Yohan Kisser is one of the artists performing at the 11th edition of Best of Blues and Rock , a festival taking place between June 20th and 25th in the cities of São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, and Rio de Janeiro.
At 27 years old, Yohan is the son of renowned guitarist Andreas Kisser Kisser Clan project . He graduated from the Music Conservatory of the São Caetano do Sul Arts Foundation, is part of the national heavy metal band Sioux 66 , and is currently focused on releasing his first solo album of original compositions, following his self-titled EP from 2022.
In an interview with Wikimetal , he talks about his diverse musical influences, warns that he won't be bringing a metal show to the Best of Blues stage, and discusses the various styles that will be present both live and on the upcoming album.
Yohan Kisser will be performing at the Best of Blues and Rock festival in Belo Horizonte on June 25th, alongside Zakk Sabbath . Secure your tickets and be aware of the change of venue.
Wikimetal: You're going to play at Best of Blues and Rock with Zakk Sabbath. How are you feeling and how have you been preparing for this festival?
Yohan Kisser: I'm once again honored to be a part of this festival. Before I could get on stage at this festival, I went as a fan several times. I saw Steve Vai, John 5, and Zakk Sabbath himself because Zakk Wylde played at other editions as well. I had the opportunity to play at Ibirapuera and in Porto Alegre in 2022 opening for Joe Perry, it was sensational. This time I'm playing in Belo Horizonte, unfortunately I won't be in other places, but I'll be there with Zakk Sabbath, very happy.
We're preparing a super special show. My solo career has had few shows so far, little material released, but now I'm about to release a 12-song album and once again take the stage at Best of Blues to bring this material to everyone. Last time, the Best of Blues show was entirely instrumental because of other initiatives, from the Ministry of Culture and everything else, and this time I'll be able to sing too, it's going to be sensational.
WM: What can we expect from your repertoire?
YK: I'm going to play only things from my solo project and I've selected two covers to do. One of them is by Frank Zappa , [one of my] great influences, and also Stevie Ray Vaughan to pay homage to the blues. There are also other surprises in the middle of the set. Half of the setlist will be on guitar, half will be on keyboards, like last time, in the first Best of Blues I did. This time I'll be bringing Guto Passos on bass and William Paiva on drums, so it'll be a great trio.
WM: You're 27 years old now, the son of one of Brazil's leading guitarists, and a graduate of the São Caetano do Sul Arts Foundation's Conservatory of Music. Did you always know you wanted a professional music career?
YK: It was always very free at home. So much so that this show I'm going to do [at Best of Blues], this solo project of mine, has nothing to do with metal. Certainly, the way I play, the training I had, the influences come a lot from rock, but it's not metal. Before studying, I thought being a musician was one thing. I fetishized that James Hetfield , I loved Metallica , I wanted to be on stage, I wanted to fill stadiums. When I started studying music, things changed. I became addicted to Pink Floyd, Yes, Frank Zappa, those bands that made me study music, study classical guitar. Today I see music with different eyes, both in teaching and in arranging. I'm addicted to orchestration, to analysis. Music has become many things for me that it wasn't before, and I don't think it's just the image of my father (who is also an idol for me), but it wasn't just that image that gave me the certainty of being a musician. I think I'm still building that certainty today; nothing is guaranteed yet.
WM: You recently released a song with Sandy called “Tento”. We know your families are very close, but what made you think of Sandy specifically to sing on this track?
YK: I recently lost my mother, and there are a ton of songs on this upcoming album that talk about it. I couldn't really escape these subjects. Actually, one of the things that kept on my mind was that I, as a musician, wouldn't be able to build the Taj Mahal for my mother. So, the things I can build for her are these; it's my way of trying to immortalize her. And I know how much Sandy loved my mother too, and it was something I'd wanted to do for a long time, because I admired her.
“Tento” is a song I had saved and I wanted to show it to Sandy. When I called her, she didn't really know what it would be like; I told her it was something like MPB (Brazilian Popular Music). The lyrics also confused many of her fans, which I think is a positive sign. It was really cool. But, as I said, many people were expecting metal, and the album is increasingly leaning towards piano, many Stevie Wonder references, and that kind of craziness. Since I mentioned Frank Zappa here, anyone who knows Frank Zappa knows you can never expect anything from him, right? And also these big names like Queen and the Beatles—I think it's an allegory, a big amusement park. You'll go through different parts and you'll be traveling. I think people can expect that from my show.
WM: As you mentioned, perhaps because of your name and other projects like Sioux 66, I think it's natural for people to expect something more metal from you. What is your audience's reaction when you bring something different, like the collaboration with Sandy, for example?
