The Kissaway Trail (formerly known as Isles or as hostmom) are an underground indie/artrock band from Odense, Denmark. The band has five members: Thomas L. Fagerlund - Vocals, Guitar Søren B. Corneliussen - Vocals, Guitar Daniel Skjoldmose - Guitar, Keys, Backing Vocals Rune Pedersen - Bass, Backing vocals Hasse Mydtskov - Drums, Backing vocals
Their sound is quite similar to some other danish bands, such as The Figurines, Moi Caprice and Mew. Internationally, comparisons can be made to Modest Mouse, Mercury Rev, Arcade Fire and The Flaming Lips.
Three members of The Kissaway Trail (Søren, Thomas and Rune) originally recorded together under the names of ‘Hostmom’ and ‘Isles’. Isles self-released an album called “We have decided not to die” in 2005. Since then, an additional guitarist, Daniel, and drummer Hasse joined the band, while Thomas started to sing alongside Søren making the distinctive two lead-vocal sound that they have today. Various tracks from this early period of the bands history can still be downloaded from Danish music websites. The band’s musical existence very nearly ended when Søren lost his love for music after his father was killed under tragic circumstances. However, he made his own decision to start performing and recording again, and The Kissaway Trail started to create their debut album.
Their material is released in Europe (aside from Scandinavia) and Japan by Bella Union, Etch n Sketch in Australia and New Zealand, and Playground Music in Scandinavia. On their breakthrough album underground producer Morten Frank helped them in the studio.
The title of their song 61 relates to the number of days a band member had to wait to hear if their family member had a terminal illness. The member involved is kept under wraps, obviously for very personal reasons; some fans believe it is Hasse, the drummer, because he has a tattoo of the number ‘61’ on his chest. Other sources suggest he just might have got the tattoo because, according to his own admission, 61 is his favourite song to play live.
In the Autumn of 2007, The Kissaway Trail acted as the main support for Editors on their UK and European tours, alongside Ra Ra Riot in the UK and The Boxer Rebellion in Europe.
The Kissaway Trail are renowned for their own individual slant on the English language within their lyrics.
The band have cited influences to their music include The Beach Boys, Granddaddy, Daniel Johnston and Sonic Youth, amongst others. The lack of an obvious way to describe their music has brought common comparisons between themselves and the Polyphonic Spree and Canadian band the Arcade Fire. There is some truth with these similarities.
The band have been known for their live performances, which have included songs from ‘The Kissaway Trail’, as well as b-sides such as ‘Romeo And Romeo’ and ‘La Mia’. They have also performed at the Wireless, Latitude and SXSW festivals in 2007, and the Montreaux Jazz Festival in 2008, where they supported Interpol and The National.
The band released an EP called “Into the Ocean and Rise Again” in 2006, and their debut album called “The Kissaway Trail” was released in 2007 from which 3 singles have been taken to date (Smother + Evil = Hurt, La La Song & 61
