Born in Walnut Creek, CA.
Caught a shark in Santa Cruz, CA.
Lived in a haunted house in Watsonville, CA
Found a dead body in Scotts Valley, CA.
Drove off a cliff in a semi truck in Aromas, CA.
Almost finished high school in Santa Cruz, CA.
Started recording these songs on his tape recorder in Chicago, IL.

This is the myth of KEVIN TIHISTA.

Word about KEVIN TIHISTA'S RED TERROR started filtering our way from Chicago in early 1999, but it took time for word to get back to Chicago that we wanted to hear his music. Once the flow had started, however, it was hard to stop. The first tape to arrive contained a song called Lose The Dress, and that track alone was enough to convince us that we had unearthed something special. But the music kept coming, song after song after song, until finally we had amassed probably around thirty-five songs. Stranger still, none of them came from Kevin himself. These were tapes and CDs made by friends, admirers and a former bandmate (and now his manager), sent over unsolicited in the hope of kick starting something for Kevin.

A brief trip to Chicago unearthed a few more facts, but KEVIN TIHISTA doesn't give much away. The songs were recorded with a guy called Ellis Clark at the Chicago studio opposite where he lives. Kevin had previously played bass for Tripl3FastAction, a fairly rowdy rock act signed to Capitol but largely ignored throughout their career outside of the US, and for whom he had never written a single song. He smoked cigarettes and didn't like eating in public, lived with his girlfriend and her mother, wrote almost continuously but shook with nerves at his first solo show to the point that he could barely play, and was roundly fêted by all who knew him as some kind of reclusive genius. That sealed it. The problem was choosing the songs for his debut.

It seemed every time that we reached a decision about the tracks that best represented his work, another handful would appear that would muddy the water once again. But in the end, we've settled for contrasting songs that highlight what is set to be recognised as a major songwriting talent. Oh No Not Again combines a brilliant, urgent riff with other-worldly effects leading up to a powerhouse climax for which a limited edition 7" single is totally unworthy, all the time lyrically addressing the overwhelming inevitability of human attraction. Lose The Dress, meanwhile, highlights Tihista's brilliant wit, combining biting wordplay with a glorious sense of melody ("I'm like a film star who's out of control / I'm like a millionaire getting blown in a limo"). And You Will Be Back Some Day shines with a shimmering confidence and yet conversely sounds as vulnerable as a small child. It's hard to come up with musical comparisons, such is Tihista's ingenuity both musically and lyrically, but we're confident you'll manage that for yourselves. Suffice to say we love KEVIN TIHISTA's songs because they remind us of all that's great about music: sentiment that's never cloying, melodies that are never sickening, and lyrics that are never too clever (a peculiarly English fear, that one).

Trust us, there's more, much more, where these came from.