Q&A: The Push and Pull of Romance: Kiss Bang Explores Unrequited Love in “Drag”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
CAPTURING THE STING OF ONE-SIDED LOVE – Powerhouse duo Kiss Bang is back with a new single, “Drag,” which introduces listeners to their edgy, rock-infused take on pop music. The project pairs Kaya Stewart’s powerful, soulful voice with Max Mercier’s textured, atmospheric guitar work and production, forging an irresistible sound that cuts through the polished facade of contemporary pop.
In “Drag,” Kiss Bang dives into the raw, unpolished intensity of one-sided love – the longing, the heartbreak, the complex push and pull of romantic obsession that can consume you before a relationship even truly begins. The song captures that haunting, sometimes all-consuming fixation that strikes when you feel like you’re falling for someone who may not be on the same page, a feeling that’s as thrilling as it is agonizing. It speaks to anyone grappling with the messy, beautiful, and often chaotic journey of figuring out life and love in their twenties.
Written in just ten minutes, “Drag” captures the intense rush and inevitable heartache of unrequited love. Stewart’s lyrics tell the story of longing and frustration, recounting the highs and lows of being enamored with someone who doesn’t share the same level of investment. In describing the inspiration behind the song, Stewart conjures a vivid scene: a much-anticipated meeting that ends abruptly, where one person’s highlight of the week is merely another entry on the other’s schedule. This bittersweet narrative encapsulates the agony of feeling like an afterthought, a sentiment made all the more tangible by the song's sonic landscape, which balances lyrical vulnerability with Mercier’s production.
“It's like when you're dying to see somebody and you get to this breakfast and you're so excited to see them, and they only have 20 minutes, and they get up and leave,” Stewart shares. “You realize that the most important part of your week was just another thing on their schedule. Having that whole vision and coming up with all these different scenarios of how being in love with someone and them not really caring is such a horrible feeling. Isn't that a drag?”
The song builds on this vision, layering it with snapshots of unfulfilled daydreams, scenarios of how things might have gone if only that person felt the same way. It’s a tale of longing met with indifference, love blurred by apathy – a dynamic so common yet so crushing.
With “Drag,” Kiss Bang reinvigorates the familiar narrative of love and heartbreak, bringing in fresh perspectives and a palpable rawness that is both rare and refreshing. This single is a fitting introduction to the duo’s world of electric, rock-infused pop – a place where love and loss collide in a powerful, unforgettable way.
LUNA: Welcome back and thank you for talking to Luna. It's super exciting to have you back since the last time we talked about your EP Horrors of Your Hometown and your debut single. I would love to catch up and see how life has been treating you and what have you been up to since the last time we talked.
MAX: From there, we went on a little bit of a break from being super active. I think we played five more shows following the release of the single and the EP. Then we took about three months to get everything together and really evaluate. We did a lot of watching, listening, learning in our local community and of the artists that we really love and respect, and took the time to really develop the project a little bit more, and really hone in on what we wanted Kiss Bang to be – from the logo, the photography, especially the music. We got out of the recording studio setting and made our newest single in a home studio setting, which provided so many less constraints and a lot more creativity and we really embraced the DIY spirit. I think we're both really proud of where it's going and where it's gone.
LUNA: What inspires you to push boundaries within your sound? Are there any specific experiences, artists, or moments that have encouraged you to explore new musical territories?
KAYA: During our hiatus, Max and I really took a break and we listened to so much music. I think touching on being a part of our community and sharing the music that the people around us were making, we were so inspired and had the time to be inspired. It was really fueled by emotion. A lot of the new stuff we have coming out, especially our single “Drag,” that was a song that we'd written back in January, and come back to it and be like, ‘okay, how are we looking at this now? How would we make this song now?’ We're always evolving and changing, but it really does come from our own emotion and how we're feeling, and expanding on that and taking it further,
LUNA: You just released your newest single “Drag” and I really love how it stays true to your sound and vision. What is the inspiration behind the single and what themes and emotions do you explore?
MAX: It started with a guitar riff I wrote that was originally twice the speed and almost sounded like Irish. I played it for Kaya because I was just fiddling around with it. We also wrote it in a weird guitar tuning, which was different. It's an open E rather than standard, so it forced me to play differently and it forced Kaya to sing differently. When we started messing around with it, I slowed it down a little bit. We wrote that song in 10 minutes flat.
KAYA: Max started playing that. This is how we write every song. Max will start playing a riff and we start to collaborate from there. There were a couple that were the other way around, except I'm terrible at guitar, so Max always ended up correcting it. I think for this song, what was so cool about writing it is that it felt like telling a story. I had this vision in my head that I remember saying to Max, ‘it's like when you're dying to see somebody and you get to this breakfast and you're so excited to see them, and they only have 20 minutes, and they get up and leave. You realize that the most important part of your week was just another thing on their schedule.’ I think having that whole vision and coming up with all these different scenarios of how being in love with someone and them not really caring is such a horrible feeling. Isn't that a drag? We're describing it as this is the worst feeling in the world.
