Kissy

It is a shame that the night felt so corporate, the offices of Gibson Guitars were sparse, the temporary stage was plush and a select audience were there to knock back complementary drinks, oh, and also celebrate the upcoming release of Kissy Sell Out’s debut album with a rather intimate performance.

The fact that so many people had politely positioned themselves behind an invisible barrier or were still at the make-shift bar claiming more Moscow mules did absolutely nothing at all to deter Kissy Sell Out nor wipe the insane grin off his face, he genuinely loves what he does and goes about it with such glee that his enthusiasm is infectious.

Kissy has taken himself from being an art student putting out white labels, through to being the remixer of choice and flavour of the month for a time, an excitable and entertaining club DJ before being picked up by Radio 1 and now has positioned himself at the helm of a live band that he lends his name to.

And what could easily be just another indie-electro crossover band in skinny jeans ultimately wins you over with their warmth and coy charm offensive, the secret weapon is Kissy’s kooky and cute as a button cousin, Danimal Kingdom, who displays the mannerisms of a shy school-boy pleased to be on-stage as he plays bass and performs shared vocal duties, a laptop provides backing, as do live drums and interchanging lead guitar and key-tar is played by Kissy himself.

Four songs deep and the people that really want to move break free and dance down the front while the rest of the room just observes and maybe tap their feet a little to the short set of feel good dance-pop hybrids complemented and completed with cheeky lyrics and misfit grins. And then, by 9 o’clock it was all over.

Kissy Sell Out’s trendy and charming live sets are bound to go down a storm when it hits sweat-box venues and festivals, and if he takes this much pleasure from performing for a group of people that didn’t even have to pay to see him then his excitement will likely be uncontainable when real fans and music lovers are throwing themselves around to his sounds.