants to hear it.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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