Morgan of Kittie 3.30.07

Kittie was founded in 1996 by sisters Mercedes and Morgan Lander when they were barely on the cusp of adolescence. Now at the ages of 23 and 25, they are ccomplished musicians, writes and well seasoned veterans of the industry. The ladies are now poised to strike at history again with new music that expresses quantum leaps in evolution and a fresh and very talented lineup. Click here to see their website (site opens in a new window).

 

Chris - How’s your tour going with Walls of Jericho?
Morgan - The tour went great!  I’d say it was an amazing success!  It was the first time we had been out in 10-11 months.  All the shows were either sold out or packed houses.  It was a good vibe.  All the bands were sort of different.  It wasn’t like real boring.  We all had the ability to keep the energy up.  It wasn’t the all the same style.  Everybody had their own thing going on.   It was all heavy stuff.  Good times!

C - Do you have another tour coming up?
M - We are doing the second leg of the tour.  Starting April 13th.  Starting in Toronto,  our first Canadian show in quite a few years so we are all pretty excited about that, and we are going through the states to a city near you. 

C - Who are you guys touring with coming up?
M - Actually it will be similar to the lineup of this past tour.  Walls of Jericho will be our main support, In this moment, Neurosonic, and I Killed the Prom Queen.

C - Kittie has toured with a bunch of different bands along the way, who has been your favorite to be on tour with?
M - For crazy memory-wise and that sort of thing, I would definitely say the Ozzfest.  That was a good mix.  Hanging out with bands like Pantera was definitely pretty cool. 

C - That’s when I first started listening to you guys, back in 2000 when you guys first played Ozzfest.
M - Did you actually see us on the Ozzfest?
C - Yeah
M - Sorry to hear about that
C - Why is that?
M - Well a lot has changed.  We weren’t the best band back then.  We were kind of a different species.

C - How did Kittie get signed on for Ozzfest so early starting out??
M - I guess there was a really good buzz going around about our music at the time. I guess we sort of a late edition to the Ozzfest.  I mean coming from London, Ontario, I totally honestly didn’t fathom the impact of Ozzfest.  It was a crazy time, a lot of fun!

C - How does Ozzfest in the states differ from Ozzfest in Europe?
M - There wasn’t really that much of a difference, I mean size-wise the arenas in Europe were bigger, like the one in Donnington Park.  The scale of the festivals over in Europe seemed a lot bigger.

C - How did you guys first get noticed/signed to Artemis records?
M - Originally we weren’t on Artemis records, we were with MG records.  We sent out quite a few demos in ’99,  and really didn’t get much of a response.  We did start talking with some people at MG records, and finally did meet up with them in Toronto, and we pretty much invited them to come and see the show. From there that was history.  We weren’t a huge label.  I mean Artemis wasn’t a huge label.  MG was really really interested in the band and did see the potential in our music.  They wanted to make it happen.  It was definitely on a small scale.   They just printed a few thousand copies originally, and that was all we were going to sell.

C - How did you guys go from there to Artemis?
M - They actually merged, so it had nothing to do with us being dropped or switching labels, or anything like that.  Artemis records was a newly formed  label, they were buying up foreign labels to acquire their catalog. We ended up being on MG/Artemis, and that lasted a few years. 

C - How was your departure with Artemis?
M - It was a little bit on the negative side, but we are free of them now.  It took a lot of work, a lot of time, and in the long run a lot of the things that happened kind of hurt the band.  A fact is a fact and we came out on the other side relatively unscathed.  We are still ready to be a band and make music and that sort of thing.  So, it didn’t really effect us that much.

C - Do you have any advice for bands starting out?
M - Definitely educate yourself on the industry, there are a lot of books out there.  Find out how contracts work, and how the hierarchy of the industry works.  Its good to educate yourself so your not taken advantage of, put thru the ringer, and you never really know what your going to get into.  You never know what your signing unless you read it, have a lawyer look at it, and you understand it yourself.  It could be anything. 

C - How excited are you that Funeral for Yesterday is released on your own label X of Infamy?
M - Oh, its crazy!  Its been definitely a stressful experience, but its not really something that is completely new to us.  I mean for the longest time even while on our past record label, we were acting pretty much as our own label ourselves.  Because communication was bad, unfortunately we had to do a lot of the stuff ourselves, to get our name out there, and keep going.  So, now with our new label its just an official title.  We are pretty accustomed to it.  Its really exciting to be your own label to be the master of your own destiny.  Help to make your own dream come true.  At least you know if your going to do the work, its going to get done. 

C - How do you go about signing bands to your label?
M - I guess in the future it might be something that might be plausible, but at this point I think we are just going to remain guinea pigs.  If our situation works out with Kittie than we will have the ability to bring in other bands, and do that sort of thing, but for right now we are just going to focus on ourselves.   Make things happen that way.  I mean its not out of the question, but I think we are still quite a few years till then.

