Interview
Kisschasy
Having come from humble beginnings, Kisschasy has successfully secured their place at the top of the Australian rock ladder. With a new single and a 2 month tour on the horizon, Darren was nice enough to answer these questions for us…
Interview w/ Darren (vocals/guitar) of Kisschasy
By Cameron Chambers
Thanks for the chat today mate.
That’s alright Cameron.
For the un-informed can you
please tell us your name and what you do in
Kisschasy?
Certainly! My name is Darren Cordeux
and I’m the singer slash guitarist.
“Hymns For The Nonbeliever”
was released in July this year and has received big wraps from the press
and most importantly, from your fans. Did you expect such a huge response
from the record?
Nah, not at all. We expected that we’d be stoked with it – and we are – but the fact that the
fans dig it is a bonus. We were hoping they’d be into it but you never
expect anything.
I’d read that you guys were
feeling the pinch after touring for 2 years straight on the back of
“United Power People”. Was there ever a stage where thought Kisschasy
wouldn’t make it to album number two?
Definitely. We actually sat down
and had that talk and tried to work out what we would do. We’d already
started writing and when we looked at the songs we had we just said
this is what we have to. We knew we had to make this album… it would
be a waste if we didn’t.
The making of the album was when
we re-bonded as a band and reaffirmed why we love music and why were
doing this. The music itself was a catalyst for changing our band and
now we love it more than ever!
With that in mind, was the
song writing process for “Hymns…” a difficult one?
Not really man. It was actually
simpler than the first album. With the first album we’d done our demos
and then EMI said they wanted to license the release really soon so
we had to rush together songs that weren’t quite ready.
This time round we had a lot more
time. When we had time off I wrote some songs and then I’d take them
to the band, we’d demo them and then put them away. By the end of
that we had 10 full CD’s we’d put away with demo songs. When it
came time to recording we chose the songs which went together the best
as an album.
There’s a huge difference
sonically between “Hymns…” and
“United Paper People”. Was it a conscious decision to beef the guitars
up for the new album or is it something that just came out when you
were writing?
It was definitely a conscious
decision. After the first record people were always coming up to us
saying that we sounded heavier live than we did on the album so we really
wanted to capture that live energy.
We wanted to work with Chris because
he knew how to capture that energy. He knows how to get such roomy sounds
so we knew he’d be perfect for our record.
UK producer Chris Sheldon has
worked with a lot of big name acts like Radiohead and the Foo Fighters,
how did you get him on board for “Hymns…”?
We did it the same way it always
works. We send our demos to producers we want to work with and the ones
who get back to us and are the most keen is who we’d like to work
with. It’s much better than throwing money at someone who doesn’t
care about your band or record.
He really cared about the record
and had the same mindset as us about the type of album we should make.
We were stoked he was so keen because he was at the top of our list.
Do you think Chris brought
something to the record that you may not have been able to achieve without
him?
Definitely! He was really good
at pushing us and he really pushed me as a vocalist and made me get
the right emotions within each song.
He was able to get really good,
beefy sounds and heaps of little things as well. He had heaps of cool
peddles and cool ideas. He’s eccentric to a point and had beliefs
like “savour the effects pedal” ha ha. He thought a pedal would
sound better if it was run with batteries as opposed to plugging it
into a wall.
Now I’m not sure if it’s true
or not but it sounded great! It might’ve just been a placebo but whatever,
ha ha.
You recently did a brief headlining
jaunt around the country – are you happy with how the newer songs
are translating live?
Fuck yeah, that’s the point!
When we toured on the last album it made us realise that we wanted to
have more rocken songs when we played live. That’s our roots.
When it came time to writing this
album that’s exactly what we aimed for.
Tonight is the first show on
the Good Charlotte tour… do you prepare for an arena show differently
to your usual club shows?
I think so. You can’t make an
arena show intimate. With your own shows you can talk to the crowd and
you have that closeness. With arena shows you’ve got to yell and try
and get everyone at the back involved.
There’s going to be a lot
of young and impressionable minds in attendance at these shows, do you
think you’ll be able to convince some of these kids to trade in their
black nail polish for a Kisschasy tee shirt?
I hope so. I mean, that’s our
job I guess. It’s hard. Bands like Good Charlotte… their fans are
purists and are really into Good Charlotte.
We’re just going to do what
we do best and get our there and play a humble rock show.
Once this tour wraps up, you
head off almost immediately for another run around the country,
this time with Horsell Common in tow. What do you enjoy more, arena
shows with a pop band or playing pubs and clubs with your mates?
Definitely pubs and clubs with
our mates! Arena shows are a good change though. For one thing, Horsell
Common are mates of ours and we’ve toured with them before so that’s
fucken awesome!
The fact that we’re playing
regional areas is cool as well. Small pubs have the best memories…
any arena band will tell you their best memories are playing pubs to
a drunken audience.
A headline show affords you
the opportunity to mix your set up a bit
– are we going to be hearing a healthy mix of old and new on the upcoming
tour?
Definitely! We always make sure
of that because as much as a band wants to play all their new songs
you need to keep in mind there’s fans who want to hear the old songs
as well.
We’re going to play a good mix
for everyone.
2007 has been an amazing year
for Australian music – what are some local releases that you’ve
been digging?
I loved the new Architecture
In Helsinki record. That’s a great album! The new Horsell Common
record is really good.
Oh man, it’s been such a good
year, this is hard! Ha ha. The Josh Pyke record is great as well.
Fuck man, there’s so many. I was actually thinking about this the
other day and there have been so many good Australian releases this
year.
There’s the three right there
but it’s hard to choose man.
If you could take any 3 Australian
bands on the road with you, who would it be and why?
Definitely Horsell Common!
I’d love to take Gyroscope but they’re kind of our peers
more than a band we’d take on tour.
I’d love to take Architecture
In Helsinki on tour but I’m not sure how our fans would like them
and how their fans would like us but we won’t play the genre game
today.
There’s heaps though… fuck,
I don’t now! It’s the same as the CD question, there are just too
many great local bands!
Kisschasy are finishing out
their year at the Odyessy New Year’s Eve Festival at Dreamworld, do
you have any grand plans to send the crowd into 2008?
We’ll be playing the earlier
shift but I think Thirsty Merc will be doing the countdown but
we’re going to go out and play some face melting rock and shred it
up!
We’ll probably be the best band
the crowd has ever seen but that’s because everyone will be so drunk.
That’s all we have time for
mate, is there anything else you’d like to say?
Just get out to the reunion tour
and get our new CD.
Good luck for your show tonight
man.
Cheers mate. Take care.
For information on Kisschasy’s
upcoming tour dates head to
COMMENTS.
1.
KYS-Josh
2.
jukebox