SPOTLIGHT SERIES Presents: Jason Lekberg of IKILLYA
It’s just after 5 o’clock on an evening in late October, and I’m on my way to meet up with IKILLYA lead vocalist, music industry veteran, and longtime friend Jason Lekberg. Our well overdue catchup is to occur by way of an interview, and my confidence in myself as an interviewer is suddenly waning. I’m starting to second-guess my decision to go with a “just wing it” approach. Surely some prepared notes – or preparation at all for that matter – would have been smart. But something in me wanted to let this conversation be a stream of consciousness; to let the flow of it write the narrative and not the other way around. And that's exactly what happened.
Lekberg and I meet at Duff’s, a legendary metal bar located in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The place doesn’t open for another hour, but Amanda is kind enough to let us in to chat while she gets the room ready for the night ahead.
Duff’s is more than your average watering hole; it’s a monument to metal, crafted and curated with passion by owner Jimmy Duff. “Jimmy has done the best job that I've ever seen, anywhere that I've ever been, of curating a place that speaks specifically to this culture,” Lekberg says as we take a seat in a booth toward the back. Amanda flips a few switches and suddenly the whole bar is glowing, saturated with string lights illuminating the plethora of metal memorabilia adorning the walls.
As a precursor to our conversation, I asked Lekberg to pick the location where it should take place: “an area of significance in your personal and musical journey” as I had conditioned the assignment. For him, Duff’s was the clear choice. “The first time I walked in here,” says Lekberg, “I was like, this is the bar I’ve been not only looking for, but dreaming about my whole life."
The discovery of Duff’s decades ago was the fulfillment of a dream within a dream for Lekberg, the larger being his dream of moving to the city that housed it, which he did in 2005. “I’ve always had this ‘city on the hill’ feeling about New York City,” says Lekberg.
Making the move was certainly a change in scenery from his small-town roots in Indiana, but for Lekberg it was also a change in culture and acceptance. “I wasn’t the weird one anymore,” Lekberg says with a laugh as he recounts his initial thoughts as a transplant. “I felt relieved to be in a place where I could be myself, where I could celebrate and enjoy the things that I love without it being the reason I don't get a job or the reason someone treats me poorly.”
It’s a struggle to which any metalhead can attest: the inherent judgement that comes with revealing and reveling in one’s passion for the genre and its associated culture. After years of his tattoos and band shirts being read like scarlet letters, Lekberg could now wear them like a badge of honor; a declaration of and pride in his identity. It was a liberation that would spawn a successful career in the music industry as both an artist and an executive, as well as a lifelong dedication to the genre that shaped him. But the history of Lekberg’s musical lineage is not as straight and narrow as I’ve perhaps made it seem. In fact, just as Duff’s was a fulfillment to Lekberg's search for destiny, so too was his introduction to metal.
“‘Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head’,” Lekberg answers to the question of his first musical obsession, crediting the song as a foundation to his fixation on melody and groove as a young child. “I made a cassette of the song from my mom’s BJ Thomas records and I would just listen to it over and over and over.” A discovery of the mesmerizing brilliance of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys would come soon after, followed by a path of rock-and-roll discovery that took him from Bon Jovi to Warrant and then, on one pivotal day in 1991: Metallica.
“I was at a buddy's house when MTV premiered the “Enter Sandman” video, and I remember just having my mind blown,” Lekberg recalls. “My buddy was saying, ‘I don’t know, it’s a bit light,’ and I swear to God this is a true story, but I bet him $10 that it was not possible for something to be heavier than what I had just experienced. Then he took me to his room and played ‘One’ for me and the axis of the earth titled. I was like ‘what the fuck just happened?’"
Whether it be BJ Thomas or James Hetfield, Lekberg’s passion for melody and groove remained the same throughout. It was a focus of his development as a musician despite Lekberg's decision to pursue vocals exclusively from an early age – one that is not without some lingering regret. “[My parents] bought me the cheapest acoustic guitar possible,” Lekberg says. “The action of the strings was so high it was insane. It killed my fingers and 11-year-old me just hated it. So I convinced my parents to let me stop taking guitar lessons, which I will say to this day was the biggest mistake of my life."
With no instrument in hand but a relentless passion to create music, Lekberg’s screams filled the void. "I remember pretending to be sick so I didn't have to go to church and there would be nobody in my house,” says Lekberg.
“I put on ‘Shattered’ by Pantera and was trying to sing it, just like trying to make these noises in my kitchen all by myself. When ‘Bodies’ by Drowning Pool came out, I was in a band and my guitar player had learned the riff. We were at rehearsal and he started playing it and the rest of the band was banging it out so I just hit that high note, that high scream.” It was a moment that took the band and even Lekberg by surprise. “I didn’t even know I could do it,” he says.
Lekberg’s discovery of the scream within led to an explosion in confidence, albeit short-lived. “I was on stage one time and went to hit that scream and missed it, and my brain was like, ‘you can't do that. You don't even know how you did it in the first place.’ It took me years to find that place in my head again – it's so mental.”
