Kissy Sell Out

Kissy Sell Out emerged from the myspace generation of cool nerds and sonic visionaries engaged in a feverish revolt, a wholesale shredding of the musical and business rulebook, as they mix their influences into exhilarating results spreading the word online and beyond - a collision of art, ideas and energy unrivalled since the heyday of punk, taking in everything from Klaxons acid indie-disco through Justice's ultra-modern electro to the mangled sonic aggro of UK grime and straight ahead rock n roll.

Having just graduated from Central Saint Martins in Graphic Design, Kissy Sell Out is already an underground sensation due to his HER single that was recently put out on Kissy's own imprint San City High on limited edition vinyl and download. The best specialist record shops around the country picked up on it along with the more discerning producers and DJs alike. Rough Trade on Talbot Road made HER their Tune of the Week selling out every single copy in less than a week. In their own words "If this doesnt become one of the club anthems of the year there is no justice."

Kissy's influences range from Sonic Youth, Scritti Politti and Swans to drum n bass artist Aphrodite to dance producers such as DFA, Headman and early Daft Punk. Kissy is also fascinated by the works of painter Howard Hodgkin, and Brett Easton Ellis books. No surprise really as Kissy's audio and visual work is a mish mash of all of these things albeit carrying a refreshing twist that still maintains an element of familiarity.

He began DJing at the age of 13 in 1998, having turned from a Nirvana fan to a confused dance music fan overnight when he came across an acid house mix CD. "I started making my own music as a natural progression from DJing. Ive always been fascinated by the concept of remixing. Ive been playing the electric guitar since I was 11 and used to focus on improvisation techniques rather than reading sheets of music or learning chords."

Luckily by this point computers had come a long way and although one WAV file would take up half his hard drive Kissy started taking remixing and producing more seriously. His most notable early experiments included a 10-minute extended version of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart.

Following a short stint in a mainstream electro pop band Kissy decided to go solo and explore new musical territories. "When I made my first honest piece of music under the Kissy Sell Out guise, which I felt proud of, I suddenly realised that I had quite literally sold out in previous productions to try and appeal to a wider audience while repressing my urge to make something so much dirtier, and so Kissy Sell Out was born!"

After many late nights and a few tears along the way his graphic design project / business venture San City High moved from strength-to-strength mainly down to the success of his own Kissy Sell Out music and design projects. Like minded artists from around the world signed up to San City High with Kissy being the sole driving force running the whole operation from his bedroom.

The first artists to come on board included minimal/click producer Katsuya Urushizaki, Argentinean electro-house outfit Pornophonics and Swedish electro rockers The State of Floral Beings who remixed ‘Her’ when they came across it on myspace. There has also been a recent collaboration between Kissy Sell Out and Essex’s finest new indie band Neat People which was included on DJ Touché’s October Mixmag CD and remixes for Goodbooks, Paradise Boys and Franz & Shape will be out at the end of 2006.