Kiss mobilizes its 'Army' with new album, tour
WEST HOLLYWOOD -- "Look at Kiss culture," says Gene Simmons, radiating pride. "People tattoo their bodies with Kiss faces, name their children after our songs, have Kiss conventions.
"This is Planet Kiss; we just live on it. The stage is holy ground, and what we do is electric church."
Holy hyperbole! The kabuki kibitzers of big-top rock are back in greasepaint and spandex, armed with a new album and a fresh stage spectacle to solidify a legacy built on thundering riffs, pyrotechnics, superheroic role-playing and hucksterism.
The singer/bassist, 60, and guitarist Paul Stanley, 57, are meeting in the Sunset Strip office of manager Doc McGhee to chat up "Sonic Boom," Kiss' 19th studio album and first since 1998's "Psycho Circus." The album, sold exclusively at Walmart, is a three-disc set with a CD of re-recorded hits and a DVD of a Buenos Aires concert packaged with 11 new songs. It's $12, "the price of a sandwich," Simmons crows.
The band began writing last spring, rehearsed tunes in May and recorded in June, wrapping up "Boom" by mid-July.
To describe the process: Stop trying to show off and get in touch with what happens naturally, Simmons says. "Through the years, we've wandered and had other agendas, one of which was to make critics happy [with 'The Elder,' a 1981 concept album] and to follow the dance thing [with 'I Was Made for Lovin' You,' a disco track on 1979's 'Dynasty']. We've played around with symphony orchestras and boys choirs. The thing that changed the game was touring this last year and getting a tsunami of e-mails and letters asking, 'Where's the new record?'"
Crafting "Boom" was one of the easiest and most joyous projects in the band's 36-year run, Stanley says. But he would not have stepped in the studio without the title and authority of producer.
"In the creative process, democracy is vastly overrated," he says. "The whole idea of everybody having a say is terrific, but in the end someone has to make a decision. We've had some failed attempts in the last decade or two at trying to make a great Kiss album. I have to chalk that up to having band members who perhaps had the wrong priorities or no priorities. I didn't want any outside writers. What you wind up with is somebody's interpretation of what Kiss is. Who knows better what Kiss is than Kiss? I wanted to capture the spirit, the hunger of the band at its best."
Guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer round out the Kiss lineup, replacing originals Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, who have had a rocky history with the band and made their most recent exits in 2003 and 2004, respectively. To those who suggest their absence diminishes Kiss, Stanley snaps: "Put Willie Mays in a baseball uniform and see how well he hits. The magic you remember isn't there. This is the band in its ideal form. No other lineup could have made 'Sonic Boom.'"
Fans certainly seem satisfied with the overhaul.
"Kiss remains an international phenomenon, [and] the Kiss Army remains strong," says Ray Waddell, Billboard's editor of touring, noting that the current U.S. leg of the band's Kiss Alive 35 tour, a global trek launched in 2008, is ahead of projections. "With Kiss, I believe reputation has more to do with selling tickets than any new album. Like a lot of other heritage rock acts, Kiss' audience is multigenerational. The difference with Kiss is the band has always had huge appeal to young male teens, and the visual aspects of their shows are particularly engaging to the YouTube generation."
For all their swagger and ego, Simmons and Stanley say they're humbled by the band's longevity and express enormous respect for the Kiss Army.
"We're privileged," Simmons says. "There but for the grace of God, anyone of us would be asking the next person in line, 'Would you like fries with that?' What have I got to complain about? I'm filthy rich. I've been there, done that and owned the T-shirt with my own face on it."
Gannett News Service