📸: Holger Fichtner

Kissin’ Dynamite: Back with a Hard Rockin’ Bang

German stadium rockers Kissin’ Dynamite has returned with their epic eighth full-lengther entitled Back with a Bang, now available via Napalm Records! Founded as a teenage school band in 2007 and equipped with an authentic 80s stadium rock attitude, Kissin’ Dynamite has performed at countless major festivals internationally, opened for acts such as Mötley Crüe and played massive sold-out headline tours.  Highwire Daze recently caught up with charismatic frontman Hannes Braun to find out more about the rocking Back with A Bang, opening for the likes of Mötley Crüe and Udo Dirkschneider, thoughts about playing in the States, and more!  Read on…

Introduce yourself and tell me what you do in Kissin’ Dynamite.
I am Hannes, the lead singer and songwriter of Kissin’ Dynamite, my band since ever, like 17 years ago. And, yeah, we’re bringing out a new album called Back With A Bang.

How would you say Back With A Bang compares to the previous albums?
Well, I would say the biggest difference between those two albums is the reason why we did it. Not The End Of The Road was absolutely 100% a pandemic album because we really had these – honestly, these feelings like anxiety, how everything’s going to be after the pandemic is over and nobody had a clue how long this will take. So, we really didn’t know what’s going to happen after day zero, so to speak, and if the fans would have forgotten us or something like that. We were never a band that was pessimistic and hide our heads in the sand or something like that. Once the pandemic was over and we really could play life again, we got the proof that everything was absolutely fine with Kissin’ Dynamite, even more people would come to our concerts, which was thrilling and gave us a lot of positive energy back. And this is the source from where we had the inspiration to write the new album, Back With A Bang, which is energetic, positive, straightforward. Like, just literally the feeling that we had going back on stage.

There are so many awesome songs on this new album. Let’s talk about a few of them. Tell me about My Monster and the inspiration behind it.
My Monster is a very interesting song because musically talking, this is actually a party song. It has big, catchy chorus, a nice riff, and for the first time ever, a breakdown part, which is actually more a thing in metalcore and not so much in melodic rock. But in this case, we had the feeling that it absolutely fits the song. And the most interesting part is we mix this hearty musical wise with a deep experience that I had a couple of years ago because I was going through something like depression. I wouldn’t say a real depression, but something close to that. And I know that a lot of people suffer from real depressions. And I always compared it to sort of a monster, I would say, that lives in every one of us – everybody. And for some people, it might not be visible, luckily, because the monster is so below the surface that they hardly can feel it. But for other people, this monster sometimes reigns over their actual well-being. This is a problem, of course. So, I had the imagery of a race. You cannot kill the monster, but you can try to be faster. When it comes to a race, you have to run faster. And so, this is why the song says, “all my life I’ve been running away from a monster. A monster in me.” So basically, this is a song about mental health you could say.

The Devil is a Woman just came out – tell me a little about that song.
Yes, well, that is, of course, not as deep as My Monster as you might imagine. It’s more of a party fun anthem. But you know what? We experienced some, how can I say, some girls in our career who, let’s put it that way, who had not the best intentions. Okay, so it’s easy for us to say, “The Devil is a Woman.” I know that some people wouldn’t agree on that, but, well, for us, it’s a kind of a funny, ironic topic to talk about. And again, musical wise, this is a straightforward banger written for big festivals, written for, of course, also our headline shows and so on. This is made to play live. And we’re so looking forward to do that.

Is there any chance of Kissin Dynamite plane over here in the States this time around?
Yes. Dude, it’s a big dream ever since. I know that I did interviews ten years ago when people from the States asked me exactly that question, and my answer was always the same. I so want to go to tour the US. But the thing is, as a band coming from Germany, it’s harder when you compare it to a band coming from maybe England or I don’t know, because the ways are much more complicated. When it comes to basically everything. So, you really have to do a tour with 40 shows or something. And we don’t have any expectations. How many people would come to a show? So, in the end, it’s a big risk for a brave promoter in the US to take to bring Kissin’ Dynamite to the States. And I’m talking about that for ten years now. So, I definitely want to do that. And if there is a promoter to try it out with us, then I’d be absolutely happy to join.

I saw that you did a tour with Dynazty recently, and I’m like, why can’t that tour come over here to the States?
Yeah, we hear that a lot. And even from other continents as well. But same answer. We are willing to do it for no money in the event, but that’s not even the case because, like, if you do it just on your own and say, “No, we want to fulfill this dream“, then you pay, I don’t know, ten thousands of bucks to do that with no expectation of how many people will come. So this is really a big risk that we simply just cannot take on our own. So we need a brave promoter out there to do that.  One of my big dreams is to come over to the States and play a tour. But we will see what time brings. I don’t give up on hoping.

What was that experience like Mötley Crüe? And did you get to meet them at all?
That was an overwhelming thing for us because I can remember one show here in Germany near Munich where the lineup was exactly like that. Like Mötley Crüe, Slash. And you could say Slash with Myles Kennedy and Kissin’ Dynamite. Like we were opening up for those two legends. And even though I have never experienced the actual 80’s, because I was born in 1992, I could feel, literally feel how the 80’s must have felt. Like, I know it only by videos, by books. But of course, I haven’t been living in the 80’s, so this was, for me, sort of a time travel. Like, really, I met the legends that I adored ever since, and sharing the stage with them was just incredible. And the most important thing for me that night was when we came off stage, we finished our sets, and Tommy Lee was standing right next to the stage, like the Tommy Lee from Mötley Crüe, smiling at us. And he was like, how do you say? Touching my shoulder and said, “Well done, boys, well done.” And I thought, okay, what did just happen? Tommy Lee himself told us we’re cool! So that was absolutely an amazing experience.

📸: Holger Fichtner

You worked with Udo Dirkschneider on your album Addicted to metal. What was that experience like, working with such a legend?
That was also another cool story because you know what? We supported Udo Dirkschneider, on his solo shows back in 2009. And of course, we were just young teenagers who were looking up to our big idols and such is Udo Dirkschneider. And at some point, after a few shows, I felt brave enough to actually talk to the mighty Udo because we didn’t really try to get in a conversation with him because we were sort of not anxious, but we had respect. So, after a few shows, we were brave enough to do so. And then he said, “Guys, I like your music. You are doing very well every night,” and so on and so forth. And then I asked him, I just asked him, “Hey, what would it be like if you sang a feature on our upcoming record?” I expected nothing. Like, really nothing. Because the usual answer of most of the artist is, “Yeah, maybe let’s do that. Okay, we can talk about that after a tour and stuff like that.” And he immediately said, “Yes, we’re doing it.” And I couldn’t believe that. And he was really coming to the studio, and he was really singing the title song of our record. And to get his support meant the world for us.

Do you have any messages for fans here in the states who are reading this now?
Absolutely. Don’t give up on writing in the social media comments, YouTube comments, wherever it’s possible to bring Kissin’ Dynamite to the States because this is one of our big dreams. And ask for it!  The more you ask for it, the more it’s actually possible to make that actually come true. Because as I said, we need somebody to bring us there. And of course, preorder our new album Back with a Bang. Listen to it on Spotify and wherever you want to do that when it’s coming out. So, support us in every way possible. That means the world to us.

(Interview by Ken Morton)

KISSIN’ DYNAMITE is:
Hannes Braun – vocals
Ande Braun – guitar
Jim Müller – guitar
Steffen Haile – bass
Sebastian Berg – drums

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