YK: I'm really looking forward to seeing the audience's reaction more and more. The one with Sandy was really cool because Sandy has a huge reach, but even so, with my solo project, I've been doing more and more things. I only have a 5-song EP that we're also going to play at this edition [of Best of Blues], and this 12-song album will be released around June 25th.
I'm really anxious to see people's reaction because, honestly, I have my work with Sioux 66, which is a hard and heavy metal band, and it's not too far from what my father did, even though it's not thrash metal. So a lot of people complain, but I'm certainly not here to make them stop complaining or to please anyone. I'm crazy about these things, they're natural. I'm not looking for my place in music, I'm doing my own thing, which comes from within me. And what's really cool is that Best of Blues opened this stage for us to do what we think is best, what we want. The trio that's with me, both Guto and Will – Guto is also my producer – we're very excited to release these things. We were 100% sincere in composing these songs.
There are some things that are crazier than others, there are others that are super sentimental and piano-driven, with Tom Jobim . Anyway, I think metalheads should be happy that they don't know what's coming next, right? I think it's much more interesting not knowing what's coming. But this thing of everyone expecting metal, I think it's normal, man. I'm also very proud of metal, I'm very proud of where I come from. I love metal, I listen to it, I play it, but I'm not stuck on it. And as a musician, I don't define myself as a metalhead.
WM: You even commented a while ago about finding Anitta to have a kind of rock personality because she has rock attitudes. For you, what does it mean to be rock today?
YK: I think that often rock musicians put on a mask of being musically knowledgeable, well-known, and intellectual. I think the image of rock, the Beatles brought the string quartet, a lot of universal musical elements, but I also think what they brought most was this attitude, the irreverence, this thing of going on stage, Beatlemania. And they taught everyone. If you take that essence, which is rock, and you put it into all rock bands, of course, Motley Cruel is there, but it's also in Michael Jackson, it's also in Anitta. All of that is rock to me.
Even Miles Davis, with that pose of wearing sunglasses, he's a jazz musician, but he's definitely a rock star. So I think rock has this irreverence, this attitude, and now it's the role of the rocker to criticize other artists of other styles who have this irreverence and this attitude. Actually, I think Anitta, in many of the things she does, in her pyrotechnics, in many of her ideas, she's following many ideas that the Beatles had back then, and that we've been following ever since. Elvis, the whole merchandising thing, rock taught everyone how to do that. Rock, in fact, is the father of pop, and people forget that.
So, I think there's a lot of rock in me too, and there's also a lot of classical music. They're two worlds that don't mix that much. Unfortunately, there's sometimes a wall between metal and the rest of the music, and there's also a wall between academic music and popular music, which is sad. I try not to stay on that wall; I'm trying to tear it down.
WM: Tell us a little more about the album you're about to release. What makes it different, and what do you plan to bring to the Best of Blues stage?
YK: Man, it's a challenge, right? On the Best of Blues stage, there will be keyboards, as I said, there will be guitars, there will be some diverse things, some siren noises, car crashes. There are some songs that are very visual, very cinematic and experimental, with keyboards, synthesizers. I went overboard with those things. I love Queen, I love Stevie Wonder, so I didn't hold back in putting in 15,000 different timbres as well. I think Pink Floyd is one of the bands that knows how to nail that timbre thing. There are other tracks, as I said, with a kind of Tom Jobim aesthetic. They're lyrics in Portuguese, just piano. There's one that's done with a group of girls singing and me just on the piano, doing some vocal details. It's a song that I dedicated to my mother too, which speaks well of what we went through there.
The album is half in English and half in Portuguese and is called * The Rivals are Fed and Rested *. It means "the rivals are well fed and rested." This creates a feeling that things are right in nature, you always have to be chasing after something, and it also ends up mixing with this thing about the jungle, wildlife, Darwinism, and a kind of city life that has become socially established, about people who have and those who don't. The album goes through English, Portuguese, and even has a song called "Quantas Línguas Falam" (How Many Languages Speak) which goes through Spanish and Italian. I think the album is well-structured, it has a little bit of everything. It has a bit of that thing I mentioned about Frank Zappa, Queen, the Beatles. When you put on a Beatles album, you don't know what's coming next; it starts with a string quartet, then a rock 'n' roll band, then a sitar, some Hindu instruments… So, those are the influences. With a certain humility here, I think that one day we'll be able to reach that level of quality, but for sure those are the influences and that's the album's goal. I'm very happy, there are 12 tracks and it starts being released this month.