The journey of Lekberg's vocal rediscovery was undertaken with the help of vocal coach Melissa Cross. Cross has worked with a laundry list of metal vocal legends and helped Lekberg to understand his voice and how to harness its power. “She’s the first person that got through to me,” says Lekberg. “[She] took me from fifty to one hundred percent almost overnight because she was immediately able to identify, okay, here is what you understand about your voice, here is what you're doing correct technique wise, and here are all of your gaps.” It was guidance that changed Lekberg’s life instantly.
Joining forces with future IKILLYA founding bandmates Mansa Gory on bass and Wayne Collier on drums, the trio performed under a variety of names and with a variety of guitarists before bringing guitarist Dave Kerr on board full-time and putting together what would become IKILLYA’s debut album, Recon, released in 2011. The band underwent a series of lineup changes over the years, but Lekberg remained steady at the helm, dedicated and determined.
IKILLYA’s 2013 release, Vae Victus, brought with it a worldwide distribution deal with Megaforce Records and a rigorous touring schedule that continued for years. By the time the band released their 2017 album, War For an Idea, the road had worn them down to a breaking point. “We were literally ready to kill each other,” says Lekberg. “We had been on the road at that point for the better part of four years, pretty much solid.”
Couple that with endless transmission replacements on the band’s van as well as a bout with kidney stones, and Lekberg had reached his limit. “I just needed a break and the thought of starting over and having to put a whole new band together again literally two months after the new record had come out I was like – I just – I can’t.”
IKILLYA disbanded in 2017, two months after the release of War For an Idea. But it wasn’t long before Lekberg got the creative itch again, and in 2019 he formed Nefariant. The piano-driven metal quartet wrote material for their debut EP and played a series of shows to showcase the songs; there was momentum on Lekberg’s side again.
Then came March of 2020. “We had a gig at Brighton Bar in Asbury Park and we played March 13th. Then we’re driving back from the gig, listening to the radio going, ‘what do you mean we can't go outside tomorrow?’” The project, and the world for that matter, was on pause.
Despite the setback of a global pandemic, Nefariant hit the ground running as soon as the world opened its doors again, and Lekberg felt refreshed and on the right track. “I came out the other side and IKILLYA was the last thing that I was,” Lekberg says. “Nefariant was who I was at that point. It was a more grown-up version of me, and I loved that project and put everything into it.” The band's debut EP was finally released in 2021 and their second, Noct, was released earlier this year.
Still, the road was destined to lead back to where it began. Lekberg started to reflect further on his time with IKILLYA; perhaps things had ended too soon. “I was like, oh wow, this band was something I didn't realize it was” says Lekberg. “Given the time frame it was even a little more crushing because with War For an Idea I was like, wow, we were there. If I could have fucking kept this together, if I could have focused about what the band was – I started feeling like, oh my God, I let this go. I just let it slip through my fingers.”
First came the idea for a reunion show, which became a reality in March of this year. The performance featured not just one incarnation of IKILLYA but many. Mansa Gory, Rob Broderick, Dave Kerr, Gary Pickard. Mariel Miele, and Drew Maciejewski all returned to celebrate their involvement and contribution to the three chapters of IKILLYA’s saga. Drummer Jeff Gretz was on hand as well to support as a fan. It was a testament to the shared experience and personal impact that IKILLYA made on those that were a part of its creative journey.
For Lekberg, revisiting IKILLYA required coming to terms with the difference in who he was then and now. “I was like oh, do we have to do this song? Can we forget these lyrics? Like, what the hell was I thinking, you know?” laughs Lekberg. But though his songs reflected an older version of Lekberg’s sense of self, he realized at the end of the day that the music was still “him” at its core.
Suddenly, what was supposed to be a one-off celebration became a catalyst for another IKILLYA chapter to be born; an evolved IKILLYA with a new perspective. “There are parts of that band that are like, oh, this is not who I am anymore. But I also have begun to realize that I understand what worked about the band. Being able to take a seven year break, I have clarity – this is was what was good about this, this is where we really thought we were too clever, that was dumb, and so on. I regained an interest in like, okay, let me see if I can set this right. If I can make this what it should have been.”
IKILLYA has since played a string of northeast shows with a few more lined up at the top of next year. They’ve also released a haunting cover of Type O Negative’s “Everything Dies” and have new original material in the works. Once again, the momentum is on Lekberg’s side. And no matter the ultimate outcome, Lekberg intends to focus on the passion that got him started on this journey in the first place. “I am very aware and very clear now about the fact that creating art is important,” says Lekberg. “If you love it, make it, and what you make is valuable because you made it – period – no matter whether or not anybody else cares about it.”
You can catch IKILLYA next year on January 7th at The Woodshop in New York City, as well as at in Toad's Place in New Haven on January 11th for the Opus Blizzard B-Day Bash 2025.