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New York-based Kiss Kiss may have a playful name and quirky, experimental indie music, but lightly is the last way they approach their careers. Working hard to be - and stay - original should be a natural instinct, but recent trends in music have leaned towards the one-hit-wonders in vocalist Josh Benash’s opinion. As I met with the band before their Baltimore show last month at a one of a kind diner called the Paper Moon (they specialize in décor that involves a lot of plastic children’s toys and a lot more mannequins), Benash munched on his nachos and lamented, frustrated, on the state of the music industry today.
"There’s no more rock stars, and [there are] no more icons. There’s no major label money to push people who are doing something new. The only thing major labels are doing is pushing these Hannah Montanas and all this pop bullshit. It really has no significance. But if you go back to the 90s, [original artists] were [significant]. That’s not happening anymore. Now these bands don’t have the funding to do what they want. The only thing that’s being pushed is absolute garbage."
As the rest of the band nods along in silent agreement, drummer Jared Karns pipes in from his spot at the end of the table. "For every band there is like us, that are making records and are touring, there are nine bands that are of just as high quality that are like, 'Fuck this, we can’t afford it.'"
Without missing a beat, Benash finishes the thought. "I personally think that the trend in music is going more towards the mediocre, where people who have no idea how to engineer are recording crappy music and putting it out as Mp3s."
Kiss Kiss’s music straddles on the line between quirky insanity and the epic. With violin-heavy background music and passionate, almost bordering on the gothic, whining vocals with riffs to match, Kiss Kiss is certainly not letting a little trend against the original stopping them from creating something unique. When I asked them about their writing process, violinist Rebecca Schlappich gazes off for a second then quickly and purposefully gives an appropriate answer.
"I'd say if anything, if a song’s getting too comfortable, we try to make it less comfortable for the listener. Whether that comes in dissonance or meter…some things are written just for beautiful melodies, but a lot of the time we’ll take a part and be like ‘What can we do to make this cooler and more interesting?'"
The band’s live shows are a result of time-consuming work. Some of the songs on their latest album, The Meek Shall Inherit What’s Left, began to take shape not weeks or months ahead of time for the recording process, but years.
"The very first writing that I remember for this album started on the tour almost two years ago, when we were with Dr. Manhattan,” says Sclappich. “I remember sitting on one of the porches of one of the houses we stayed at and just playing around with some ideas. Josh does most of the thematic ideas, the forms of the songs, then Josh and Jared will get together and add the drums. We kind of like work in small groups to get all of our parts together and flesh out some ideas."
Benash listens to his band mate then eagerly adds, "'Virus' is actually six years old. I started ‘Virus’ in high school, then I never finished it, and I finished the last part a couple years ago."
Everything about Kiss Kiss’s music revolves around the idea of chaos. The band name comes from a Roald Dahl story—as it turns out, the author doesn’t just write about chocolate factories. I ask Benash about his favorite work from Dahl.
"I really like [Dahl’s] Uncle Oswald stories. [The story is about] this guy, he’s like a promiscuous kind of gentleman, he’s older. He invents this perfume that drives the male hormones crazy, just pure animal instincts, and he’s going to use it to sabotage the President. His stories always have a twist, and there’s always something perverse and strange about them, and our music is the same way."
The Meek Shall Inherit What’s Left hit stores on July 7 to favorable reviews. Along with the unique songs and lyrics, the CD’s artwork isn’t exactly run-of-the-mill. It features a swirling painting that is chaotic, but rhythmic. I ask the band if the artwork reflects on their music at all.
"I think aesthetically it does. Because the picture is chaos, but there’s still rhythm to it. It’s organized chaos, as is our music," says Benash.
Kiss Kiss just wrapped up a tour with punk band Fake Problems. Their sophomore album, The Meek Shall Inherit What’s Left is available in stores alongside their first release, Reality Vs. The Optimist, both of which came out on Eyeball Records.
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