Kissy Sell Out (born Thomas Bisdee on 18 June 1984 in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England) is a British/Canadian DJ,[2] producer, graphic designer, label manager of San City High Records and Stepper Man,[3][4] part-time astrophysicist[5] and science columnist for Sick Chirpse.[6] Kissy Sell Out gained notability in 2006 for his electro music productions and energetic DJ style.[7] In 2009 Mixmag described him as "one of the most exciting, charismatic and entertaining DJs of the decade".[8]
In addition to his DJ work,[9] he has released six albums – Youth, Wild Romance,[10][11][12][13]Introducing Kissy Sell Out,[14]San City High All Stars Vol. 1 & 2,[15]Style from the Westside[16][17] – and composed official music for the 2012 Olympics ceremonies held in London.[18][19][20]
BBC Radio 1
From 2007–2012 he hosted a successful BBC Radio 1 show called the Kissy Klub. The show blended classical music, and computer-voiced fictional characters with an exclusive selection of remixes created specifically for the show called "Kissy Klub Versions".
With this radio show Kissy became an influential force in the developing electro scene. Notable artists such as Diplo, Felix Da Housecat, Hervé, Uffie & Erol Alkan made regular appearances alongside exclusive tracks Kissy supported which kick-started careers for a long list of breakthrough producers and DJs[21][22][23] across the globe.[24]
In July 2007, Kissy Sell Out was signed by BBC Radio 1 to present a monthly instalment of a specialist dance music show called In New DJs We Trust.[25] In October 2008 he permanently took over Eddie Halliwell's Thursday night slot[26] to host his own weekly show called the Kissy Klub.[27] His radio show covered a selection of musical styles and genres with the tracks often seamlessly mixed together. His last show with BBC Radio 1 was in 2012.
In 2019, a new podcast called "Long Live The Kissy Klub" was started to make the Kissy Klub DJ mixes and remixes available to fans of the original show, in high quality re-mastered audio format,[28] for the first time since the show's end.
Background
Kissy spent his teenage years growing up in Colchester, Essex. He began practising DJing and teaching himself music production at the age of 13 when a school friend played him a United Dance CD mixed by DJ Hype. His particular interest became very melodically complex post-modern electronic dance music, often around 128 BPM in tempo.[29]
As Kissy's technical abilities blossomed professionally, his live DJ shows began to focus on putting electro beats over classical pieces of music using Pioneer's CDJ decks. This unique element in his approach to mixing led to producing and recording his second album "Wild Romance" almost entirely using classical instruments – something which began to attract media attention when he was invited to speak at a formal debate at the Cambridge Union against Stephen Fry about the relevance of classical music to the youth of today in May 2011. Kissy also appeared with Stephen Fry on the BBC's Look East news programme[30] and BBC Radio 4's Today Show, and wrote a two-page article published in The Independent newspaper about the subject.[31]
Kissy has been the subject of two questions on the game show The Chase, first in the UK and then on the New Zealand version. The question asked on both occasions was:
"Which of these Radio 1 DJs was born Thomas Bisdee? Kissy Sell Out, Kutski, or Mista Jam?"[32]
When not working on his own music, much of his time as a music producer has been spent mentoring fresh names in dance music through his label San City High and also by judging DJ competitions such as the Red Bull Thre3style UK tour.[33]
Kissy has often been described by the press as being a staple of the east London electro scene,[34] and most of his records are produced at his studio in the Shoreditch/Brick Lane area.
Inspired by early recordings of underground drum'n'bass events in the UK, Kissy frequently used an air horn during his DJ sets and in June 2007 was pictured on the front cover of DJ Magazine blasting one into the air.[35]
Kissy has worked very closely with Pioneer DJ since 2011, consulting as a brand ambassador and beta tester – alongside James Zabeila and Laidback Luke – during the development of two respective iterations of the CDJ-2000 Nexus and DJM-900 Nexus equipment, and several versions of Pioneer DJ's rekordbox software. Kissy has made many YouTube video demonstration videos[36] for the company, using the 2000 NXS and RMX-1000[37] products, and personally went to the Pioneer DJ Japan headquarters in Kawasaki to contribute to the blue print designs for the DJM-900 NXS II product line in 2015.
Kissy has appeared on four instalments of the YouTube series Pioneer DJ Sounds since 2011, with the viewing figures approaching a million views in some cases.[36][38][39]
KSO & Stepper Man
In 2017, Kissy began releasing music and booking shows as "KSO", in addition to starting a new label called Stepper Man.[40]
After 12 years as a professional music producer, the KSO moniker signalled the start of a new chapter in Kissy's career.[41] A KSO debut album, called "Style From The Westside"[42] released in August 2018,[43] featuring collaborations with DJ Q, Darkzy, Wideboys, Sam Supplier, Dread MC, JG, Tengu, Jaikea, Pavv, J69, Hyperactive MC, Beth Macari and The Melody Men. The album is specifically a bass house and bassline club record, with the second single "Dub For Ya Speaker" described by Mixmag as "masterfully combining bassline house with vintage hip-hop and early jungle", featuring the release as their "tune of the month" in the breaks section.[44]
UKF published an interview feature with KSO about the album claiming the release to be "one of the realest bassline albums you'll hear all year", noting that the rapid creation of the album in nine months coincided with Kissy becoming a father.[45]
Health and fitness appearances
In November 2015, Kissy became an ambassador for Decibel Nutrition,[46] alongside JP from Made In Chelsea, Amy Willerton and Rob Edmond.[47] Since then, he has featured in several photo shoots as a fitness model, and appeared on BESTfitTV as a celebrity contender in their extreme fitness challenge.
