Their touring days might be over, but KISS has struck a deal with Pophouse Entertainment Group that will bring fans more hard rock music experiences in the future. However, just what this experience might be is yet to be seen.
It will likely have something to do with the digital avatars that debuted at the end of the final night of the farewell tour. On that December night in Madison Square Garden, a digital avatar took each band member’s place as they left the stage. Together, their avatars performed “God Gave Rock n’ Roll to You” to close the night.
“KISS army, your love, your power, has made us immortal,” begins a video that KISS released later to declare that they have been “reborn as avatars to rock on forever.” In the video, guitarist and vocalist Paul Stanley says, “What we’ve accomplished has been amazing, but it’s not enough. The band deserves to live on because the band is bigger than we are. It’s exciting for us to go the next step and see KISS immortalized.”
At the final December performance, the avatars were bigger than the performers that inspired them and imbued with wings and crackling lightning. Drummer Eric Singer floated in the air to strike at glowing cymbals. Gene Simmons breathed fire.
Pophouse Entertainment Group, the Swedish company co-founded by Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA, is the business behind the “ABBA Voyage” digital concert. They utilized technology created by Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects company created by George Lucas, to have digital avatars representing ABBA’s younger selves perform in London. In a megadeal valued higher than $300 million, Pophouse has acquired the entire music catalog, brand, and IP of KISS.
Pophouse’s plans include a biopic, documentary, and an undisclosed KISS “experience,” which CEO Per Sundin says will not necessarily resemble “ABBA Voyage” in any way. “KISS could have a concert in three cities in the same night across three different continents,” Sundin has said. “That’s what you could do with this.”
“I don’t like the word, ‘acquisition’,” Gene Simmons, bassist and singer of KISS, said to AP. “People might misunderstand and think, ‘OK, now Pophouse is doing that stuff and we’re just in Beverly Hills twiddling our thumbs.’ No, that’s not true. We’re in the trenches with them. We talk all the time. We share ideas. It’s a collaboration.” He also reassured fans that they would not have sold the catalog to a company they did not value.
“If you think you’re going to get rid of us, I’m afraid that’s not going to happen,” Simmons said when the avatars first debuted. Recently, Simmons laid to rest any hopes fans might have of a third farewell tour: “We’re not going to tour again as KISS, period. We’re not going to put the makeup on and go out there.”
Another recent deal made by Pophouse involved purchasing most of Cyndi Lauper’s music for a project that she described as an “immersive theatre piece.” The project is meant to show audiences her experience of growing up in New York.
