Daily Archives: November 27, 2012

Kiss: Why the crazy crazy guys are still monsters of rock

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James McNair | The Independent

Kiss’s lead singer and rhythm guitarist Paul Stanley is 60 now, but he had his first hip replacement op aged 52. It was the nightly strutting in eight-inch heels that did it. “Every scar on my body was proudly earned,” he says when asked if he regrets Kiss’s stilt-like footwear. “There’s nothing worse than looking back and wishing you had done things, but I did ’em all. That’s how life is supposed to be lived.”

Today, Stanley is wearing flats – zebra-print flats. “Nice shoes,” says the PR woman who’s introduced us. “Thanks – I shot them specially for you,” says Stanley. Together with  fellow founding-member of Kiss, Gene Simmons, 63, this is how Stanley, AKA “The Starchild”, talks. It’s a playful and meticulous kind of  braggadocio, the endearing silliness of which he and Simmons are at pains not to acknowledge. To drop the mask would be to undermine the  welcome and enduring pantomime that is Kiss.

What they do like to talk about is merchandise. The Kiss Kasket that helps your funeral go with a kerrang!; the Kiss Kondoms that put the kitsch into kontraception – these and sundry other alliterative goods make Kiss seem more brand than band. This time around they are in London to flog Monster, a ridiculously outsized book of glossy Kiss concert photos that weighs for stone, costs around £2,740, and measures three-feet by two-and- Continue reading →

Kevin Doyle On “Music From The Elder”: There Was “Tons” Of Spoken Word Recorded

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Tim McPhate | KissFAQ

Award-winning engineer shares his vivid memories of recording “The Elder,” including capturing Gene Simmons’ memorable vocal performance on “A World Without Heroes,” recording multiple days of spoken word dialog, and how the album ultimately evolved into “Bob Ezrin’s show”

In conjunction with KissFAQ’s month-long NovElder retrospective, Juno-winning engineer Kevin Doyle has provided some fascinating insights regarding the recording of “Music From The Elder.” Among the topics Doyle discussed were the performances of Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, including the former’s vocal on “A World Without Heroes”; his recollection of how “tons” of spoken word dialog was recorded with the goal to bridge the album’s concept between songs; and ultimately how the project became “Bob Ezrin’s show.”

The following are excerpts from Doyle’s interview with KissFAQ’s Tim McPhate:

The album’s spoken word dialog:

KF: Bob Ezrin was just coming off the mega-successful “The Wall” project. What are your general recollections of working with Bob during this time?

KD: Well, Bob is Bob. I’ve known Bob for a long time. He’s cooled down a bit now but he was pretty intense. Bob’s a pretty intense guy. He likes to work quickly and efficiently. Bob’s a great guy, a really, really smart guy. You know, Bob kind of met his match a bit when we did the narration part, which was with Antony Parr and Robert Christie.

KF: Kevin, you bring up an interesting lost piece of KISStory. Parr, Christie and Christopher Makepeace are credited on the album but there is really only one part of narration featured on the final album, and that’s it.

KD: Yes, I believe so.

KF: So more was recorded?

KD: Yeah, there was tons recorded — a lot of narration. The idea of the narration was supposed to bridge some of the songs together, with some orchestral and choir underscoring. And basically, more or less, in keeping with the idea of “The Elder” as a goal of being a seamless concept idea, almost kind of like “Dark Side Of The Moon” where side A is not really a bunch of songs, it’s one continuous play with no ending. That was one of the goals.

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