In summer 2016, Bear Grylls took Kissy on, alongside Mission Survive winner Vogue Williams, to host the main stage at each of his Survival Race events across the UK.[48] The hosts presented awards to the winners, interviewed inspiring figures in the armed forces and challenged the crowd with various fitness activities.
Kissy's run of appearances was cut short, just shy of the last race in London, due to a last minute opportunity to tour Romania for the first time with MC Cobra.[49]
Discography
Albums
Youth (2009)
Introducing Kissy Sell Out (2010 – North American only release)
Kissy Klub Versions were unofficial remixes of songs by artists which are played exclusively on Kissy Sell Out's BBC Radio 1 Show.[79] The idea to remix songs for a radio show is down to the BBC's rules on conflict of interest which restrict the amount of air time producers such as Kissy can fill with their own material. Since Kissy's own re-edits of tracks have been a widely talked about feature of his DJ sets since 2006,[80] Kissy felt it was important to continue this feature in his radio show and thus the Kissy Klub Version concept was started.
During the show's life-span, very few other DJs ever obtained copies of the near 1000 long list of exclusive remixes. Efforts were made to release a BBC Kissy Klub Versions CD but failed due to the incredibley complex licensing paperwork it would have involved to clear permissions for a large amount of highly established artists who were unfamiliar with the unusual concept.
As of 2019, the Long Live The Kissy Klub podcast began publishing some of these exclusive remixes for the first time for fans to stream on iTunes and Spotify.[81]
Charity work
In January 2008, Kissy released a four-track EP of bootleg tracks on limited edition CD and digital downloads so he could donate all proceeds to the British Association for Adoption and Fostering[82] The EP contains a blog-house track called "Get Busy Tropicana" as well as "You're on Fire" which was championed by Zane Lowe on BBC Radio .[83]
Kissy also began supporting the Changing Faces charity in 2010 after meeting a severely facially disfigured young girl in a British airport whilst on his way to DJ in Ibiza. In an interview with Thomas H. Green published in Mixmag he talked of how the brief but poignant moment reduced him to tears and made him realise how lucky he was to be a successful DJ.[84]
Support for unsigned artists
Since Kissy himself claims to owe a lot of his early success to the support he received from DJs such as Simian Mobile Disco, Headman, DJ Touché, The Loose Cannons, Eddy Temple Morris and Tommie Sunshine, Kissy has insisted on championing unsigned artists and new independent producers as much as he can on his radio shows, festival appearances and press interviews.
Some of the fresh faces in music Kissy has shown support for include Ronnie Flex, Foamo, Jo Kira, Metal on Metal, Proxy, 16 Bit, Jack Beats, Last Japan, Norrit, AutoErotique, Cold Blank, Bear Cavalry, Kamikaze Cream Cake, Late of the Pier, MC Cobra, Linda's Nephew, Chew Fu and the Palms Out Sounds blog, Haydn Haydn, Cap'nHarry, Figure, Danny Westcott, Frankmusik, Thoko, Mr. Vega, Matt Sayers, Dynasty, Bro Safari, ETC!ETC!, Hoi!, Black Peter Group, Futuristic Retro Champions, and Andy George and Jaymo who were signed to BBC Radio 1 after Kissy picked them to support him on a BBC Introducing edition of Radio 1's Essential Mix.[85]
Kissy is curator of a music festival in the French Alps called Tignesfest.
^"Long Live The Kissy Klub on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 14 May 2019. BBC Radio 1's Kissy Klub show returns - remastered and re-edited into 2 hour episodes which were originally broadcast between 2008-2012, specially for the fans...
^Lawrence, Eddy (11 July 2007). "Interview: Kissy Sell Out". Time Out London. Time Out Group Ltd. Archived from the original on 16 June 2008. Retrieved 11 November 2008.
^Hutchinson, Kate (4 June 2007). "East End's top DJs". Time Out London. Time Out Group Ltd. Archived from the original on 11 July 2007. Retrieved 11 November 2008.
^"KSO - Style From The Westside: how old jungle and jump up records inspired one of the realest bassline albums you'll hear all year". Ukf.com. 16 August 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2019. It's been a very personal process for KSO full stop. Written over the course of nine months (during which time he became a father) Style From The Westside is the sound of an established artist dropping every habit, signature and trait he's developed over the last 12 years and five albums, digging deep into his persy musical roots (both past and present) and creating an album from fresh that reflects where he's at, where he's been and what he's feeling.
