Dots: Emerging with Bermuda just as Summer veers into view, few would doubt the track could soundtrack sublimely many a lethargic day lazing about in hazy sunshine. Have the LA rays infiltrated your every subconscious thought?
Zinzi Edmundson: They must have! I'm originally from a colder, grayer, slushier part of the country, so Jesse and his people have definitely played a part in inspiring the dream of year-long summer vacation.
Dashes: If not from settings and place, where is your music rooted?
Zinzi: I guess it was some sort of perfect storm. Jesse had recently quit his day job and started writing copy for travel websites. At the same time, we found Arthur Russell and Alec R. Costandinos' music and became great friends with a guy lovingly called The Captain. So it all sort of made sense - leisure, exotic locations, and the simultaneous presentness and alienation of being an out-of-towner.
Dots: Getting grubby paws on much of your music is a largely impossible feat. Is there a whole hoard of back catalogue stored away somewhere or are you such a relatively new band that audible tracks are still low on the ground?
Zinzi We've actually got a full album and other songs as well. A couple of tricky internet bastards figured out how to get the record! More power to them -- the internet is a mysterious beast. For the rest of the world, the album (with correct track names and better mix/master) will be out... soon.
Dashes: Bermuda is almost androgynous, in that it sits wondrously in a hallucinatory vacuum of virtual perfection, the sort of songwriting that caters for a wealth of tastes. For whom would you aim to cater for and how vital do you feel an integration within certain "scenes" has become in this digital day and age?
Zinzi: The project originally started with much more self-possessed, semi- masturbatory motives than you'd imagine. Literally just making songs that sounded like what we wanted to hear. It sounds kind of badass to be part of a scene though, like an army of Kisses at the ready to back you up in a bar fight.
Dots: You don't seem to have all that many shows lined up... Will we ever get to see you outside of America's Sunshine State?
Zinzi: Jesse's actually going to be in the UK and skipping around Europe in May. First he'll be on tour with his band Princeton, then doing some DJ gigs. Actually, quite a few DJ gigs, so check him out!
Dashes: Almost universally lauded, has your rather sharp rise to critical acclaim pricked your senses more than you'd have imagined?
Zinzi: It's definitely been exciting to see peoples' reactions (well, and the fact that it's been mostly good). We're not quite sure what any of it really means, except that we're psyched for whatever next steps come along!
Dots: A fair few boy/ girl duos have fallen by the wayside due to pent-up emotions of one form or another. Could such a scenario potentially get the better of such an emotionally charged act as Kisses?
Zinzi: Jesse and I have always tended to complicate our relationship with as many odd circumstances as possible, so I imagine this won't be much different.
Dashes: Finally, are you proud to proclaim yourselves to be American?
Zinzi: Sure! I think a lot of people might be pretty disgusted by the affiliation, but I still think we've got a lot more going for us than guns and diabetes.
Bermuda by Kisses
Kisses' Myspace.