LUNA: I would like to touch more on the creative process behind “Drag.” The chemistry between your vocals and production style really shines in this track. How do you guys approach the creative process together? Does it vary from song to song?
MAX: Usually we sit down at my computer and we'll play the song through once on the guitar, and then I'll start programming a basic drum track. Then we'll do the first pass at guitars, and then we make a little bass line, and then Kaya lays down the vocals, and then comes three hours of me going through every single possible option for guitar sounds.
LUNA: “Drag” is accompanied by a music video. What is the inspiration behind the video and how was your experience filming it?
MAX: Well, it started with Kaya’s idea of using a projector. We had this idea of using a green screen because we saw this music video that used a green screen really, really well. It was done in a shitty DIY way. She made all of the visuals to go along with us in the back and then I animated them. We originally set out, quite literally, just to make clips for social media. Halfway through filming it, we were just having so much fun, we borrowed a friend's camera, and we tore apart Kaya’s living room and put the projector on the wall. If you look closely, you can still see the picture frame hooks in the back. We shot the outside scenes [the fisheye] another night, and spent a day editing it together and coloring it.
LUNA: “Drag” is your first release since your Horrors of Your Hometown EP and it seems more of a deeper dive into your artistic evolution. Did you experiment with any new elements in “Drag” that you hadn’t explored on your previous EP? If so, what were those risks, and how did they impact the final sound?
KAYA: I think, in a weird way, we simplified the formula with that. We really went back to the roots of a great guitar riff, a great melody, some great lyrics, and that was really the core of everything we were doing. These songs on their own, if it's just me and Max sitting and singing them, they stand on their own. We adore Horrors of Your Hometown. We still play that EP live, but I think that we were still figuring out who Kiss Bang was, and I think now we really know what that is. It's exciting with these new songs is that we feel like every tiny piece of content we create is slowly getting to the core of it. I really feel like we've set a foundation now.
MAX: On top of that, I experimented with using a different guitar tuning than standard, and I feel like it added more depth to it. I feel like electric guitars sound so great when you use quite literally any other tuning than standard. The guitar line, it's not even played that low on the fretboard, but it has so much more depth to it, just because there's so many more lower frequencies that are being recorded. I think we know now that the recipe to a Kiss Bang song is cheeky lyrics, powerful guitar riff, Kaya’s belting vocals, a punchy synth line and big drums.
LUNA: What’s a musical risk or unexpected element that listeners might hear in your new work that they wouldn’t find on Horrors of Your Hometown?
MAX: We're going to be releasing a couple more songs starting in January. The first one is somewhere between a rock song and an electronic dance song and synth pop. We also experimented with a lot more vocoder vocals on the upcoming one, creating stacks of Kaya’s vocals to make them sound like an instrument rather than just a voice. And always, more shredding.
KAYA: We're huge metal fans, and I think we were constantly trying to sneak that quietly into things. I would say there’s a lot more rock influence than it was before. I think we were leaning into it with the first record, and now we're fully in it.
LUNA: You’ve mentioned earlier about working from a home studio and embracing more of a DIY aspect. How has that experience been for you? Has it allowed you to experiment more?
MAX: Definitely. I really believe when you put more limitations on things, you have to get so much more creative. Sometimes when you're working in a full on large format studio, with all of the gear, the big console, and you're on a time crunch because you have a deadline, half the time you're worried about making sure that everything's working. When you're working on a simplified setup, you can trust that everything is working because you've been using it for so many years. I think it's a more dynamic process.
KAYA: I also think it was cool, because that was how me and Max started. We met once, and then a week later, I was sitting in his bedroom in his studio, writing songs. I think it's cool for us now to go back to that. That's what we wanted to do. We both made that decision. We were like, ‘no, let's make these [songs] in your room like we always did.’ I think you can tell that it's really at the core of us.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
KAYA: We're so excited, like we really are. I think coming off the heels of SXSW, I remember someone telling us, SXSW is where you make so many connections and opportunities. That's literally exactly what happened to us. I think it was super exciting, because through those connections we made, Max and I were able to have more resources and a platform and a community of people who are now believing in Kiss Bang as much as when we first started. I think it's really cool for both of us to see how this year is starting to play out, coming into next year, and just lots more shows, lots more music.
MAX: It's really cool to see the platforms start to work in our favor and start to see some real growth. It's so hard in LA where there's so many bands. It's so difficult no matter what – how good your music sounds, no matter who you work with, no matter what show you play – to break through that layer and get to the next level. I really feel like with stuff that we're making now and with the determination that we have for it, it’s just a matter of time.
