Kittie – Interview

Kittie has come a long way. Now with a new EP Safe remixed by KMFDM they hope to take another step towards the crown of metal. Mercedes dishes from her place in London, Ontario, Canada.

Is it nice to have some time off, especially so close to the holidays?

Yeah. It feels good to relax.

How much time do you have off?

Not much really. We head back onto the road in late January.

So have you done any Christmas caroling?

No, I really haven’t been able to do that yet. (We laugh)

What was the reasoning behind the EP?

We had Sascha from KMFDM remix “Safe”. We loved it and had to put it out as an EP. There are also some cool live tracks and videos.

How did you hook up with Sascha?

The company that makes our merchandise makes KMFDM’s merch.

I found him to be a trip.

He is really cool.

I didn’t know what to expect when I interviewed him because they have this certain persona, but he turned out to be great. Do people have preconceived ideas of what the members of Kittie are like?

People think we are going to mean. I’m not really that mean, but I can be mean. (We laugh)

Does it suck?

Yeah, I mean some people get really intimidated. They think we are going to be crazy and just kill someone, but once they get to see we are normal people they calm down and relax.

There is a rumor that Kittie has creepy fans, what’s up with that?

I don’t know why everyone thinks that.

You can go to any show and get creepy fans.

Especially a Backstreet Boys show. There are lots of creepy people there, like creepy old man diddlers.

How did you make it out of London, Ontario?

It was luck really. We submitted our demo to Canadian Music Week, they gave us a slot, and the right people showed up at the right time.

Do a lot of people hand you demos?

Yeah, we used to hand out demos too. Our record label we are with now actually threw out our demo. We sent it to them before and they just threw it out.

When you first created a buzz worry you worried it might come too quick?

We were really happy actually; we were just doing it for fun and didn’t worry too much.

It seemed people were into the band, but didn’t know anything about you as a band.

I know, its ‘cause we were from friggin’ Canada.

There are a lot of good Canadian bands that never make it.

And a lot of shitty ones that do.

Same in the states.

It’s a shame because there seems to be lots of shitty bands all over the place making it.

What good bands do you listen to?

I don’t really listen to the radio; I listen to cds. I listen to lots of different kinds of music. I think the Foo Fighters’ new record is amazing. I like Shadows Fall. Have you heard of them?

No, but I like learning about new bands. Everyone was bitching about pop music a few years back and they begged for rock to make a comeback, but was that a mistake? Because now rock is like pop was, boring and monotonous.

There are a lot of bands that do sound the same, especially any band that has worked with Nickleback. They all happen to be Canadian. I’m not a fan of mainstream rock.

It’s boring.

It totally sucks.

Every album is safe and sounds like 3 Doors Down.

I know, there are a few bands that rock like Queens of The Stone Age, before that they were Kyuss. The Foo Fighters are great because they pave their own way.

How does the writing for the band work?

It’s just Morgan and me.

What is the hardest part about writing?

Morgan takes care of the lyrics; I take care of the music. I don’t find writing hard. The hardest thing is making things work together. Writing music is a piece of cake.

For you…

…I don’t understand how a lot of people have a problem with that. We have had writers block when we got off our tour. We didn’t write for two months. We had no idea what to write about. We were so used to the routine of touring that we had a hard time thinking about writing.

When you write metal do you have to always be in that mode, I mean can you write with an acoustic guitar and be mellow?

It’s always heavy. Writing gives us energy and makes us spazzy and hyper. We get all excited and just write.

How much has all the tour increased your skill at being a group and coming together?

A lot. But we’ve been on the road straight since 1999 and took only five months off last year to record Oracle.

You hear that some bands are tight because they toured for years, yet some bands get signed off a demo and aren’t.

I have no respect for bands that’ve got signed and did only ten shows. We played hundreds of shows before we got signed.

Is it a good or bad thing that in your genre you have to be a road warrior?

It’s a good thing; it separates the men from the boys. You have to have a certain kind of mind to do this. It’s tough. You have to be crazy.

That is what separates rock from all other music, you must be a road warrior to make it in rock.

I love it. A good band will build a good fan base by just touring.

What do you think about kids leaving your show wanting to be in a group?

That makes me really happy.

BTW. Fans look for a new album next year as Kittie is writing right now.

+ charlie craine