The Kissaway Trail

The Kissaway Trail are a five-piece indie rock band from Odense, Denmark. They follow a number of other Danish alternative bands to make names of themselves, such as Mew, The Raveonettes and Carpark North; these are a far stretch from Aqua, who are, to date, Denmark's biggest foreign musical exports.

Three members of The Kissaway Trail (Søren, Thomas and Rune) originally recorded together under the names of ‘Hostmom’ and ‘Isles’. Isles self-released an album called "We have decided not to die" in 2005. Since then, an additional guitarist, Daniel, and drummer Hasse joined the band, while Thomas started to sing alongside Søren making the distinctive two lead-vocal sound that they have today. Various tracks from this early period of the bands history can still be downloaded from Danish music websites. The band’s musical existence very nearly ended when Søren lost his love for music after his father was killed under tragic circumstances. However, he made his own decision to start performing and recording again, and The Kissaway Trail started to create their debut album.

Their material is released in Europe (aside from Scandinavia) and Japan by Bella Union, Etch n Sketch in Australia and New Zealand, and Playground Music in Scandinavia. On their breakthrough album underground producer Morten Frank helped them in the studio.

The title of their song 61 relates to the number of days a band member had to wait to hear if their family member had a terminal illness. The member involved is kept under wraps, obviously for very personal reasons; some fans believe it is Hasse, the drummer, because he has a tattoo of the number '61' on his chest. Other sources suggest he just might have got the tattoo because, according to his own admission, 61 is his favourite song to play live.

In the Autumn of 2007, The Kissaway Trail acted as the main support for Editors on their UK and European tours, alongside Ra Ra Riot in the UK and The Boxer Rebellion in Europe.

The Kissaway Trail are renowned for their own individual slant on the English language within their lyrics.

The band have cited influences to their music include The Beach Boys, Granddaddy, Daniel Johnston and Sonic Youth, amongst others. The lack of an obvious way to describe their music has brought common comparisons between themselves and the Polyphonic Spree and Canadian band the Arcade Fire. There is some truth with these similarities.

The band have been known for their live performances, which have included songs from 'The Kissaway Trail', as well as b-sides such as 'Romeo And Romeo' and 'La Mia'. They have also performed at the Wireless, Latitude and SXSW festivals in 2007, and the Montreaux Jazz Festival in 2008, where they supported Interpol and The National.

Members

* Thomas L. Fagerlund - vocals, guitar, acoustic 12-string guitar, piano, synth, xylophone, tread organ, banjo, travel guitar
* Søren B. Corneliussen - vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar
* Daniel Skjoldmose - guitar, keys, piano, backing vocals
* Rune Pedersen - bass, backing vocals
* Hasse Mydtskov - drums, percussion, backing vocals

Discography

* Into the Ocean and Rise Again (EP, October, 2006)
* Smother + Evil = Hurt (single, April 2007)
* The Kissaway Trail (album, January 2007 in Denmark, April in Europe, Australia and Scandinavia)
* La La Song (single, Unknown 2007)
* 61 (single, Unknown 2007)
* Smother + Evil = Hurt (re-release single, February 2008

External links

* [http://www.thekissawaytrail.com Official site]
* [http://www.thekissawaytrail.com/biography.asp] Official Biography
* [http://www.myspace.com/thekissawaytrail MySpace page]
* [http://www.musicomh.com/interviews/kissaway-trail_0407.htm Interview with The Kissaway Trail] on musicOMH.com
* [http://www.musicomh.com/albums/kissaway-trail_0407.htm Review of The Kissaway Trail, the debut album,] on musicOMH.com
* [http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/20-questions 20 Questions with The Kissaway Trail] The Line Of Best Fit
* [http://thelineofbestfit.com/2007/04/24/the-kissaway-trail-the-kissaway-trail/ Review of self-titled debut by The Kissaway Trail] The Line Of Best Fit
* [http://www.bellaunion.com/page.php?id=bellaunion] Bella Union
* [http://www.nme.com/reviews/the-kissaway-trail/8446] NME Review of 'Smother + Evil = Hurt'
* [http://www.nme.com/reviews/the-kissaway-trail/8455] NME Review of 'The Kissaway Trail'
* [http://www.musicomh.com/interviews/kissaway-trail_0407.htm] Alvin Chan - They Came From The North
* [http://www.garageband.com/artist/isles] Isles on GarageBand
* [http://www.ilike.com/artist/hostmom] Hostmom on iLike
* [http://www.benjamin-lemaire.info/blog/photos/album/72157606363001330/the_kissaway_trail___paleo_festival.html] Pictures of the live in Paléo