Singer-songwriter Kerri Watt releases her new single ‘Kissing Fools’ on Valentine’s Day, February 14th 2020, alongside a video featuring Cody Molko (School Of Rock). The single’s impact date has been set as April 3rd 2020.
A lyrical and visual call back to the romantic coming-of-age cinema classics Kerri grew up with, ‘Kissing Fools’ is a pastiche portrayal of what Kerri describes as “those sweet moments of nostalgia we all love to remember,” and is inspired by her love of movies such as Grease, Never Been Kissed and 10 Things I Hate About You, and their timeless depiction of “scenes of school dances, first loves and experimenting.”
Working with director Milly Upton, Kerri was able to able to realise her vision for the video saying, “I wanted to create my own mini-movie reminiscent of the films that inspired the writing of the song. It had to have elements of the awkward reality of being a teen! Cody Molko brings so much sweetness and humour to the part and fits perfectly into the 90s inspired film set we created.” To create the 90s tone, Kerri managed to dig up genuine gear and knick-knacks from her own ‘archive’, “Cody’s bedroom in the video is made up entirely of things from my childhood that I found in my parent’s loft! The box TV, the board games – Jumanji, Mouse Trap, the Furby, the Daffy Duck statue all come straight from my bedroom circa 1998.”
The final piece of the visual puzzle was needed for one of the most important establishing shots of Cody’s character, “Originally we had the kissing scene from Quadrophenia playing on the VCR. However after a struggle to get the rights to show the movie, we had to do some special effects and replace the kiss with another, which ended up being one from the original A Star Is Born movie from the 30s. I actually love the kiss replacement – it’s a very romantic one!”
The music came together in what Kerri describes as “jamming until we found a great groove that felt sentimental but fresh”. Originally written solo on acoustic guitar, the song lost none of its tongue-in-cheek Dolly Parton-esque bounce when it was arranged with heavy metal producer Machine (Lamb Of God, Clutch, Fallout Boy) in Austin, Texas alongside a group of superb session musicians. Kerri recalls the recording process as, “my favourite song on the album to record. It’s just a bit of a party! I remember being so excited when we captured those opening and ending piano twinkles – they just add that movie magic feel.”
‘Kissing Fools’ is the third song to be taken from Kerri’s forthcoming album titled ‘Chasing Aeroplanes’, a genre bending record that Kerri worked on with the very unlikely producer Machine, who is known as the producer for some of the best albums by heavy hitters in metal. It marks a defining point in her career where she embraces rock sensibilities in her Americana songwriting, as well as lyrically addressing reaching what some may consider ‘settling down’ age, and the ludicrous expectations of women to have kids or hit pause on their careers at this time.
