Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with The Kiss That Took A Trip

The Kiss That Took A Trip - Horror Vacui

The Kiss That Took A Trips pulls out a risky move by releasing a 20+ minute track that looks back to its post-rock origins, as a way to fight the current musical climate of short attention spans and immediate hooks. Still, the track is holding a few juicy rewards for those willing to pay attention and let the music take over. A more than worth wile piece for post-rock fans out there but also for more standard alternative rock ears.

The Kiss That Took A Trip is a musical project conceived by M. D. Trello in 2006.

Musically, it can be described as a lo-fi effort, based on tunes that try to recapture the importance of melody and atmosphere over technical proficiency and radio-friendly formats. The sound mixes rock, pop, post-rock, easy listening, ambient, new age, noise and dissonance.

Originally intended to work as some kind of extension to “Victims of the avantgarde”, “Horror vacui” is a piece that constantly grew until its natural epicness couldn’t be contained anymore. Delayed numerous times because of the technical issues that plagued The Kiss during most of 2025, “Horror Vacui” was finally released in 2 October, and the final result is a distant cry from the original embryo that stylistically linked it, somehow, to the sounds on the fourth album.

The piece is a succession of quite different sections that segway one into another (sometimes seamlessly and sometimes more abruptly) and the journey takes the listener through many different vibes and genres: post rock, ambient, easy listening, progressive rock, noise rock, indie pop, … It’s like this song worked as a full colour catalogue of the stuff The Kiss has been putting out almost 20 years ago.

Interview with the Kiss That Took A Trip

(•)> What inspired you to take the bold step of releasing a 20+ minute track in today’s fast-paced, short-attention music landscape?

I’ve always worked very isolated from any current scene (if such things still exist). My only umbilical cord to the artistic reality, present or past, is the set of my most stable musical influences. And, also, if you think of it, running times in songs are a pretty artificial attribute. Why should 20 minutes in one song feel longer than 50 minutes listening to a playlist? I like to use the pizza analogy: no matter how many portions you cut, it’s the same amount.

(•)> How does this extended piece connect to your post-rock origins and musical evolution since founding The Kiss That Took A Trip in 2006?

I like to think that I have a sort of signature sound that constitutes the foundations of my music, and I deviate a bit from it with every subsequent release. Or, better said, I explore different sides of that core sound, in a way that, hopefully, it’ll all still sound fresh. For some reason, the only recurring sound seems to be mid 90s post rock. It’s the sound that breeds inside my head when my brain is idle. I can’t turn that thing off. So given that my most recent releases don’t lean too much into post rock, whenever I come up with a worthy epic song, I resort to releasing the piece aside, on its own, because it just won’t fit in a regular album, both stylistically and literally.

(•)> Can you walk us through the creative process behind such a long, immersive track, how did you structure it to keep listeners engaged throughout?

This song is the natural expansion of two very basic musical ideas, a couple of little seeds that grew like ivy (around 10 minutes each) and, finally, and by chance, made a connection that made all the sense in the world. It didn’t feel forced, it’s like the first half of the song and the second half were destined to meet. I don’t like to be brainy in the writing process unless I feel things are getting stale and I must kick the hive a little. Otherwise, I let the song grow. As it always happens to me, the refinement process took a whole lot more than basic demoing.

(•)> What emotions or ideas were you hoping to convey through this expansive composition?

Many times it’s more about what the song makes me feel than the other way around. Realistically, it’s hard to plan to convey specific feelings when every listener happens to have very different pairs of unpredictable ears. And this piece made me think about some recent events in my life, related to lost opportunities and who and what you come back to after that.

(•)> How do you balance melody, atmosphere, and experimentation in your music while staying true to your lo-fi aesthetic?

After 20 years, I’ve kind of lost trace of the magic recipe, if there was ever one. Staying true to my lo-fi spirit is incredibly easy given my budgetary restrictions, which I still like to keep somewhat in place. In my case, melody has always been very dependent on inspiration, and regarding atmosphere and experimentation, I let myself go. It’s like visiting a masseuse, it’s all about the experience of the writing process.

(•)> In what ways does this release challenge both you as an artist and your audience as listeners?

Believe it or not, I’m artistically shy. I hold back a lot. My original ideas are much more daring than the final product, so, in a way, you could say that this has been a challenge to my self-awareness, the inner voice that goes “are you sure you won’t feel embarrassed thinking of people turning this off halfway through the intro?”. Regarding listeners, I stand in line with my perennial motto of “I don’t try to reach an audience, I’m just happy with whoever comes along”.

(•)> Your sound blends elements from rock, pop, ambient, and even noise, how do you approach combining such diverse styles into a cohesive piece?

I think that genres are way easier to mix than people realize as long as you don’t stick too much to well known templates and cliches. If you forget about the building pieces and focus more on the feel and the texture of each genre, building bridges between them is more doable. On top of that, I think that submitting a song to one common emotion makes any blend more palatable. Mixing genres is more feasible than mixing emotional tones.

(•)> What role does storytelling or mood play in your compositions, particularly in this latest release?

I try to stay away from specific narratives. I love progressive rock, but I’m keener on the ambitious musical aspect of the genre than the storytelling side. I’m not good at translating personal feelings into music, probably because of that shyness I explained before, unless I wrap them into a bit more obscure lyrics. “Horror vacui” encapsulates really personal emotions, but I prefer the mood do the work.

(•)> How has your approach to production and sound design evolved since you began The Kiss That Took A Trip?

Even if I said before that I like to keep the lo-fi sonic palette alive, it’s quite evident that the sound has improved, and that’s the result of being more and more considerate to audiences. I’ve gone from “to hell with it, this is raw, just take it as it is” to “this is synthetic, but in order to appreciate its spirit, I must provide a comfortable audio experience”.

(•)> What do you hope listeners will take away from this track after giving it their full attention?

A safe sonic place to come back too. One of the biggest compliments I could get is audiences developing some sense of familiarity with my songs.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out The Kiss That Took A Trip on the Pigeon Spins Playlist