English
They are the revelation band of recent months. After a handful of singles that were largely snubbed by critics and audiences,
now “One Step” has half of Italy dancing. They explain why.
“I think we're becoming a serious band, we've learned to see ourselves differently than before.”
Nick Whitecross breathes in my face as he twists his neck to talk to me. He's sitting in the front seat
while a crazy bus takes us to some beach on the Adriatic. Kissing The Pink threw open the window of pop, and below on the street
there were thousands of buyers ready to buy. At least in Italy.
"In England, the single 'One Step' didn't do well. Perhaps people were expecting a band similar to the one that had made 'Naked'
or 'What Noise,' but in reality, it was time for us to change. I think the band has grown a lot recently. Our first album was
relatively organized, while the second was very random. At that time, between 1984 and 1985, we spent a lot of time in America,
and we had lots of ideas, but we were never able to organize them properly. To tell the truth, we often felt confused. The new
album will be a distillation of all the ideas we've had to date, and we'll be working on them very carefully. The new 33 will be
out in two months. In Italy, however, we plan to release another single before that. We started recording the album at Christmas
in Munich. “One Step” is on the album. Then we moved to London to remix the album and tweak it with Pete Walsh (producer). I
still don't know what the second single will be called, but the album title should be “Health, Shape, Body Weight,” which is a
line from one of the songs."
During his confession, Nick Whitecross doesn't stop for a moment. He is the man who wanted to be David Byrne, he has the same
movements, the same intellectual aura. Kissing The Pink were an intellectual band.
"David Byrne is a genius, I would love to work with him one day. In the past, we were a very serious band, we experimented
wildly, we wanted to be original at all costs. Today we do things in a much more spontaneous way. By force of experimentation we
hit rock bottom, commercially we were at a dead end. Mind you, we didn't give in to any compromises, we just realized that it's
easier to make pop songs than experimental symphonies... It's much more natural. The sound is now more polished, more
disciplined overall. We decided that the music now has to be more precise and more sophisticated..."
Biography. In 1981, the band released their first single: “Don't Hide In The Shadows.”
Not even the singer was convinced. At the time, the band consisted of six members. The founder was John Kingsley-Hall, who even had a degree from the Glasgow College of Music. With Whitecross, he got the
band going. After three singles, two more 45s were released in 1982, “Mr. Blunt” and “Watching Their Eyes.” From that moment on,
the band's obsession with the body began to grow. Fetishism, damn fetishism.
“It's an unconscious obsession,” Nick hides his voice, “it seems to come out spontaneously, it's also reflected in the
lyrics. But now we're focusing on... er, feet.”
The first fetish band of the new decade?
"Fetishist, uhm... You're right..."
Then, at the end of our meeting, Nick makes history with a motto that is both mild and edgy. “Put your feet in the
water!!!”
“Put your feet in the water!!!” The obsessive march of “The Last Film” opened 1983, followed by the album “Naked” and a tour
alongside The Police. 1984 was spent manipulating and re-manipulating the band's sound, then in 1985 “The Other Side Of Heaven” was
released, “known for being the first single to be made with a video computer imprinted on the grooves.” In the same year,
“What Noise,” Kissing The Pink's second album, was released.
“The band has changed enormously since we met Pete Walsh,” — confesses Nick Whitecross, — "he's the one who shaped us. His sound
is distinctive, Steve has already worked with Simple Minds and other bands, he knows how to work in a studio. Many people say
that without Steve we would never have got to where we are today, but that's not true, we were changing anyway. We would have
achieved similar results with another producer."
Are Kissing The Pink just a studio band?
“No, not at all, we've only been that for the last three months...”
Until recently there were six of you, now there are only four. Was it necessary to downsize?
"At first everyone wanted to do things their own way, now each of us is willing to make sacrifices for the success of the
product. The six of us were on tour for a long time and we realized that we weren't always able to perform as well as we would
have liked. Now everything is more focused, more immediate. It was necessary for us to break up..."
Who do you like in Great Britain?
“Honestly, there aren't many things that excite us. Personally, I'm very interested in Big Audio Dynamite. I think they're doing
the things we did when we started out, specifically experimenting with videos, tapes, etc. We did that years ago...”
Have you ever thought about going solo?
“I think it's every musician's dream...”
Are you satisfied with the band?
“Overall, yes, even if every time you try to give shape to something, you are forced to sacrifice many things. Many cuts are
painful, but then, in the end, the results come to the surface...”
What did you have to sacrifice?
“I left behind a lot of self-indulgence. It was fun, but not fruitful.”
Who buys Kissing The Pink?
“A crazy audience, people with a great sense of humor, a very sarcastic British sense of humor.”
They say Nick Whitecross is a very optimistic guy...
"Not just me, the whole band is very optimistic. We always try to be very extreme, very sharp. I'd also like to point out that
'One Step' is just one aspect of Kissing The Pink. The album will feature completely different things. We try to express
ourselves in as many different ways as possible, trying to make our listeners understand that every barrier can be broken. It's
our way of protesting against the restrictions that are imposed on many young people, especially in northern Europe..."
“Put your feet in the water”... and we say goodbye.
Francesco Adinolfi