KITTIE
Intro by Trystam Spiro-Costello
Interview by Christine Natanael
Photos by Gary Quintal

LINKS:
kittierocks.com

artemisrecords.com

Cats were once worshipped, blah blah blah, etc. etc. Though cats seem to have never forgotten this, somewhere along the line Kittie was forgotten. Slammed with bad luck, band member turnover, public doubt of their abilities, and the soundman from hell (and I mean that in a bad way), the girls in Kittie still kept on touring and playing. Christine Natanael crossed paths with Morgan Lander in October for this interview. At the time, Kittie was between periods of good will with their label Artemis. Though ow the girls of Kittie are back on track with them.
Kittie is currently in London, Ontario recording a new album titled, Until the End They have Steve Thompson of Korn and Anthrax fame working as the producer. The album should be out this summer. Once again Kittie will be worshipped as the queens of metal, and I mean that in a Queen Elizabeth way, not an Anne Boelyn way.

CN: But how big is the place over there? I’ve never been there.

ML: Um, it’s actually, it’s a newer club. It’s about 500 capacity.

CN: All right, so you’re doing smaller places.

ML: It’s a nice cozy little club. You know, in kind of a quaint little area. You know, Farmingdale.

CN: Yeah. It’s suburban Long Island.

ML: Very. It’s a very rich, very white kinda place but the club is amazing. It’s actually co-owned by Sam Ash, and there’s like amazing guitars all over the walls, you know. It’s really clean, and the people were really good, so.

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CN: Yeah, it’s a suburban Long Island clean kind of thing. Unlike New York City where I live, you know, we have places like CBs.

ML: But you know what? That’s character.

CN: Yeah, it is, I mean, you know. I’m big on character, I’m big on attitude. I’m big on, if you feel it in your soul then, then it’s gotta show.

ML: We have fun no matter what, so it’s all good.

CN: That’s good. We've got a lot of stuff going on with you guys lately, huh?

ML: Yes, there has been. There’s been quite a lot of stuff and it’s been really mind-numbing. Well, you know, we’re trying to persevere through all of that stuff, but we, really more than anything, we just wanna make our music and tour and, you know, do our craft. We don’t really care about, you know, the money side of things.

CN: Yeah, but--

ML: It helps, but, you know.

CN: I mean, as an artist, your first thought shouldn’t be the accounting, it should be the creative end, but, still in all, if somebody’s screwing you, you gotta definitely stand up, so.

ML: Oh absolutely. You have to take notice when--I mean we’ve been working very hard and touring and all that stuff and if you’re not being compensated for your hard work, then there’s something that has to be done about that. I mean, we should be getting what we deserve for our efforts.

CN: Well you’re getting compensated; it’s just somebody standing in the way of you getting your compensation, that’s the problem.

ML: Oh, yeah yeah, if they’re collecting for us. It’s really unfortunate more than anything because we really feel like we deserve support and we deserve a label that will be able to work with us and we really haven’t had that for quite a long time, and so we’ve just sort of made up for that by doing things ourselves. It’s good to know that, we’re able to get things done on our own because we’re doing it, but, you know, it’s also very nice to have a label that, is really, you know, wants you to succeed. It’s an interesting climate right now, for music and for indie labels, I mean, the ones that are doing really well are really doing well and the ones that you know, aren’t, haven’t been watching the money and you know, that sort of thing.

CN: Well, the thing is, what people term, “Indie Labels” now, are usually distributed by majors anyway, and they haven’t truly been Indie since like the early 90’s. So, I mean, unless you’re talking about something like Alternative Tentacles, which has always been so Indie it’s not even funny, or like Discord, or like the Punk labels that I deal with. They’re always going to be so under the borderline no one’s gonna fuck them over. There’s not enough money there to bother with.

ML: Absolutely.

CN: Um, so tell me about the new songs that you’ve been doing.

