KISSIN' DYNAMITE BIOGRAPHY

KISSIN' DYNAMITE
Biography

At a glance

Kissin' Dynamite is a five-piece rock band from Burladingen and Münsingen, two towns in Swabia in southern Germany. Its roots lie in Blues Kids, the school band the brothers Ande and Hannes Braun started in 2002; at School Jam 2006 a special prize for "the youngest band" was created for them. Kissin' Dynamite itself formed in 2007, signed to Capitol/EMI at the end of that year, and released its debut, Steel of Swabia, in 2008.

Each record placed higher at home than the last. Ecstasy (2018) gave them their first German top ten, Not the End of the Road (2022) reached number 2, and Back with a Bang! (2024) took them to number 1. They were named Best German Band at the Metal Hammer Awards in 2018.

On 18 September 2026 the self-titled ninth album arrived on Kissin' Dynamite Records, a label the band founded themselves. It is also the last record with Hannes Braun singing.

Forming — from a school band to EMI

It began in 2002 with Blues Kids, the school band the Braun brothers put together. At the School Jam contest of 2006 a special prize for the youngest band was invented for them. From early 2007 they worked with the Flensburg production team Elephant Music, and the demos they sent to labels at the end of that year led to a contract with Capitol/EMI.

Sources split between 2006 and 2007 for the founding year. The German Wikipedia gives 2007 in both its opening and its history; MusicBrainz's activity span and the English Wikipedia's infobox give 2006. The band states no year of its own, though the text introducing the 2026 album speaks of roughly twenty years of activity. This site takes 2007, the only figure any source states as the founding of Kissin' Dynamite rather than of Blues Kids, and claims nothing finer than the year.

The name comes from the AC/DC song "Kissin' Dynamite", as guitarist Jim Müller has told it: during the meeting at which the band was choosing a name, drummer Andi Schnitzer's phone rang, and that song was his ringtone. The original is on AC/DC's Blow Up Your Video (1988), which has a page on this site.

The EMI records (2008-2010)

The debut, Steel of Swabia, appeared on Electrola (EMI) on 18 July 2008. Its twelve songs hold to quick tempos and large choruses, and the title track raises the band's own region as a banner — they would later call it the secret Swabian anthem. Two singles went out on 10 May 2008, "Freaky" and "My Religion", the latter with a clip directed by Dennis Lehmann. Festival dates followed, among them Bang Your Head in 2009.

The second album, Addicted to Metal, came on 26 March 2010, again produced by Elephant Music. Udo Dirkschneider of Accept and U.D.O. sings on the title track; the band had opened for U.D.O. several times by then, so the pairing grew out of a working relationship. At number 91 in Germany it gave them their first chart placing. EMI's Japanese edition, TOCP-66957, followed on 7 July 2010 with fifteen songs, adding "Freaky", "My Religion" and "Lie for Me". Two of those three come from the debut, which made that pressing the band's first substantial introduction in Japan.

The AFM years — climbing, 2012-2017

The third album, Money, Sex & Power, was finished at the end of 2011 and released by AFM Records on 21 March 2012, their first for the label. It reached number 50 in Germany, and they toured it as support to Steel Panther. The title track and "I Will Be King" went out ahead of it, both with videos directed by Martin Müller. Reveltas issued the Japanese edition the same day as SPIN-0035, with the bonus track "Goin' All In".

Megalomania followed on 5 September 2014 and reached number 17. Its advance single "DNA" became a fixture of the live set. King Records released the Japanese edition on its Metal Frontier line as KICP-1706 on 10 September, twelve songs with "Golden Cage" and "In the Eye of the Shitstorm" added.

Generation Goodbye, on 8 July 2016, reached 14 in Germany and 59 in Switzerland. From here the lyrics turn plainly towards taking modern life lightly, "Hashtag Your Life" most obviously. King Records put the Japanese edition out on its Seven Seas line as KICP-1787 on 7 June, a month ahead of the international release, twelve songs with "All Are Equal" added.

The first live album, Generation Goodbye - Dynamite Nights, arrived on 14 July 2017: twenty-five songs from the Stuttgart show of that tour, with Jennifer Haben of Beyond the Black guesting on "Masterpiece".

