In a new interview with “The Drew Lane Show,” Kiss frontman Paul Stanley spoke about Stanley Simmons, the collaborative musical project formed by Evan Stanley and Nick Simmons — the sons of Paul Stanley and his Kiss bandmate Gene Simmons, respectively. The duo released their debut single, “Body Down“, in December, with a full-length album tentatively scheduled to arrive later in the year.
Reflecting on the formation and quality of the project, Paul stated (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): ”Nick and Evan have basically known each other their [whole] lives, but didn’t really get close until the last year where they said, ‘Oh, let’s try singing or writing. Their album, which I’ve heard, is frigging phenomenal. I mean, it’s as good as anything I’ve heard in the last three or four decades. It’s that good. So it’s terrific, and it’s organic.”
The veteran musician also dismissed accusations which have been leveled at Stanley Simmons for supposedly leveraging their famous parents for an early advantage in the music business, saying: “The idea of nepotism — if you suck, you’ll fall on your face. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking advantage of having some sort of familiarity. But ultimately, most people who trade on that fail because it’s not enough. So, I think Stanley Simmons, it’s just fantastic and I can’t wait for them to start playing live.”
After host Drew Lane said that “Body Down” “sounds like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young” and asked Paul Stanley if Evan Stanley and Nick Simmons are “influenced by classic rock”, Paul responded:
“They’re very inspired by all the greats. And I have to say that as good as ‘Body Down‘ is, the rest of the songs leave that in the dust… Oh, the songs are just crazy good. And there’s flavors of all different artists in what they do, in the same way that virtually everybody who’s out there or has succeeded has elements of something else. So I don’t have a problem with that. It’s not imitating; it’s being inspired by. So, they’re great. I can’t say enough about them. I’ve just been wowed.”
As for whether Evan and Nick seek advice from their fathers about their music careers, Paul said:
“I think they ask — I know Evan asked me my opinion of things. And I always preface it by saying, ‘It’s just my opinion, and you have to go with what you believe.’ And he does. I said, ‘I can give you my point of view.’ And I think it’s great that anyone asks somebody else’s opinion, and uses that to their advantage, but to rely upon me to make decisions — I’m not qualified to make decisions about what [he should do]. Only he is.”
During an episode of the “Caught On The Mike” podcast, hosted by Michael Clark, Evan and Nick discussed their debut material, including the recently released single “Body Down”, as well as their forthcoming first album. During the conversation, Evan pushed back against accusations that the project name was chosen as a marketing ploy tied to their famous lineage.
“It’s funny when you say the obvious marketing angle, it’s a really funny one for us, or to anyone who is familiar, our parents are in a band together, and it’s a pretty big band and that’s great and it’s really cool. I think it’s one of those things where online it’s a very funny thing. You read these comments, and it’s, like, ‘You’re trying to do your own thing, but then you use their names. Riding their coattails.’ I’m, like, dude, it’s literally our names. This is my birth name. It’s our legal name.”
Nick acknowledged that the backlash caught him off guard, despite the logic behind the choice.
“I didn’t actually anticipate that, which is stupid. I should have,” he admitted. “But when we talked about it, we were, like, ‘Oh, we like a lot of bands that do that: Crosby, Stills & Nash, Hall & Oates and Simon & Garfunkel. We could just be STANLEY & SIMMONS‘ or whatever. And so we did that conversation. And we were, like, ‘Yeah, sounds good. That makes sense, with the type of music we’re doing.’ Yeah. And then people were, like, ‘Look at them milking the f**king [Kiss connection].’ And we were, like, ‘Oh, I guess… I didn’t really think about that.’”
Evan went on to frame the decision within the broader reality of trying to break through in an oversaturated modern music landscape.
“The thing is, you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t,” he said. “Because at the end of the day, there are so many talented musicians out there, and there’s so much great music coming out. There’s also just an ungodly amount of platforms to try and keep up with, and there’s so much noise to cut through.”
He added that curiosity might bring listeners in once, but only the music itself determines whether they stay.
“So anything that we can do to help cut through the noise and get people to listen to our music, I’m willing to do. I have no problem with that, because at the end of the day, someone will listen once out of curiosity, but they won’t listen a tenth time because they’re curious. They’re gonna either love it and connect with it and be part of it or they won’t be. And that’s not something you can buy.”
Evan also addressed the contradiction he sees in fan reactions.
“But it’s so funny reading all the comments. It’s kind of, like, ‘Okay, so you don’t want us to use this, but then when we don’t, you ask why we don’t.’”
Closing out the discussion, Evan emphasized that the project came together naturally, without any initial intention of forming a long-term collaboration.
“To us, the reason we went with Stanley Simmons is this was such an unexpected collaboration,” he explained. “We’ve been friends for a long time, but we’d never really done anything together. And when we tried writing, we were, like, ‘Wow, this is something. Let’s run with this.’”
He continued: “From the get-go it has been — I think the word ‘organic’ and ‘authentic’, both of those words get tossed around so much, but this was never trying to be a thing… And then it was, like, ‘Let’s write a song or two together. And maybe we’ll do one or two songs together. It’ll be fun.’”
According to Evan, the breakthrough came quickly.
“And then we wrote the first one. It was, like, ‘Well, wait. This is the best song I’ve ever been a part of. There’s something to this.’ … And that’s kind of why we went with Stanley Simmons, is just, ‘Hey, this is who we are.’ We’re not trying to be the da da. It’s just our names. There really isn’t a thing, except the thing is that it’s just us singing together and playing stuff that we like.”
