Kisschasy

It has been a while since we heard from Melbourne’s Kisschasy save a few shows here and there, but things are starting to ramp up with the band headlining the Unfun festival and opting to play their ‘Hymns For The Non-Beliver’ album in full at the show. Killyourstereo.com caught up with bass player Joel Vanderuit to discuss why we haven’t heard much from the group and what they have been up to since.

Why haven't we heard from you guys in awhile? What have you been up to?

At the end of the 'Seizures' cycle we had been releasing records fairly consistently and we had all been fairly committed to that so we were at a point where we needed some time out to relax and a couple of the guys started families and businesses, so we just focused on moving on to the next step of what we were all doing individually.

And what made you decide to get back into it and start playing again?

At the point that it is at right now, we did a couple of shows late last year, just random one-off things, and we found that when we weren't in that consistent tour grind we had a tonne of fun playing shows. Not living in each others pockets we enjoyed each others company a lot more and just had a really good time, so the opportunity came up for some more shows [and] we thought why not have a couple of weekends away and have some fun. People still come out so that's cool, so yeah it's just really about having fun again with it.

So it doesn't really sound like you guys are getting back into the full swing of things, no new album or anything like that?

It's been loosely talked about, we're about to start rehearsing in November, we're playing Hymns in full and there are songs on there we haven't played since we recorded it to be honest so we're gonna rehearse pretty hard to make sure we get that nailed as well as we can. There's been a little bit of talk about getting some stuff done next year maybe. We have some stuff that we've demoed for a record a few years ago floating around but we haven't really pursued it any further at this point.

In this time of break everyone's musical tastes may have changed a little bit, if there was to be a new Kisschasy record do you think it would sound vastly different from previous ones?

To be honest, we haven't really talked much about recording anything but the first couple of years of being a band we were always into similar things but the last few years we have all been listening to really different music. So the four of us mixed together is super eclectic, I think I'm the only guy who still listens to punk rock, the other guys enjoy it but Darren has gone and done some of his own bits and pieces and Sean has as well, Karl is in a bunch of different things as like a session dude so who knows, anything can happen. (laughs)

What about you personally, would you want it to change?

Personally, for me, I enjoy playing rock a lot more, I have a lot more fun when it's high energy, which is why we're so pumped to play the Hymns record, it's probably our most pumped record tempo wise, so yeah who knows man, personally for me that's where I'm at with music.

Let me tell how this situation looks from a punter side of the curtain and you tell me what it has been from your side, you guys, along with bands like Gyroscope and After The Fall, were touring a lot and you had songs on the radio and you all looked to be doing quite well and getting bigger, and then suddenly everyone kinda stopped around the same time and hasn't really done anything. This might have seemed a bit confusing to people as you all looked to be doing quite well, what do you think it is that made that scene sort of just stop?

Sure, and it's a really good point and I've never really thought about it from the outside looking in, but yeah a good point, those bands, we're all mates and we're touring together a lot and we were all moving at a similar pace and level.......shit.....I don't know, I guess we all sort of hit that age, we're all similar ages, where as an Australian band if you're not touring overseas there is only so many times you can do this country before people get sick of it I think. We did a little bit of stuff overseas but it wasn't a full time gig so we were like, "fuck, if we keep going will people keep coming?" I know for the Gyro dudes as well, we need to look at what we're going to do long term as people, do we want to become members of the community and reconnect with friends and family because you spend so much time away, start businesses, start families and just look at moving into our next stage of life because without that international component it's really difficult for it to be a full time job as far as a decent income to support yourself and a family.

Maybe that's what it is, and music, I'm not super up to date with music, I don't listen to a lot of radio, but there are a lot of bands, it's crazy how many bands there are now, it's hard for me to pick and choose what to go to, who I like, it's overwhelming. You've got bands who are killing it like your Violent Soho's and stuff, The Bennies and Luca Brasi and bands like that which is rad, but we just got a little bit like we wanted to step back and re-evaluate what we needed to do to set ourselves up, you don't want to hit mid-thirties and be like, "oh I need to find a career now," so I went back to school and studied, so did Karl and Darren is doing the same, so we made the choice, we never took it off the table or officially broke up because we all still love each other and we love the band and playing music, but as a full time thing, as Kisschasy, we had to take a step back and make sure we were looking after ourselves.

I always think about this show that I went to here in Adelaide at Flinders called the All Age Crusade and it was those three bands we just mentioned?

It was, we've been talking about that recently.

End of the show, everyone is on stage and someone says, "we're gonna do this every year!" It never happened again.

Yeah, we were chatting to a few guys recently about that tour and it was quite a unique concept at the time like a triple headline, rotating thing, and it was so much fun, and you've probably noticed in the last couple of days that Gyro is coming back out to do some shows, which is the fucking coolest, and I don't really know what the After The Fall guys are doing but it seems like a cool time to just come out and have some fun with it, maybe I'll hassle those dudes. We actually said that between ourselves like I wonder if they would want to do something like that again? I'd love to, it would be the funnest thing ever.

I think if you did it, it would be pretty successful?

I don't think kids would even know who we are. We've driven past that, they are all like mid-twenties now.

It wasn't really that long ago, those people still go to shows and enjoy music, the musical climate may have changed a little bit and that style might not be as big anymore but keep in mind that the bands that made that scene big aren't really doing anything anymore. If the option was there people might take it up.

Yeah totally, like I said, we're just sort of talking about it again and are super excited for these shows in November; so if things go well and we can get our shit together and are able to sneak off from our jobs then it is definitely something we would look to do again. Next year, and this is crazy and it's something that just got pointed out to me the other day by Darren, is ten years since our first release came out, which make me feel super old, but it's kind of a milestone, I don't know what everyone is thinking, we haven't really talked about it, but doing something with that would be kinda cool, we get a lot of requests for that old stuff so it might be a good way to ease back into something.

Kisschasy headline UnFun '14 this November. Event details here.

Tickets via Oztix.