Kisses

Channeling vintage disco grooves into indie pop frameworks, the Los Angeles duo Kisses centers on vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jesse Kivel, who also performs with Princeton, alongside keyboardist Zinzi Edmundson, a writer and fashion blogger. Kivel started composing music while still in grade school and co-founded Princeton in 2005 alongside twin brother Matt and longtime friend Ben Usen. He began a relationship with Edmundson the next year, yet the two waited several years before joining forces musically. Drawing from the earnest aesthetic of classic disco records and fueled by Kivel’s connection to producer Alec R. Costandinos, the pair issued their first single, Bermuda, on Transparent Records in April 2010, followed by People Can Do the Most Amazing Things that August via IAMSOUND. Their debut album, The Heart of the Nightlife, appeared in November 2010. For the follow-up, Kisses enlisted producers Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne and Tim Laracombe, resulting in the sleeker, '80s-leaning Kids in L.A., which arrived on Cascine in spring 2013. Personal milestones occupied Edmundson and Kivel over the ensuing years, including marriage and the birth of a child, prompting a revised creative process when they reconvened. Rather than crafting another tightly thematic, studio-bound record, they selected Kivel’s strongest recent material and recorded with New York ensemble Midnight Magic providing live support. The outcome, Rest in Paradise, emerged on Hit City USA in 2015 as their most naturally textured work to date.