Killboy

It wasn’t that long ago that Sara Killboy Skinner thought her music career was kaputt. While she’d spent the better part of a decade building up a vibrant pop-trap songbook as Killboy — yielding a major-label recording contract with Atlantic Records, delivering a crossover collaborative single with Bad Wolves in 2023, and maintaining social media cache through a series of candid and comedic posts — a depression started taking hold when she noticed her numbers were starting to crater. A dread set in when it came to making new music — not necessarily over the process of producing art, but because of a feeling that perhaps her moment had passed. She moved from California to Texas, and started hitting the open mic circuit at the suggestion of her therapist, in order to reconnect with her love of performing — a humbling prospect, she now tells Revolver, considering Killboy had previously crushed it for festival crowds of thousands and toured with Jxdn. Though she’d been dropped by her label, she booked a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, to make new music. Despite her creative drive, something still felt off. Skinner recalls feeling lost and near-tears one night in Nashville, pleading to God while out on a walk: “Dude, can you give me something good?” As if on cue, that’s when she got a call out of the blue from one of her biggest fans: Bad Wolves John Boecklin. The drummer, who founded the alternative-metal band in 2017, had previously reached out to ask if she’d hop on their 2023 track It s You (2 Months)” as a melodic duet with vocalist Daniel DL Laskiewicz. The song made it onto Bad Wolves’ Die About It album, and something about Killboy’s soaring performance clearly clicked with Boecklin. When the percussionist’s faith in his own long-running project was seriously tested in 2025 — due to the exodus of four members, including Laskiewicz and lead guitarist Doc Coyle — he once again reached out to Skinner with an offer she couldn’t refuse: a full-time position in Bad Wolves. “I was honestly wondering what John saw in me at that moment, because I was really down on myself,” Skinner recalls. Boecklin laid it out bare that he was thinking about disbanding Bad Wolves altogether, but was willing to give it a shot if she’d consider joining. He added that she was one of his favorite singers going. Evan Aparicio Skinner’s work with the current iteration of the group — rounded out by guitarist AJ Rebollo and bassist Derek Bolman — has been taking shape behind the scenes for months. Today (June 29th), she makes a phoenix-like reemergence in Wolves’ clothing through the release of “Paint it Red,” her first single as the band s full-fledged frontperson. The music video for the song makes its premiere above. “Paint it Red runs meta for both Skinner and Boecklin’s Bad Wolves, a rock-and-metal-scorched anthem about torching your past and resurfacing from the ashes with renewed vigor. It finds Skinner embracing massive melodies and a few abrasive screams while finding her way back “home” — behind a microphone. The song precedes a series of yet-to-be-detailed singles that will eventually lead up to a fifth Bad Wolves album. It s not all Skinner has in the works. Freshly revitalized, she s excitedly throwing herself into new Killboy music, too — her digi-twitched and perhaps tellingly-titled “ENCORE 3” hit streamers in May. Can you take us through how you found yourself without a record deal, and how you ended up in Bad Wolves?SARA KILLBOY SKINNER Turning 30 was a big mental hurdle for me, because everyone says that your worth as a woman deteriorates after 30 — especially as a musician. I never believed that until I started to [close in on] 30, and then I saw my numbers going down. I [was] trying to get sober, and trying to change my life around for the better, but people [didn’t] really care about what [I was] doing, because [I wasn’t] fucked up all the time and hilarious as fuck. It felt like I fell off. I started going to a therapist. He was telling me I should go to open mic nights… I was like, “That’s stupid, I don t want to do that. I performed in front of thousands of people, this is embarrassing.” But, hey, this actually felt really good! What were you singing at those open mics?Well… you go to an open mic, and you wanna share your gift. And you’re there sharing it with maybe two or three people in the crowd that do not want to hear your fucking gift. They came to eat pizza! They did not know that an open mic was happening, and they don t care. I figured people didn t know my music, so I was singing cover songs — the popular shit, man. Rap songs. “Someone Like You” by Adele. I was singing whatever the open mic [host] was requesting, like a Lady Gaga song. I would tell him to pull up the lyrics, and if I knew it, I would sing it. [Sometimes] he would play it on the guitar. And when the three people in the crowd would start getting into it, it made me really grateful. What was it like to get back in the swing of things while working on these Bad Wolves songs?[John Boecklin] got off the phone with me and booked me a flight to L.A., and I was in EastWest studios the very next day. People were coming in —the dude from Volumes, the dude from Animals as Leaders — and they re shaking my hand, saying, “So, you re the new Bad Wolves singer,” and I m like, “I don t know!” John said that over the phone, and here I am, but I was freaking out. They had already been working on songs for a long time, so they had me start cutting songs that they had already made. One of the songs that will be on the album is called “Drag Me Through Hell,” and it s the most beautiful song ever. That s when I got really excited. It s actually an acoustic song, and it doesn t make a lot of sense for the album, but it s the one I m most excited about. [Laughs] I got really excited for the potential of where things could go. Why did “Paint it Red” seem like the right introduction for this latest era of Bad Wolves?