This was Polaroid Kiss’ first gig. The crowd and the performance went great! :) We opened for ex-Sneaker Pimps Chris Corner’s band IAMX. The bass was so strong near the end that we blew the fuse to the sound system, it didn’t effect the sound during the performance at all though. :) These pics are taken by my girlfriend Mandy Kemp.

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Shake It: Polaroid Kiss win friends with synth-y bleeps and boops but, so far, no label-maker.

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By Jenny Poplar
Posted 10/25/2007

In less than one year, Salt Lake City’s Polaroid Kiss has accomplished things that might cause musicians in more metropolitan cities to shake their fists in the air. How, they must be asking, does a band with no formal public-relations or marketing team and who’ve scarcely played out or even recorded a full-length album accumulate 26,000-plus MySpace friends? How do they receive international airplay and acclaim for their one single and receive requests to perform live with established European-based artists including Chris Corner, aka IAMX, formerly of Sneaker Pimps?

Polaroid Kiss guitarist Tim Burgess—the most recent addition to the quartet—shrugs and, with a slight smile, replies “I think people are getting sick of traditional guitar-driven bands. That’s been done so much in the past few years. They want something new.”

Or retro.

If the runaway success of Polaroid Kiss is any indication, synthesizer-driven bands are making a big comeback. Of course, that’s discounting those who never ever stopped loving electronic bands.

Producer, songwriter and jack-of-all-instruments Brandun Reed says that Polaroid Kiss has received a great deal of attention in Europe, especially in Manchester and Berlin.

“Germans love synth. The old joke is, when America had Lynyrd Skynyrd, Germany had Kraftwerk,” co-producer/multi-instrumentalist Earl Dixon says.

Reed and Georgia-born vocalist Tom Bennett founded Polaroid Kiss in December 2006 following a lively conversation about their divergent musical tastes at a local dance club. Reed and Bennett are both DJs who adore electronic music, but the bulk of Bennett’s vocal experience—true to his Southern roots—has been fronting folk, acoustic and indie acts including Salt Lake City trio O Discordia, a far cry from the abrasive post-punk music that Reed generally enjoys.

Reed and Bennett wanted to produce highly danceable music that begged for multiple rotations at the club. Intelligent, catchy lyrics were also a must. Reed eventually invited Dixon—who has been friends with Reed since the fifth grade—and Burgess to join Polaroid Kiss to ensure a fuller, more developed sound.

Reed and Bennett’s vision is finally starting to come together. Their first single, the moody-yet-infectious Faint, New Order and Nine Inch Nails-influenced “White Lines and White Lies,” has fared well online and in several local clubs where it’s often blasted on repeat. Reed notes that he has even witnessed several people singing along as they dance.

“We’ve really taken our time,” Reed says. “Although we had a lot of ideas from the beginning, we didn’t rush into the recording studio or start booking shows immediately. We made an effort to put a lot of thought into what we’re doing.”

Bennett says Polaroid Kiss is in the process of recording a full-length debut with (fingers crossed) Kelli Ali—another former member of Sneaker Pimps—as guest vocalist. “Her management contacted us because they liked our sound,” Reed says.

Word of mouth still hasn’t landed Polaroid Kiss a proper label, though, and they’re on the hunt for a home. “I’ve always been happy to work really hard and do things myself. I’ve always made my own merchandise, for instance,” says Bennett, who has fronted bands since age 15. “But it does get really exhausting, and it would be nice to eventually have someone to help us with that.”

Reed says Polaroid Kiss’ first major live performance will include a carefully choreographed light show and several other flourishes. “Even though our music is very danceable, I want to make sure we put on a really good performance. Sometimes electronic music isn’t the most exciting thing to see live. We want to make our shows very enjoyable for the audience.”

POLAROID KISS w/IAMX @ The Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Saturday Oct. 27, 10 p.m. 24Tix.com

Courtesy of  Salt Lake City Weekly. View the article here.

Yesterday, Polaroid Kiss did an interview for City Weekly. The photographer couldn’t show up, so we should have a date scheduled sometime before the IAMX show. I wrote Brandun a huge ass email about how I felt pissed off at how he acted towards me during the interview. I felt I had been receiving these very condescending glares, but I think it may have been related to his anxiety issues, although I tend to think I’m one of the most anxious people I know. Me and him have talked about it and I think we understand each other. He had apologised and is glad I expressed myself, so tension doesn’t build up down the road. Anyway, the interview fun to do, done in a relaxed atmosphere, and I’m interested in reading how it turns out. I think I handled myself decent during the interview. I think it’s a bit harder for me to do, with a group, than a one on one interview is. It was sort of like going to a job interview with three other friends, all of us trying to answer the questions. It was a good learning experience.

