WHAT WE BECOME”

The Reformation Of Kisschasy

WORDS BY TAMMY WALTERS

and assessing the way forward, Good Things came to us – they must have heard through the grapevine that we were talking to someone else about doing the show and allowed us to come out to do a festival. It seemed like the perfect way to ease our way back into live music again.”

Æ Everybody sing and dance and stand, now everybody clap your hands because Kisschasy are back!

The same year Queens of the Stone Age dropped their third and most thrilling album, Songs for the Deaf, Darren Cordeux, Joel Vanderuit, Sean Thomas, and Karl Ammitzboll banded in Melbourne as childhood germ-sharing game Kisschasy.

The band released three studio albums, United Paper People , Hymns for the Non-Believer, and Seizures, two EPs, a documentary DVD and a compilation album. They were regulars on the live music front, playing Australian flagship music festivals Big Day Out and Groovin’ the Moo, and received several award nominations, including winning the Channel V Oz Artist of the Year in 2009.

On 17 July 2015, Kisschasy announced their breakup, putting it down to their individual music crossroads, embarking on their final national tour and kissing goodbye to their fans and the songs that shaped a mass of disgruntled Gen (wh)y’s.

That was until our favourite alternative festival, Good Things, resuscitated them last year and sparked another Australian Tour this May.

“We’re pretty excited. It’s been a long time since we’ve done some proper touring. We got the appetite going after Good Things so it’s really cool to have another go around,” comments bassist Joel Vanderuit.

“Initially it had all come up in, I think, 2020 which was the 15th anniversary of United Paper People coming out so originally we had a promoter approach us out of nowhere offering if we wanted to tour the record which sounded cool but obviously what happened, happened in 2020 and on and on. During that time of rescheduling

Uniting the physical people by playing their debut album in full for a chorus of ‘Do Do’s and Woah’s’ and a cry along to ‘Black Dress’ came with a nostalgia grab for both the crowd and the band.

“It was quite a nostalgic process rehearsing for that because some of those songs we hadn’t played in a long time. We also had to rehearse on our own for a while. Darren now lives in the States so he didn’t get home until two days before the festival, so we had two days of full band rehearsal after nine years off which was pretty good but got through it.

“But reliving that album, our first full-length album and reminiscing the process of recording it and being a young band, like ‘holy shit we have a record deal’ and people were starting to come to our shows back when that was released. All of that stuff came from that record so to be able to relive that and play it live and, quite honestly, that people still give a shit is quite humbling,” says Vanderuit.

The band will be delving further into their beanbag of songs for the upcoming May tour, curating a setlist of early 2000s ‘Ghosts and Dinosaurs’. Freshen up on ‘Opinions Won’t Keep You Warm At Night’ (with recommended watching of the music video that can be interchangeable with any political head), ‘Spray On Pants’, and the rock ‘n’ roll song ‘With Friends Like You, Who Needs Friends?’.

“Basically a full set from our full catalogue. We’re all gonna have to rehearse alone again to start as Darren won’t come until a little bit before the tour starts, but we just wrapped up setlist conversations and so we’ve got stuff from really early days from EPs and all albums and we’re tossing up maybe throwing in something we’ve never done live before.

“So yeah, it’s gonna be a full eclectic pick from every release we’ve ever done so it should be fun,” says Vanderuit. The tour at this stage is a one-off event with their continued musical affair with continental distance and their eight-year shifting tides that keeps the Kisschasy permanent reformation answer ambiguous.

“We haven’t delved too far into it yet. I don’t think there will be anything, certainly not in the short term after this. Darren’s pretty involved in what he’s doing over in LA, and I run my own business and I’ve got quite a few staff and things like that so can’t keep jetting off on tour all the time. Karl is in a similar boat, and Sean and the guys all have families now.

“There are more complications than there were eight or nine years ago. We haven’t really discussed it. That might come up on the tour when we spend a bit more time together, but there’s not any music or anything hiding. So no plans as yet, but never say never is what Darren keeps telling us.”

That’s all the hope we need.

KISSCHASY, WITH SPECIAL GUESTS TOWNS

AND BEC STEVENS

WHERE: TORQUAY HOTEL

WHEN: FRI 19 MAY