“Paint It Red” is about not being afraid to rip your whole life apart, and just start over again. That s where everybody in the band is at. When John called me and asked what I was doing with Killboy, I was like, “I m honestly ready to just rip it to the ground,” because I d been putting my heart and soul into it for so long, but it hit a wall. So [I was] down to start with Bad Wolves. Coming into it, there’d been a lot built already, which I m really grateful for. But it does feel like I m totally starting over. It s very scary, and it s very exciting. I ve done this so many times in my life where I started over and did something new, and the last project I did that with was Killboy. Now I feel like I m doing that with Bad Wolves. It s going to sound completely different. I m a female singer. I m different than DL [Laskiewicz] and Tommy [Vext, Bad Wolves’ frontman from 2017-2021]. John [recently] bought this home, and he was demolishing [the interior], and so we were like, “Let s include this in the music video.” So, in the music video we’re tearing down his old house and rebuilding a new one. It’s very metaphorical. You were thinking about tearing down Killboy, but you also just put out the “ENCORE 3” solo single a few weeks ago. Are you going to be maintaining both Killboy and Bad Wolves at the same time?I thought it was going to be a pivot, but working with Bad Wolves and getting my rock shit out actually opened this whole creative window for me. I have so much more creativity with Killboy now. I thought I was just gonna say, “Fuck Killboy,” but I made a whole album for Killboy after doing the Bad Wolves stuff, which I didn t expect at all. I just follow my heart. How do these newest Bad Wolves songs reflect the different sides of your vocals?It’s more of my emotional and rageful vocals. I don t really do that with Killboy. It’s weird… I started Killboy with pop-trap. I’m whisper-singing. I actually like to do that, but with Bad Wolves I get to actually sing. That’s fun, and I think the fanbase likes that kind of singing. I d started this whole new TikTok where I was only singing rock songs — this was before I got asked to do Bad Wolves — and it actually started building [a following]. I was like, “Damn, people actually like to hear me sing and scream!” That was exciting. View this post on Instagram The artwork for the “ENCORE 3” single is a picture of Bubbles, your Brazilian tarantula, and you have even more spiders at home. How did you get into collecting exotic pets?Well, it all started with these angelfish that I had, and then that developed into a saltwater addiction. And then that wasn t enough…. Wolfie was a jumping spider I got when we were in Nashville, Tennessee. We were making an album and I was bored, because something that people don t understand about me is I m really, really ADHD. I m bored all the time. That s why I like to record and engineer myself, because I like doing a hundred things at a time. I ll be editing myself. I ll be tuning myself while I m recording. So anyways, I got so fucking bored working on this shit — the writing and recording — that I bought a jumping spider. I was decorating its enclosure the whole trip. I loved Wolfie, but I couldn t keep him, because I had to feed him every three days. I ended up having to go on all these trips with him, and I would get so nervous at TSA, trying to sneak Wolfie in my purse. I don t like to lie or steal or do anything bad, so I was nervous that they were gonna be like, “What is this?” and make me throw Wolfie away. It was causing me all this unnecessary stress. My stress animal was causing me stress, so I donated Wolfie to a local shop. Then I got tarantulas, because you only have to feed them once a week. The guy from Urban Tarantulas gave me three other tarantulas for free, because Bubbles cost $3,200. No one believes me, but it’s because he was the only breeder on the internet that was selling an adult female at the time. You called Wolfie your stress pet. You also post photos and videos of Bubbles or your snake crawling over you… A lot of people would not find that a de-stressing situation…I m a person that lives with so much anxiety. I mean, I m shaking right now as I m talking to you. But when you re holding a tarantula or a snake, you need to be calm — for them. It forces you to get in the moment and be calm. Like, you can t fling your hand. You can t get scared. You have to be prepared for anything that the tarantula does. You can t let it fall on the floor, because they can explode. They’ll splat and die. Same thing with a snake. It really pulls you in the moment when you have them on you. Evan Aparicio How are you feeling about this moment right now, as you re taking this next step with Bad Wolves? Are you anxious? Excited?I was really confident and excited up until right now… Now I m really nervous. [Laughs] But that s what happens to me. I get stage fright, and then I get onstage and it s so fun — I realize that this is why I love to do what I m doing. But this is the part before I get onstage. The audience is not even in the building yet! But I m excited. I think the music sounds really good. I m just anxious to see how it will be received. When will you be getting onstage with Bad Wolves?We have a tour in the works that we ve been talking about for months. I m not sure, but our plan is to get back as soon as possible, especially once this music is dropped. How far off in the distance is the album?The songs are all done, we just finished them. It s changed so many times, but it ll be soon. What’s the next pet on your wish list?I just got a new snake called Camo, a ball python. Maybe [it’ll be] more tarantulas… but I don t need any more animals. This is the responsible side of me talking: I don t need any more. I have a lot to feed, and a lot to take care of when I m gone, especially if we go on tour. Luckily, I have friends who can come over. I have a blue heeler, a deaf, epileptic chow-shepherd, nine tarantulas and two pythons. It’s a full studio apartment!