KISS she spent most of her five-year career disguising their faces in makeup. Now, as the band plans the next phase for their music and iconic characters, KISS continues to leave fans with mystery and intrigue.
After his climax The End of the Road tour In December, KISS kicked off the year by selling their name and likeness and plans to live forever in the digital world. Details are scarce, but the band said the virtual show will begin in Las Vegas in 2027. In a chat with Bulletin board'small Behind the Setlist podcast, frontman Paul Stanley won't say exactly how the group will carry its legacy into the future. But in typical KISS fashion, Stanley has ambitious goals.
“It's a must-see experience,” says Stanley. “It's beyond anything else he's thought of.”
Virtual artists are nothing new: a Tupac Shakur hologram appeared at Coachella in 2012, and avatars have resurrected dead musicians like the Ronnie James Duo and Whitney Houston for live performances. These previous examples of digital effigies pale in comparison to Abba Voyage, a high-budget, mixed-reality live music concert in London that has won rave reviews.
In April, KISS sold the rights to its name and likeness to Pophouse, the Swedish company that helped create Abba Voyage around virtual versions of the four Abba members who look decades younger. While these first generations of avatars wowed audiences, KISS isn't content to simply reproduce past models, Stanley says.
“We're creating something that's not a concert,” he explains. “The idea of a hologram — and it's not a hologram, but that term seems to be thrown around a lot — but the idea of a simulated concert is not what we want to do. Honestly, I'd find it boring.”
Like Abba Voyage, which takes place in the purpose-built 3,000-capacity ABBA Arena at London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the KISS experience will require a dedicated venue built around the technology, says Stanley. Las Vegas is full of venues, from the Sphere to the T-Mobile Arena and many theaters that host long-term residencies (Bruno Mars at Park MGM, for example). Stanley is the mom on site, but he says so Bulletin board the final product will be more advanced than Abba Voyage.
“Now, mind you, the Abba show is an older technology because technology is moving at an exponential rate,” says Stanley. “So when this show started airing, there was new technology.” To that end, he adds, KISS will work with Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects company founded by director George Lucas that produced special effects for the Star Wars, Terminator and Jurassic Park franchises.
KISS fans got a preview of their plans back in December, when the band unveiled digital renderings of their final End of the Road concert and released a two-minute sizzle reel, KISS: A new era beginswhich shows the band using motion capture technology to create their digital likenesses. Stanley insists the final product will be much more advanced.
“It was just an early – I don't want to say rendering – but an early version of what's to come and it's still being worked on,” says Stanley. “But it bears little resemblance to what was there. What we were showing was just the beginning of the idea that we can continue outside of flesh and blood.”
As for Stanley, he expects to stay busy outside of preparing for the Las Vegas show. Stanley fronts a retro-soul band, Paul Stanley's Soul Station, which plays original and classic soul songs and has released an album, Now and Thenin 2021. He has carved out a successful career as a painter. He was asked if he would release another solo album—after 1978's self-titled album and Live to win since 2006 — Stanley keeps his fans guessing.
“We'll see,” he says. “I'm not done with music, that's for sure. I've become more judicious in what I do, to pick and choose, because as you get older you see more and more that everything you do takes you away from something else. And at some point, it really comes down to picking and choosing what you do as it relates to what you don't get to do. So yeah, I mean, I'll definitely be making more music. Music is a big part of who I am.”
Listen to the full interview with Paul Stanley in the embedded Spotify player below or go to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, iHeart or Everett.
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