| | | |  | “If I were asked to describe this album in one word I would call it an ‘Awakening’; an awakening to ourselves, to our music and to the world around us.” – Darren Cordeux Hallelujah, praise be to whomever, Kisschasy have delivered Hymns For The Nonbeliever!...
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| Interview | Access All Areas.net.au: You boys are about to head out on the road this week and the touring doesn’t seem to stop until right at the end of the year. How are you feeling about that?
Karl (Kisschasy): I’m really tired. The tour actually started last week. There are 3 more weeks and I’m already starting to feel immune to everything. We have our last two shows in Sydney. It’s really good just because we get to go out and play our new music, which is great.
Access All Areas.net.au: How do you prepare for all that non-stop touring?
Karl (Kisschasy): I think that we have been preparing for it all year. The second that we finished that album, we were ready. We had to go through a whole bunch record label politics and that kind of stuff, but then it was finally released. We love playing live. We had been rehearsing heavily and we have such a great, energetic show to put on for everyone.
Access All Areas.net.au: You’re supporting Good Charlotte on their nationwide tour. You guys must be pretty excited?
Karl (Kisschasy): We are definitely. We take a lot more pride in our shows because people are coming to the shows to see us. No disrespect or offence to any of our support bands, but it’s true. We’re representing the show, so we have to put on a great show. The opportunity to just play with Good Charlotte is amazing. We’ve taken it on board that we might have to work harder on these shows then on our own. The majority of people aren’t there to see us, so we have to try and convert them. It’s a chance for us to reach out to potentially fans. I’m very excited. We’ve recently been playing theatre shows, so it’s very exciting to be going into stadiums.
Access All Areas.net.au: Is there anyone that you guys would really to tour with?
Karl (Kisschasy): We surprisingly get asked that a lot. I can’t really speak for the whole band, but I think that we could collectively agree that we would love to tour with Weezer. Some Australian ones would be bands like You Am I and Silverchair. And it’s really cool, because we’re actually the opening act on one of the Powderchair gigs next week.
Access All Areas.net.au: The most recent album, Hymns For The Non-Believers, has been received really well. Did you guys think it would such a hit?
Karl (Kisschasy): I hope it is being received well. It’s our baby, and we’re very protective. It’s our second album and it has been a big few years for us. Over the past few years, we’ve really built a grassroots following. I really think it’s to our credit. I’m not being arrogant, but our radio play has become a lot stronger. We also back everything up with a great live show. Sometimes we have to take a reality check on tour, but it’s all alright.
Access All Areas.net.au: For the album, you worked with people like Chris Sheldon and Howie Weinberg. Together, they have worked with artists like Nirvana, The Pixies, Foo Fighters and Radiohead. What was it like working with them?
Karl (Kisschasy): It was pretty full on. We worked out that Chris had worked with a lot of cool artists and a lot of the albums that we loved. We seriously made a dream with him. When we started, we kept thinking “What direction do we want? Who should engineer and produce?” So we sent out a bunch of demos to a number of producers and Chris was the one that came back with the most positive feedback. A lot of producers came back saying yes, but only really in a “Yes I will take you money and produce an album for you.” Chris was really good and he got involved in it all. We were really lucky for that. Howie Weinberg only mastered it, so we didn’t really get to meet him or work with him, but he did a great job.
Access All Areas.net.au: Now I heard that there was a few problems with the drums while recording the album. What were they?
Karl (Kisschasy): We haven’t told a lot of people about this, so I don’t know how it got out. When we arrived into the studio, the drums weren’t there. We haven’t got any spare anywhere, so we were kind of losing like…maybe a few thousand dollars a day. It was really challenging, but we drove around to shops and friends and kind of made the best of what we could do. We used sand bags for some of the songs. These are songs that no one can ever duplicate (laughs). I also made Greg hold a cymbal for one of the songs. I think he thought that I would smash his arm with it.
Access All Areas.net.au: Other than the constant touring, what does the future hold for Kisschasy?
Karl (Kisschasy): Just touring for the next 4 months really. The album is still so fresh and new. We just want to get it out to people and for them to hear it. It’s time to start converting people. We might go overseas and take it international. I’m not too sure yet.
Interview by Simon Finck |
| Biography | “If I were asked to describe this album in one word I would call it an ‘Awakening’; an awakening to ourselves, to our music and to the world around us.” – Darren Cordeux
Hallelujah, praise be to whomever, Kisschasy have delivered Hymns For The Nonbeliever!
The follow-up to 2005’s smash hit debut, United Paper People, Hymns For The Nonbeliever introduces a fresh Kisschasy sound - more confronting, more relentless, more rockin’, more irresistible than ever. After an emotionally fraught final six months touring on United Paper People (see 2006’s Kisschasy: The Movie DVD), the Mornington foursome have reunited to produce the most solid album you will hear in 2007. From start to finish, it doesn’t relent.
From the budding pop songwriter of a few years ago, front man Darren Cordeux has blossomed into a powerhouse song smith, while Kisschasy have consolidated into a special unit. Recorded throughout 2006 at Grove Studios, set on 25 acres of bushland around an hour north of Sydney, Hymns For The Nonbeliever captures the magic of a band approaching the summit of their powers on album number two – think Pinkerton, think Through Being Cool, think Nevermind!
With production handled by Englishman Chris Sheldon (Foo Fighters, The Pixies, Radiohead, etc.) and mastering applied by Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, The Ramones, Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica, etc.), Hymns For The Nonbeliever delivers this bold pop statement with World Class clarity. The first two singles, “Opinions Won't Keep You Warm At Night” and “Spray On Pants”, were tweaked at the mixing stage by Jerry Finn (Green Day, Blink 182, AFI), adding yet another illustrious name to the credits, as well as a radio sheen to the tracks than will no doubt aid Kisschasy’s commercial appeal both in Australia and abroad
Everything sounds more alive, the songs more engaging, the lyrics more intriguing. At a time when “reality” is being altered and edited and fed back to the public as truth, Darren Cordeux creates these amazing epic worlds within each song; whole universes to get lost in. He reflects back his real life experiences via a mix of sarcasm and double-entendre using astonishing wordplay to conjure complex imagery in simple language. Then he puts it to the kind of melody you’ll be humming for a month.
But while the songs on Hymns For The Nonbeliever are testament to the powerful pop vision of Cordeux, the band itself sounds better, stronger, more unified. Guitarist Sean Thomas is Cordeux’s song writing twin, finishing his musical sentences for him with perfect guitar parts, and even busting a wicked solo on album opener “The Perfect Way To Meet.” Bassist Joel Vanderuit lays down a driving foundation, serving the songs in tasteful fashion, but never his own ego. While hard-hitting drummer Karl Ammitzboll is flashy to the point of writing the kind of fills you just want to play air drums to.
Together Kisschasy have created an album strong enough to carry the emotional weight Cordeux has burned these 12 songs with. Far from being a brainless pop album full of empty, pointless love songs, Hymns For The Nonbeliever finds Cordeux confronting facets of his life both past and present. With only a single solitary song about relationships (“Real And Untouched”), the album veers from reflections on life as a musician and songwriter (“Strings And Drums” and “Spray On Pants”), to conservation and animal liberation (“Factory” and “Dissolution”), to the emptiness of religious dogma (“Tiny Plastic Cup” and “My Bible Is A Scrapbook), to being so alienated from your own band mates you’re ready to throw away everything you’d work so hard to achieve (“To Death”).
Far from being your average pop record, Hymns For The Nonbeliever sings from the highest heavens: Kisschasy have risen!
Amen. |
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