Kisschasy - Doing it themselves

2005 – 2006 has been a busy time for Kisschasy. Since the release of their debut long player United Paper People, Kisschasy have been on a touring treadmill encompassing numerous national tours and a stint in America. The end of 2006 sees Kisschasy release their debut DVD Kisschasy : The Movie, as well as returning once again to Australian stages as one of the headliners of the Thank God Its Over Festival.

Whilst Kisschasy exploded in to the national consciousness with the hit single ‘The Do – Do’s and Whoa-Oh’s’ their rise was significantly more gradual. Forming four years ago on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsula, the group decided to circumvent the main by booking their own gigs and financed their own recordings. As guitarist Sean Thomas explains ‘We learnt slowly and learned everything from scratch, we bugged bigger bands and got advice from people rather than go about things ignorantly’. According to Thomas their tenacity stems from a deep-seated desire to succeed on their own merits ‘Everyone is looking for the easy way. Young kids expect everyone to do everything for you but you really have to do it all yourself. So many people talk about it (becoming successful) but never end up doing it’. And what about having the requisite know-how to achieve such a feat? As Thomas explains ‘Having the skill to pull it off is secondary to having the motivation to get out there’

And get out there they have; since the release of United Paper People in 2005 Kisschasy have been endlessly touring; garnering a strong national following as well as enough material for the bands first DVD, Kisschasy : The Movie. Given the amount of miles clocked by the band in recent times The Dwarf asked Thomas what effect this had on relations within the group ‘We are all pretty placid, especially on the road, no on has any annoying habits and we are all to tired to argue, so, its not hard to keep it together; the bands with the biggest internal problems are the ones with high energy personalities. We all have different personalities, but at the end of the day the one thing we have in common is the band’

Despite the band’s exhausting schedule, Kisschasy are not planning to wallow in the success of their debut album rather, they are going to capitalize on it by heading back into the studio in November to begin recording their sophomore album. The Dwarf asks Thomas about the pressures related to following up a successful first album. ‘The first album was successful but not too successful. A lot of bands seem to be having huge successes on their first albums at the moment which makes it difficult to follow up, especially when you reach the peak of success in one shot’. What matters, according to Thomas, is keeping success in perspective ‘A year and a half ago we sold 2500 EP’s and thought that was great. Then the debut album went gold. The thing is that we always look at what’s ahead rather than what is next to us; we always have more goals’. So, The Dwarf dares, any ‘difficult second album concerns’? To whit, Thomas scoffs playfully ‘The second album will only be difficult if it bombs!’

Share this article on Facebook