On Saturday night time, Kiss closed out the ultimate efficiency of their “The End of the Road” farewell tour at New York Metropolis’s famed Madison Sq. Backyard.
However as devoted followers absolutely know — they have been by no means going to name it quits. Probably not.
Throughout their encore, the band’s present lineup — founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons in addition to guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer — left the stage to disclose digital avatars of themselves. After the transformation, the digital Kiss launched right into a efficiency of “God Gave Rock and Roll to You.”
The cutting-edge expertise was used to tease a brand new chapter of the rock band: after 50 years of Kiss, the band is now excited about a form of digital immortality.
The avatars have been created by George Lucas’ special-effects firm, Industrial Mild & Magic, in partnership with Pophouse Leisure Group, the latter of which was co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. The 2 corporations lately teamed up for the “ABBA Voyage” show in London, wherein followers may attend a full live performance by the Swedish band — as carried out by their digital avatars.
Per Sundin, CEO of Pophouse Leisure, says this new expertise permits Kiss to proceed their legacy for “eternity.” He says the band wasn’t on stage throughout digital efficiency as a result of “that’s the key thing,” of the future-seeking expertise. “Kiss could have a concert in three cities in the same night across three different continents. That’s what you could do with this.”
In an effort to create their digital avatars, who’re depicted as a form of superhero model of the band, Kiss carried out in movement seize fits.
Experimentation with this type of expertise has change into more and more frequent in sure sections of the music business. In October K-pop star Mark Tuan partnered with Soul Machines to create an autonomously automated “digital twin” referred to as “Digital Mark.” In doing so, Tuan turned the primary celeb to connect their likeness to OpenAI’s GPT integration, synthetic intelligence expertise that permits followers to have interaction in one-on-one conversations with Tuan’s avatar.
Aespa, the Okay-pop lady group, ceaselessly carry out alongside their digital avatars — the quartet is supposed to be seen as an octet with digital twins. One other lady group, Eternity, is made up solely of digital characters — no people needed.
“What we’ve accomplished has been amazing, but it’s not enough. The band deserves to live on because the band is bigger than we are,” Kiss frontman Paul Stanley mentioned in a roundtable interview. “It’s exciting for us to go the next step and see Kiss immortalized.”
“We can be forever young and forever iconic by taking us to places we’ve never dreamed of before,” Kiss bassist Gene Simmons added. “The technology is going to make Paul jump higher than he’s ever done before.”
And for individuals who couldn’t make the Madison Sq. Backyard present — keep tuned, as a result of a Kiss avatar live performance might very nicely be on the best way.`