Ecstasy and the Metal Hammer Award (2018-2019)

The sixth album, Ecstasy, came on 6 July 2018 and reached 7 in Germany, 52 in Austria and 30 in Switzerland — their first top ten at home. The rights were split: Metal Blade Records held the record, and Sony Music Entertainment Germany issued it under exclusive licence on Columbia in Germany. Avalon released the Japanese edition on 4 July as MICP-11427, fourteen songs with "Let There Be Night" added.

That year they were named Best German Band at the Metal Hammer Awards. In the autumn they joined Powerwolf's Wolfsnächte tour alongside Amaranthe, and in the spring of 2019 they headlined their own. Anna Brunner of Exit Eden sings the title track; she and Hannes Braun have been partners for years, and Braun has produced Exit Eden's work as well as every song on which Brunner has sung with him.

The Napalm years — number 2, then number 1 (2021-2024)

Through the stretch when the pandemic left almost no concerts to play, the band gave a drive-in show in the car park of Stuttgart Airport on 4 July 2020, and in August 2021 founded its first official fan club, Kissin' Dynamite Pyromaniacs e.V.

The seventh album, Not the End of the Road, appeared on 21 January 2022 as their first for Napalm Records and reached 2 in Germany, 53 in Austria and 13 in Switzerland. Saltatio Mortis, Charlotte Wessels and Guernica Mancini of Thundermother all sing on the single "Good Life", and the band gave the 6,000 euros it earned to a charity for children with cancer in Tübingen. Avalon released the Japanese edition two days early, on 19 January, as MICP-11671. From December 2022 into January 2023 they headlined a German tour with Dynazty, Formosa and League of Distortion.

Back with a Bang!, on 5 July 2024, took them to number one in Germany for the first time, with 12 in Austria and 11 in Switzerland. Japan got it on 3 July under the Japanese title バック・ウィズ・ア・バング!.

Hannes Braun steps back, and Kissin' Dynamite (2025-2026)

In August 2025 Hannes Braun wrote on social media that he would step away from the rock and roll stage and would no longer be the voice at KD's microphone, giving the toll that years of touring had taken on his health as the reason. He also said he would remain the songwriter, the producer and, as he put it, the captain of the ship, so he is not leaving the band. Sources differ on when the statement came: the band's own site says August 2025, while the German Wikipedia cites the band's own news item, dated 17 September 2025, and says September. This site follows the band's own account of its own announcement.

The self-titled album of 18 September 2026 is their ninth, the first release on their own label, and the last with Braun singing. Six of its thirteen songs are new; the other seven are re-recordings from Steel of Swabia and Addicted to Metal. People the band has worked with across twenty years appear on it: Saltatio Mortis on "I Salute You", Amaranthe on "Out in the Rain", Ralf Scheepers of Primal Fear and Sam Totman of DragonForce on "Steel of Swabia", and Anna Brunner of League of Distortion on "Lie for Me". The sleeve shows a bright red mouth kissing a stick of dynamite — the band's name drawn rather than written. Three final arena shows with Braun fronting the band, in September and October 2026, have been announced.

Line-up

Hannes Braun (vocals), Ande Braun (guitar), Jim Müller (guitar), Steffen Haile (bass) and Sebastian Berg (drums, since 2021). Andi Schnitzer played drums until 2021.

That five-name line-up cannot be confirmed on the band's own site. It names only Hannes Braun, as frontman, songwriter and producer, and Ande Braun, as guitarist and founding member; it calls the band a quintet without naming the other three. The list above comes from the German Wikipedia's infobox. Because this site carries a member section only where a first-party source states the line-up, the artist page here has none.

Both Hannes Braun and Jim Müller worked for the production team Elephant Music. Braun's partner Anna Brunner was there too until the end of 2019, and since the start of 2020 the two have lived in southern Germany, near Reutlingen.

A note on sources

This account draws on the band's own site (home, and the BAND page in both German and English), the German Wikipedia article and its discography sub-page, the English Wikipedia, the MusicBrainz API (artist, release groups, and individual releases including the six Japanese pressings), Apple's iTunes Search and Lookup APIs, the data returned by Spotify's album embeds, and YouTube's oEmbed. Sources disagree about the founding year, 2006 or 2007, and about when Hannes Braun made his announcement, August or September 2025; in both cases the disagreement is stated and one reading taken. They also disagree about the labels behind Generation Goodbye and Ecstasy, where the reading two sources share is used and, for Ecstasy, the actual split of rights is set out instead. Where no first-party source could be found — the city the band formed in, and the instruments of three of its five members — that is said plainly rather than filled in.