Evan Stanley and Nick Simmons, sons of KISS legends Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, recently opened up about why their band, Stanley Simmons, deliberately steers clear of their fathers’ iconic sound, in an interview with Forbes.
Unlike other rock offspring who often perform covers of their parents’ work, Evan and Nick have chosen to write all of their own original material. They have opted not to follow in KISS’s musical footsteps.
Evan Stanley responded first when asked directly about this choice: “Moving on to your music. Malcolm Bruce and Kofi Baker — do excellent covers of their dads’ work in Cream. But you two don’t seem to be influenced so much by KISS. And you write all of your own material, correct?”
“I love a lot of KISS stuff, and am very proud of my dad,” Evan Stanley said. “There’s some really cool music there.”
“But our stuff doesn’t sound like KISS,” he continued. “In our own way, we’re doing what they originally set out to do, but in a different way – chase our own musical influences, sound and passions.”
Nick Simmons then added his own perspective on the matter.
“We have no desire to be our dads,” Nick Simmons said. “When you hear our songs and see the album art, you’ll find we have less than nothing to do with that world.”
That divide between legacy and identity runs through everything Stanley Simmons has built so far, from their earliest recordings to the sound now defining their debut era.
The duo’s debut album, “Dancing While The World Is Ending,” makes that separation unmistakable. The 12-track record, released on August 28, is rooted in folk rock and Americana, favoring melodic songwriting and vocal harmonies over the arena-sized hard rock that made their fathers famous.
Stanley Simmons has been explicit that this is not an attempt to repackage KISS for a new generation. Evan Stanley has said the project “has nothing to do with what our dads do.” The band has also pushed back against any framing of the act as “KISS 2.0,” insisting their music is not “cosplay rock.”
The two childhood friends first bonded over a shared love of 1970s folk and Americana, a sensibility that runs counter to the stadium-scale bombast baked into their family history. That shared taste eventually became the foundation for the band. It began coming together in earnest last year, before the duo started writing songs and officially formed Stanley Simmons early this year.
Stanley Simmons has since built momentum with a string of singles spanning different styles, including “Body Down,” “Love” and “Cellophone,” ahead of launching their first-ever U.S. tour this fall. Live shows have leaned into the same rootsy, Americana-driven sound that defines their recordings. This reinforces that the band’s identity is built on its own musical foundation rather than the one left behind by KISS.