ML: Um, well we’ve been playing five new songs on the road and uh, you know, just kind of road-testing them, seeing how the fans react and you know, talking to them afterwards and getting their opinions and that sort of thing. I mean, they really are quite elite from again, the last album. It’s like complete transition, and just--

CN: How so in transition, I mean, I haven’t heard the music yet, so describe to me what it’s like. Is there a difference in guitar tone, or the way you’re vocalizing, or maybe the amount of distortion compression you’re using?

ML: Well for me personally, both lyrically and like melodically speaking, I think, you know, touring off of this last album for the past couple of years has really strengthened my voice, and I’ve really been able to learn and understand what are my strengths and improve on those. So, I don’t know. My voice has just taken a complete leap, so you know, there’s a couple of songs that are like vocally driven, like melodically driven, and it’s, I’m even impressed with what I’m able to come up with. Which is amazing I’m really surprised that it’s taken like another leap forward into I guess, well, maturity, and just strength.

CN: Yeah. Well, it’s a muscle so the more you use it, the stronger it gets.

ML: Yeah, and not only that but the screaming is getting scarier too.

CN: I don’t understand.

ML: Fans every once in a while make sure I’m not growing a dick and balls, it’s so frightening.

CN: It’s like, I wonder how you do that like every day, because I can’t do it. I sing. Personally it shreds my vocal chords, so I mean, there must be a way to do it that I haven’t figured out.

ML: I think it’s like, when we first started, I was doing it differently, and I was finding that I was having a lot more throat problems and getting sick and that sort of thing. I don’t know, over the years I’ve just kind of developed, you know, a certain way of doing it, which I have range and I also, you know have power to yell without hurting my throat, and I don’t know if it’s just that my vocal chords have turned into concrete ‘cuz I’ve been doing it for, you know, three-four years straight, or if it’s like I’m doing something projection wise. To me it feels like it’s a little bit more like, you know, using my diaphragm and projecting instead of just opening up my mouth and that sort of thing.

CN: Yeah. I mean, when I heard you doing it and I heard your music first off, no one told me the name of the band, and I thought it was this band called 13 that was really popular like in the early 90’s, but they were originally called Thunderpussy. Then I was like, “Oh my god, there’s more girls doing that?” Because not too many of them really can.

ML: Yeah. It’s uh, I don’t know. It’s weird, especially because we’re from Canada and there wasn’t really much of a, you know, like a scene when it comes to that sort of thing where we’re from. It's just one of those things.

CN: So, were you always into the Death Metal aspect of it? I mean, how did you get into Cannibal Corpse? What did you start with, and at what age?

ML: Um, I think our musical taste has sort of evolved over the years. I mean, definitely when we were 14 and 13 years old, when we wrote the songs for our first album, we weren’t into that sort of thing, but you know, as we’ve grown older and progressed and wanted to find more extreme, stuff in music just to, I guess appease our taste for extreme music, that we’ve gotten into heavier things. It started out with Pantera and Slayer and just staple kind of bands that help you along the way to more and more crazy stuff. When we started out I was into a lot of Helmet and Tool and grunge bands, like Nirvana and Hole and that sort of thing. That was sort of what was popular when I was a little bit younger and that sort of helped me to get into heavier bands as well. But that was more the influence for the first album, and then as we toured and got out of our little hole called London, Ontario, we experienced a little bit more of the world and you know, got into crazier kinds of music.

CN: What do you listen to now? I mean, what are you listening to these days for enjoyment then?

ML: I don’t know it’s been so long since I’ve bought a CD. For some reason, I’m kind of in this weird I-haven’t-listened-to-music-in-such-a-long-time kind of thing. I don’t know what it is, but the last couple CDs I bought are pleasantly not that extreme at all. I bought the new Gathering CD.

CN: Uh huh.

ML: I really like them, they’re cool. they’re an ambient kind of band with an amazing vocalist.

CN: Mm hm.

ML: And I bought, a band from England’s CD, they’re called Homes for Heroes.

