The guitarist from heavy metal band baciare is doing a kids' storybook app 

The guitarist from heavy metal band KISS is doing a kids\' storybook app

Due out this summer, Ernest Hummingbird tells the tale of a bird who just wants to sing.

Tommy Thayer isn’t the first guitarist for the band KISS, but he is the first KISS guitarist to also create a mobile app for kids.

Thayer is one of the main forces behind Ernest Hummingbird, a children’s storybook app debuting this summer on iOS and Android. The mobile app tells the story of a hummingbird who wants to sing rather than just hum.

Like many aspiring musicians, the avian protagonist gets pushback from his parents. But, with the help of some friends, he makes his dream come true.

“They learn to sing together and it’s all they want to do,” Thayer said, during a talk at the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco.

Thayer admitted he felt a bit out of place at a software development conference.

“I’m not a techie and I don’t write code and I don’t really design apps either,” he said. “The content and the music and the stories is really what I am into.”

While the app isn’t quite ready, Thayer said he recently showed an early version to KISS frontman Gene Simmons. Simmons, Thayer said, is notorious for looking at something for only a few seconds before sharing his critique. Instead, Simmons watched the full 12-minute narrated version before saying that Thayer had something cool on his hands.

“Coming from Gene, that was quite a compliment,” Thayer said.

Thayer said he has high hopes for Ernest, hoping the hummingbird can eventually fly into his own TV show. Virtual reality is also an area of interest for both the kids app and the band.

“I think VR is the next big thing,” Thayer said. “We want to be there being part of it just like you guys do.”

As for the answer to his most frequently asked question, Thayer said it takes him about an hour to put on his KISS makeup. And yes, all the band members do their own makeup. Thayer said that time is also a special bonding experience for the band members.

“It’s the transition from us, into KISS. I know that sounds a little corny,” he said.

This Article has 460 words. The sidebar size is ad. Chorus thinks that this entry probably does not have a naturally short body.

After three weeks in China, it\'s clear Beijing is Silicon Valley\'s only true competitor

After selling my startup, Shopkick, to SK Planet in 2014, and handing over my CEO role a year later, I packed up my 1- and 3-year-old sons and my wife Angel, and flew to Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong for three weeks, hoping to better understand...

Larry Ellison talked about a long hike with Steve Jobs in USC\'s commencement speech

The decision to save Apple came in the summer of 1995 in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Former execs Dan Rosensweig and Tim Cadogan are also helping in the Yahoo sweepstakes.

Google’s answer to Amazon\'s Echo is code-named ‘Chirp’ and is landing soon

Inside Evan Spiegel\'s very private Snapchat Story

It\'s Evan Spiegel\'s world — we\'re all just snapping in it

Facebook is using Apple’s playbook for virtual reality. Google is using Google’s.