Finding comfort in Kisschasy

For a long time, Kisschasy’s story felt neatly boxed up — a cherished chapter of Australian alternative rock with no sequel in sight.

But time and lived experience reshape everything. After years of silence and soul-searching, the band’s return isn’t nostalgia-fuelled, it’s necessary. Frontman Darren Cordeux found his way back not by chasing the past, but by confronting it, in turn rediscovering music as escape and the enduring power of connection.

Keep connected to your live music scene here.

“It feels really right. It’s funny; it takes time away from something to realise you miss it so much. It’s one of those things, at the time when we called it…it didn’t feel like we were doing our best work so we walked away and I really didn’t see a time where that was going to feel right again,” explains frontman Darren Cordeux.

“So much life happened and then Covid and so many dark things happened in everyone’s lives that it felt like it all came full circle and music became that thing again where, instead of running from music I used to run to it as my escape and that’s how it started feeling again.” 

Another escape for Cordeux was exiting the country after the band called it quits. Whilst a 2022 call up to reunite for Good Things brought him back temporarily, Cordeux’s time in LA has been completely removed from any Kisschasy remnants.   

“I had my heart broken by music…We did this fourth album that we scrapped and it was one of the reasons why we decided to call it a day and it was kind of like a wound, an egotistical wound that I took with me here that I could not talk about the band for so long. It was this big secret that none of my US community knew about. It wasn’t until I came back and there was not only that energy together but our connection with the audience that was like “holy shit” – those relationships mean so much and I can’t look away any longer.”

From Good Things to touring the following year, the ambiguity of the band’s bounce back was still in the unknown. Cordeux first had to address some deep-rooted trauma from Kisschasy’s initial demise before committing to the comeback. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Kisschasy (@kisschasyofficial)

“The reason why it took time to turn anything into new music was because there was still that hangover from that fourth album…I had to get over some bruises to get to that point.”

Not only did Cordeux have to overcome his own demons with the discarded album, he also had to overcome a genre barrier that he placed on himself in defining what a Kisschasy song was.

“I realised that we have a DNA that makes us a band and it’s not necessarily a genre thing. Once I realised that the songs started pouring out,” he explains.

“You go full circle and I came back to the way I started writing when I was a teenager first writing these songs. I was writing because I need to get this out…it was my escape and it became that way again all these years later. I think this record is special because of that time apart and we missed it so bad.” 

So kicked off the next steps – the band booked a session at Headgap in Melbourne to tackle the next era, but yet another blow came as the recording studio sadly burnt down. Thankfully not taking it as a sign, they moved into Woodstock Studio, working with Richard Stolz.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Kisschasy (@kisschasyofficial)

“It’s a very rewarding album for me to listen to. The fact that we had that many limitations and it came out as exquisite as it did in my mind as it has. I’m very, very excited by it.”

Thematically album number four comes with a casing of comforts – titled The Terrors of Comfort with a lead single ‘Uncomfortable Numb’, Cordeux draws from years of masking issues with a weighted blanket.

“I have had some life events happen in the time that I wasn’t in the band that really made me self reflect. My dad got sick a few years ago and I found myself turning to drugs and I ended up not facing the reality of the situation and turned towards different vices…it was very much a very temporary comfort,” he candidly discusses.

“I’ve been in relationships where you convince yourself that it’s going to be good if only you can get past this hurdle, things will work out. The reality is you just don’t want to be alone. For me as well after writing that fourth album and having my heart broken by my own ego death there, I ran from music…these things are all temporary comforts that hurt you in the long run.”

It’s a harsh reality to face but this time, music has been the solution. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Untitled Group (@untitledgroupau)

The Terrors of Comfort from Kisschasy releases Thursday 13 February and is accompanied by a national tour, including supporting Good Charlotte’s in Bendigo on Saturday 21 February.

Presave The Terrors of Comfort here.