ML: I don’t know, I think for us though, we’ve never really hit that peak where I think, you know, we ever had egos. I don’t know. I’m not really sure if it’s different for women as it is for men, because I know it’s very, very ego driven and that sort of thing. But for us, we never really had a problem, you know, like keeping connected, I don’t know. It’s really weird. I’m, I still am and always have been like really gracious and thankful and humble. And you know what? And I think that does help with the whole ego thing. I mean no matter who you are, there’s always gonna be somebody whose gonna say, you know, “oh you suck” or, you know, “you’re not all you’re cracked up to be” but I think it’s, it’s different for women because there’s always that--

CN: That sexual aspect.

ML: Yeah and, you know, like, you know, “you sucked a dick to get somewhere” or--

CN: Yeah.

MK: “You don’t really play your instruments,” and so there’s always something that makes us wanna burst across, you know? I’m just speaking from personal experience here. Play harder and be better and you know, appreciate it more because, you know, when I see bands that are assholes to their fans, to me it’s like, you’re taking something for granted. It’s like, you know one day you’re gonna wake up and this is all gonna be gone.

CN: Yeah, well I remember that I had to become really hard and I created this character, The Writer From Hell, and I could out drink them, and out curse them, and I was just as crude as they were. You know, because I was a tomboy anyway, but I noticed, I felt for you like when the whole Coalchamber thing went down, that quote thing, and I was like, god that is so similar to what happened to me, it’s like just ‘cuz you don’t have a dick, they automatically question everything about you and wanna make you subservient. What is that?

ML: Absolutely.

CN: But they don’t do it to people like Blondie you know? Different scene, I think that’s why.

ML: Yeah, and it’s, I don’t know. It’s just weird because it’s like, well if you’re a woman than you automatically don’t either deserve what you’ve gotten, or it’s not true that you are the one writing, or, there always has to be an excuse.

CN: Or you’re getting by on your looks or you’re sleeping with so and so, or you know.

ML: Yeah. I mean, personally, the way I saw that whole Coal Chamber thing went down, I think it had a tremendous effect on what people thought about us and the way we were perceived. I mean, it was at the time when it was that Coal Chamber was uh, you know.

CN: Pretty big--

ML: Visible, and you know, we were just kind of emerging and that sort of thing, I mean, to this day people ask, oh, you know, “Are you really playing your instruments?” People will come up to us and ask you know, like are our guitars techs when they’re tuning while we’re playing and say, “Hey, are you playing right now? You’re playing, aren’t you?” and I mean, it’s like even to this, I mean, to this day, it’s still questioned and people still believe that, like, oh, that you know, my dad writes our songs.

CN: What was that? That was just weird.

MK: Like that, that’s the most preposterous thing I think I’ve ever heard. Anyone who could think that a 55 year-old man…

CN: That’s what I’m thinking, it’s like, "yeah right!"

ML: You know what I mean? Like, that’s just crazy. And I mean, I’m very thankful that my dad is involved, you know, has been involved with this in terms of managing.

CN: Right.

ML: You know, because we’ve, I think, been protected from, you know, people who really just didn’t have you know, ourselves in their, in their best interests-- our well-being and that sort of thing.

CN: Yeah, like that whole thing with the handler-- what was that, what was he supposed to be, like a tour manager, or liaison or something?

ML: What, my dad?

CN: No, no, the guy that they said that they sent out to try and separate you from your dad.

ML: Oh yeah, well he was, he was our sound man.

CN: He was a sound man? He wasn’t even like the tour manager?

ML: No, but he was, he was friends with Danny Goldberg, and I mean he did, he did do some tour managing, ‘cuz at the time, you know, it was pretty hectic and you know, my parents were mostly just out there to look out for us and not…

CN: Yeah, like personal managers.

ML: Yeah, it was pretty much just that. Things where he started to, you know, kind of takeover, and my parents needed help, and that sort of thing, and it became a problem. One night he got drunk and, actually this is how we found out, he told our bus driver that he was sent to put some distance between, you know, to get us away from the parents so that we could be more easily manipulated.

CN: Isn’t that funny?

ML: Like when you’re sixteen and seventeen, years old, that’s a frightening thing.