C - You were 13 yr old when you started composing ‘Brackish’? Do you still play that song live anymore?
M - Yes unfortunately.  We have to acknowledge our past and that sort of thing.  Its just really difficult.  It’s a song we wrote when we were 12 and 14.  Its definitely updated for our ability levels now.  Its not a terrible song.  People enjoy hearing it.

C -What inspired you to play in/start a rock band?
M - Its really difficult to pinpoint.  I think out of boredom.  I think my sister and I first started playing instruments when we moved to London Ontario.  We were two kids who just moved there.  New kids at the school, We really didn’t have a lot of friends and I think it kind of shaped and molded our future.

C - Who are your guitar influences?
M - Growing up we listened to a lot of 70ish classic music, but I never admired a particular person.   I just try to do what feels right for me.  I did grow up to like Van Halen, and Ted Nugent and that sort of thing.  But in no way to I try to emulate what they do.  I have more of my own style.  I’m more of a rhythm player, and I write songs, and I’ll leave the noodling to Tara.

C - How does a Kittie song come about? Who writes the lyrics? How does the music come together?
M - Usually its just Mercedes and I.  We just get together, have joint ideas, talk around back and forth.  I have different riffs of a song.  Mercedes plays a pretty mean metal guitar just so you know.  We have such a great relationship, as sisters, as songwriters, that things come together pretty quickly.  We kind of know what each others next move is going to be.  We’ve been playing together for so long, within 20 minutes to a half an hour we pretty much mapped out the songs.  She is definitely amazing at arranging things around.  I’m more of here is a riff for the verse, here is a riff for the chorus.  How can we put these together.  Actually on this new album Mercedes wrote quite a few lyrics to songs, and worked with me on the melodies as well.  We are both interchangeable when it comes to that sort of thing.

C - Congrats on the launch of your clothing line ‘Poisoned Black’!
M - Its kind of our little thing.  We are just starting out small.  Its something we were thinking of when we were trying to figure out what we were going to do with our lives.  We were looking for something to occupy our time.  Its an extension of ourselves.  Its pretty cool!

C - How did the idea get started?
M - Its something we always wanted to do.  We have pretty distinct, very different styles.  I think we wanted to design clothes that we wanted to wear really.  It was more of an extension of ourselves.  I know ‘ooooh’  everyone has a clothing line now, but whatever.  Most clothing lines women’s line is a wifebeater.  We wanted to go beyond that.  We wanted to design stuff that is pretty cool. 

C - I see that Kittie will be included in the upcoming dvd ‘REAL ROCK DIVAS’ along side others like Lacuna Coil, The Donnas, Lita Ford, Bif Naked. How did you get involved in this? What should we expect to see when watching this?
M - Yeah, I’m not sure about that.  I actually haven’t heard about that at all.  I read it on blabbermouth myself. 

C - So nobody asked your guys permission on that at all?
M - That’s what I’m saying.  I haven’t heard anything about that.

C - The music style of Kittie has changed quite a bit since ‘Spit’. (At least I think so…..) What do you contribute that to?
M - Growing up really.  You cant really expect to be into the same things you were when you were 12 and 13.  I mean I’m 25 now.  I’ve been in a band for 11 years.  There is bound to be some evolution and some improvement.  I can’t stay an angry 16 year old forever.  Being on tour for the past 9 years has allowed me to be my own person, be a better guitar player, develop my own style, as opposed to emulating my guitar heroes when first starting out.  Things happen so quickly for us that we didn’t really have time to find ourselves.  Only now are we starting to define the art. 

C - I think it was very cool of you guys to do in store appearances at FYE.
M - Yeah that was fun!

C - I like that Kittie has tried to keep the fans involved.
M - Absolutely!   That is the only reason that we are still here.

C - What’s the craziest thing a fan had done to get someone’s attention??
M - There was this one time when this dude pulled out his glass eye, and put it into his mouth.  All kinds of girls lifting their shirts up desperate for attention.  Showing us their boobs and stuff.  All kinds of crazy stuff, they  buy us things, or they make us food.  I guess their own personal way of saying thank you.  I can’t really complain.   Food or boobs or whatever

C - How was your acoustic jam on Sirius radio? Do you do many acoustic sets?
M - That went really really well actually.  It was the first time we have done anything acoustic wise.  There are only a few tracks that translate well into acoustic.  I think we will do a lot more of that coming up.  Maybe with our instore appearances at FYE.

C - Do you have aggressive marketing ideas now that your on your own label? (singles, promos, videos, tours etc)
M - I don’t think we are going to do anything all that different.  Technology is different now.  With myspace and that sort of thing.  As of right now we have been doing things pretty much old school word of mouth, radio, and that sort of thing.  We just did a video.  Hopefully that will start getting played.  I believe it was just played on Headbangers Ball.

C - Thanks for your time!