Gefragt: Kisses im Interview mit dem Soundkartell!
Gefragt: Kisses im Interview mit dem Soundkartell!
Erst im August, genauer gesagt am 16.08 wird das neue Album der Band Kisses bei uns in Deutschland erscheinen. Das Soundkartell hat es sich bereits angehört und im Vorfeld eines Reviews mit der Band über ihre Musik und das neue Album gesprochen. Das gesamte Interview auf Englisch lest ihr jetzt hier.
Soundkartell: Are you a good kisser?
Kisses: Wouldn’t you like to know!
Soundkartell: What makes a fan a „really fan“ to you?
Kisses: Not sure I understand this question, but I would have to guess and say that a really fan is really, really real.
Soundkartel: What has changed significantly since youre first Album?
Kisses: Jesse has started to go grey. I have lost my appreciation for sequins!
Soundkartell: On the 16th of August you will release with „Kids in L.A.“ youre second album. In which way „Kids in L.A. Is the logical consequence in your artists creation?
Kisses: It’s a little darker (or as dark as we tend to get) and a little more evolved and slicker. Maybe it’s more mature, although it might be less mature secretly.
Soundkartell: Which topics do you handle with in the new nine songs? Because you are from Los Angeles as well?
Kisses: The songs deal with teen angst and boredom. The banality of the superrich and a send of storied tradition in the novelty-based world of Los Angeles. Jesse grew up here in L.A., but I’m a transplant and an observer.
Soundkartell: Los Angeles is a big city with a enormous and bright offer to music and theater. Especially the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Los Angeles Philarmonic Orchestra are impressive buildings with a „music-historical“ background. In which way do you think you as the band Kisses are part of this scene?
Kisses: We don’t hang out too much with the Philharmonic, but the concert hall is definitely a beautiful building and a great place to take parents when they’re visiting from out of town! We are friends with some local bands who do similar keyboard-y music and in that way we’re part of the music community here.
Soundkartell: On which song are you especially proud of?
Kisses: Jesse and my favorite song is Huddle, which I think is a really fantastic tune.
Soundkartell: In your process of making music it is characterizing that you two are rotating in singing your songs. Even on the new songs it sounds evidently more harmonic. How does it come to this duet?
Kisses: I wasn’t as integral in making the last record, joining the band only afterwards and for the live show. So, this time around I just happening to be the other half of the band, so I’m singing more! I think it’s nice to have a lady voice in there when possible. Although Jesse has a much better voice than I do!
Soundkartell: The „basis“ of your sound is that you are harmonising in that way. Do you think it would be possible to produce music any longer when one of you would quit the band?
Kisses: It’s definitely possible, but it wouldn’t be Kisses without both of us! (I think.)
Soundkartell: Which song of yours is the one that is highly charged with big emotions?
Kisses: They’re all pretty emotional and borderline melodramatic—that just comes with the territory when your songs are about teenagers and all the inconsequential things they think about though.
Soundkartell: While you have produced the new album over a year, which concrete obstacles did you have to take?
Kisses: The process of making this record was very long. First Jesse made demos of his songs which made me cry. Then, he made all new demos for the same songs with didn’t make me cry. Then, we working with Tim Laracombe and Pete Wiggs to finalize and enhance the production. It sounds simple, but the whole thing took about a year and a half to two years.
Soundkartell: How important is social media for you? Is that the contact to the fans for you?
Kisses: Social media is great because you get to talk directly with your fans and usually they’re pretty nice! That said, we could definitely be using it better and dividing our time between the various platforms—we mostly just focus our attention on Facebook because that’s where we get the most interaction from people.
Soundkartell: Don`t you think that especially through social media the real value of the fans is getting lost?
Kisses: Oh, well maybe. If I wanted to have a harsh opinion maybe I’d go that way. Instead I like to think that it’s a nice way to talk to people and to give people who like your music a real experience directly from us. The internet is changing the way that the entire music industry (and all other media industries) function. It used to make me sad (I come from print publication!), but now I just say „Get wise and [try to] use it to your benefit!“
Soundkartell: Last question: Two things that we German could do better than you in USA.
Kisses: Probably anything involving engineering or multisyllabic words.
Thanks for this nice Interview!