CN: Well considering, like at sixteen and seventeen, you’re usually trying to rebel against your parents-- but since your parents were down with your program, for them to try and separate you, like you’re asking for more trouble really.

ML: Yeah.

CN: You know? Because at least--

ML: It definitely was a crazy time.

CN: Yeah, I can imagine, but isn’t it amazing how when people drink the truth really comes out.

ML: Oh yeah, I do that sometimes, you know.

CN: It’s like thank god for alcohol in that instance, you know?

ML: Absolutely.

CN: So, you’re playing with Motograter and 40 Below Summer.

ML: Um hmmm.

CN: So, how're you getting on with them?

ML: Um, well actually, we’ve played with 40 Below Summer before. We actually played with them a few years ago in New Jersey. It was the show that they had actually gotten signed at. And we actually, I’ve never, previous to this tour, played with Motograter, but I met them at the Ozzfest in Detroit, you know, just pretty much said "hello" and whatever and that was that, but so far’the tour has been going really smoothly, you know. It’s, it’s sort of like we, we don’t mesh musically, stylistically, but…

CN: I know.

ML: …but, you know, like all three bands. Which is cool.

CN: Yeah, I think you know, that bill reminds me of like, stuff I used to see when I was young because I remember like one of my first shows I ever saw was Rainbow opening for REO Speedwagon.

ML: Oh.

CN: Or just bizarre shit like that, you know?

ML: Yeah.

CN: So your bill is not so far off.

ML: But I mean it’s just like we, we do have some things in common, you know, but it’s, you know, it’s all very different than I think by far we’re the heaviest, more, you know, most I guess hardcore metal sort of influence.

CN: You’re headlining obviously, right?

ML: Yes. We are.

CN: Motograter I just saw at Ozzfest, and I didn’t really like their record too much because the production was muddy. It just sounded like it was muffled, and when I saw them live they were nothing like that, and I was like, “wow” --god, what a vast difference, you know?

ML: Yeah, well I mean they do, they do have a, have a good live show, just you know, based on the visuals and that sort of thing too. But it’s pretty crazy to watch, especially with the uh, the motograter bass player.

CN: You know, for the life of me I couldn’t see that thing when I was there. Maybe I just wasn’t looking in the right place. I think I was more amazed by the--

ML: Stage set-- you know, I don’t know-- I’ll get back to you on that. I’ll let you know.

CN: I was more amazed by the fact that it was like 90-something degrees outside and these guys are covered in head to toe body paint and I was waiting for them to keel over from heat exhaustion from not being able to sweat. You know? But ultimately, you know, they had shorts on, so obviously they didn’t paint those parts of their bodies otherwise they probably would have fallen out.

ML: Oh yeah. I just don’t know how they, how they keep their bus clean really.

CN: I don’t think they do. I don’t know. I didn’t go on that one.

ML: Yeah, because I was asking, I was like, you know, “what does your bus look like?” and one of the guys said that his bunk is black.

CN: Yeah, right.

MK: From the paint and that’s like, wow you know? Like, what if there isn’t showers at the venue? You know, you’ll have to wear that paint and then wakeup the next day and shower.

CN: I know. Can you imagine what-- oh my god, what their damage charges are gonna be on that bus? For the repair and cleaning?

ML: Oh yeah.

CN: That’s just like ridiculous, ugh. Forget about it.

ML: Absolutely crazy.

CN: I think the, the craziest tour bus I’ve ever seen, well it had to be at Lallapalooza when I went to interview the guy from Boy Sets Fire.

MK: Oh really?

CN: That place looked like World War III, I mean, and at one point he took me in the back lounge ‘cuz there was a lot of people in the front like his son, his girlfriend, and stuff, and there was like suitcases and piles of clothes, you couldn’t even see the bunks, or the couches in the back lounge. I was just like, walking through the hall where the bunks are over piles of clothes and stuff, I was like, this is just out of control.

ML: Yeah, I don’t know, I always thought our bus was messy, but I guess you know, we’re just a bunch of organized girls, so.