I was headed out to see Mandy this morning and I had been on the freeway for a short time and my rear tire had a blowout. Suddenly there was this huge rumble and my car slightly slipped as if riding on a small patch of ice. I thought either my tire blew out or my engine exploded. haha. Something was wrong. So I pulled over and attempted to put on my 50mph miniature spare tire, but it turned out the wrench I had was the wrong size and it was slipping as I was trying to turn the bolts. I had to call my dad, as he was getting ready to head off to work to come out and help me out. He had the right tool and we got everything fixed and I got home.. Sort of scary, I always worried about having a blowout. I’m lucky that my car was very controllable and I didn’t lose control. Anyways, it looks like I’ll need to hitch a ride to practice for a few days, until I get my tire fixed.

My studio has been portable and all over the place lately. I’ve started losing weight lugging everything around. hah. Here’s just a few random pics I’ve taken tonight in Mandy’s room.

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I’ve been shriveling up inside, hiding, tucked far away, beneath time and space; in such a lonely place. I’ve wondered why I feel like screaming, well, life starts to lose meaning when I’m tied up in an empty room. It’s becomes harder to express myself. The drought keeps growing longer, while every ounce of freedom in me is left trying to scream.

The screams are being muted and it’s becoming easier to turn a blind eye. I’m falling down into the mundane. No sentences have been written, even to rearrange. No one’s listening and I’m still afraid of what they might say.

I feel I must write, like a flood gate of lies can no longer be held in, because the accumulation of guilt had grown so large that the lies must eventually be let go. Letting go, drenches the fields and replenishes the land and adds flavour to the taste buds of the jaded and hungry souls.

I must, for my own sanity! I’m dieing inside, every second I’m afraid. I’m alive when I can admit to you that I can see the sporadic hope for desperate and weary souls. I hear, like whispers stirring silently up from my unconscious, things more powerful than I have been capable of comprehending, just waiting to be born. Every day of my life I’ve been preparing and soon, I’ll no longer have the choice to deny the right to passage.

Here’s a few pictures from practice the other day. It was just me and Brandun going through White Lines and Love in Transition and helping Brandun setup his NI Kore rig. I’ll explain the setup and how every thing is running when I have some time to get into details. They’re just a few crappy pics, but it’s something. lol.

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Tonight I have my rig over at Mandy’s and I’m preparing my patches and learning my parts for Stop Motion. For the last little while I’ve had a mobile studio I’ve been dragging around with me everywhere. We practice again tomorrow evening.

Me and Mandy at home after seeing a local band perform called ‘The Brobecks’.

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Picture by Mandy

Now comes the fun part. Polaroid Kiss started practicing tonight as a full band, minus a drummer. I didn’t wake up until Brandun called me up on my cellphone about an hour and a half later than I had planned to be to practice, so we didn’t have as much time as was originally intended. I was also experiencing problems while trying to get my controller keyboard to work with my laptop. I haven’t used it with my laptop for quite a while though, so I had to struggle with it. In the end, I’m not entirely sure what was wrong with it. It may have just been a faulty USB cable. You better expect the unexpected when dealing with electronic equipment, it’s like it has a soul of it’s own and sometimes it refuses to do what it should. I definitely must get to practice on time, or early next time.

It was good to hear the music performed with us all together and it was also sort of exciting. We only had enough time to get through White Lines a few times. The other night and this morning I only had enough time to prepare my synth patches for White Lines, so I will have my patches ready for Love in Transition the next time and probably another song or two’s backing tracks prepared. I’ll practice a bit more by my self tomorrow and bring a hardware compressor and EQ to use with Tom’s vocals. Brandun will be recalling the original guitar and bass effects so that it sounds as close as we can get it to the original.

PK is in search of a drummer in the Salt Lake City, UT area for live shows. We have a show quickly approaching and may have to perform the first show without a drummer. If you have pretty tight timing, are into it, and have access to electronic triggers preferably with sampling capabilities so that we can give you the proper kit sounds, get in contact via MySpace. Thanks.

Audesi - The Quintessence

Click to listen

This is a demo track I created for Sample Logic’s new sample library called ‘The Elements’. I created it using only sounds from the library. It ships October 15th and is available to preorder now for $299.

The Elements is a 13.5GB/4 DVD library that contains over 1,700 instruments, tempo synced loops, and multis designed with you in mind. It operates on both Mac and PC platforms and is delivered in Audio Unit, VST, DXi, and RTAS formats. The library comes preloaded with Kontakt Player 2 software and is ready to go out of the box as both a standalone instrument and plugin. The library can also be loaded and customized in the full version of Kontakt 2.

The Elements is a collection that will transform your work, pushing the envelope beyond today’s standard music and sound design. Since the instruments are broken up into 6 intuitive elements, you won’t waste any time browsing through unneeded sounds. These cutting-edge instruments were crafted to excite, inspire, and electrify, practically begging you to create.

The library is packed with deadly, ear scraping ambiance to serene melodic choirs; glitched out distorted beats to funky harmonic guitar licks; woofed out basses to spine bending transition impacts; traditional brass ensembles to psychedelic spirals of exotic colors. with a bunch of extra sounds made from unicorns, hobbits, and dragons, this library is sure to be fun for the whole family!

More info at www.samplelogic.com