Interview & photo by Rachel Jablonski
You may remember them as a young female band from Canada who released an album called Spit in 1999. Or perhaps you think of them as a female three-piece with a male guitarist while on tour in support of their album Oracle. But what do you know about the Kittie of 2004? After some commotion concerning where my tape recorder would lie (it ended up on a box provided by Morgan in the middle of the bus aisle) it was time to find out!
Rachel: Ok, so kind of the typical question, how’s the tour going?
Morgan: Awesome, it’s been a lot of fun.
Jen: We are having a great ass time.
Morgan: But we always do, you know, and I think the package, the line-up, is really good and the crowds are absolutely amazing.
Rachel: You’re on tour with two other bands with female fronts. Does this make the tour any different?
Jen: I don’t think it matters if you have tits and a vagina, you can still play music or sing.
Morgan: Absolutely.
Rachel: Do you get any different reaction at all?
Morgan: No, not at all.
Rachel: Good.
Morgan: Metal music is metal music. I think that lights are starting to go on in people’s heads now days, “Wow fancy that there are women that can scream and play music, too cool…”
Mercedes: Wow! Wooo! Yehah!
Rachel: So Lisa how long have you been in the band?
Lisa: About six months.
Rachel: How has that impacted things?
Lisa: It’s awesome. I’m on tour, I’m playing guitar, hanging out with lovely ladies, having a blast.
Rachel: What did you do before?
Lisa: I was a student before and in a band called To See You Broken and that’s about it.
Rachel: Cool. What college?
Lisa: Seattle Central.
Rachel: What were you studying?
Lisa: Graphic design.
Rachel: Awesome. So did you have to quit for the band?
Lisa: Uh, it kinda worked itself out. Like, I wasn’t really into it and coincidentally at the same time I was offered this so it all worked out.
Rachel: How has it impacted the band?
Morgan: Oh, it has obviously made quite a difference. It feels like we’re complete now, ya know, instead of just the three of us and Jeff playing guitar. He was kind of like the unofficial official fourth member. Lisa is so much fun and everything is just working out very well. We’re happy and a tight unit.
Jen: She’s a great guitarist and she gets better all the time too. She’s very chill which brings a nice level to all of us. So it’s really cool. That’s my take on it, another butt to slap.
Rachel: There was a little bit of a lapse between Oracle and the new one, Until the End.
Morgan: A little? [laughs] Three years goddamnit! [laughs]
Rachel: What did you do/focus on during that period?
Morgan: Well, we were involved in a lawsuit with our label and that is why we were only just recently able to release Until the End. So during those three years we took it upon ourselves to just pretty much hit the road and keep our name out there. It was obviously a frustrating time for us, but at the same time it really enabled us to become a better band and really appreciate all of this. We did like, what, twelve legs of the Oracle American tour?
Jen: Yeah, we did twelve crisscrosses across America for one record. No one does that. [laugh]
Morgan: It was ridiculous. I don’t know of any band…
Jen: Maybe Metallica, but they travel the world and have loads of money. We don’t. So…
Morgan: It was great, but it was also very refreshing to release another album. We actually ended up settling with the record label and were able to do the album.
Rachel: Well good. Your name really hasn’t gone anywhere in that three years, you’re right. Sometimes that is not the case.
Jen: Kittie’s the turd that will never flush.
[laugh]
Mercedes: Because our label doesn’t know how to do a good PR job, we have our own PR person that was really good at keeping our name in the press. And the fact that we toured like ridiculous.
Rachel: Well speaking of that, Mercedes are you ok? I was supposed to see you guys a month or so ago in Lincoln, Nebraska but you had to cancel a few shows…
Mercedes: Yeah, I was really sick for awhile. I had internal bleeding. The doctors don’t exactly know where it came from or what exactly it was, but that’s the only thing I really know. When I got home I had a bunch of tests done and they had no answers for me so…
Rachel: They still found nothing?
Mercedes: Yep. I’m fine now though so…
Rachel: Well that’s good. That’s kind of scary.
Mercedes: Yeah, it kind of is.
Jen: It’s quite scary.
Mercedes: I was hooked up to IVs and machines and tubes down my nose.
Rachel: How long did you have to stay in the hospital?
Mercedes: I was there for collectively three days. I was two days in Cleveland and one day in London.
Rachel: London?
Mercedes: Yeah right by my house.
Jen: In Canada.
Rachel: Ohhhhhhh I get it.
Morgan: Not London, England, but that would be sweet. [laugh]
Mercedes: And I realized our Canada hospitals are fuckin ghetto.
Rachel: There’s a big difference between the two?
Mercedes: Yeah. I’d never been to the hospital before.
Rachel: How was the food?
Mercedes: They didn’t feed me.
Morgan: Actually they took all of the food out of her.
Jen: And that was gross.
Mercedes: Out of my stomach through my nose.
Rachel: Ew. Next question.
Morgan: Yeah exactly.
Mercedes: I checked myself out of the hospital and I was like “I’m going to McDonalds! I’m going to eat!" And I ate two cheeseburgers and like a Big Mac and a large fry.
Rachel: Oh my gosh.
Jen: She was hungry dude.
Mercedes: Oh and I had a McFlurry. I didn’t eat for two days! And they took everything out of my stomach too.
Rachel: M&M?
Mercedes: No, it was Oreo cookie - the only way to go.
Rachel: What’s the main goal or concept of this new album? What did you have in mind when you were writing it?
Morgan: We wanted to make the best album possible and to really show off all of our individual and collective talents, and also show that we are a completely different band. We have a new energy to us; we have a new outlook on life. This Kittie is not to be confused with the Kittie of 1999 or 2000 or even 2001. You know, it’s a totally different band and we sort of have a little bit of a different direction musically that we’re going in. I mean there’s not really like a “message” or a concept behind it. We tend to leave stuff like politics and religion and all of that stuff for the listener to make up their own mind about. A lot of stuff is based on life experiences and relationships and that sort of thing. I mean there’s obviously a lot of frustration in the album too and a lot of hatred and a lot of anger; some of the most pissed off songs I think we’ve ever written sort of reflecting our situation with the label and the fact that we were pretty much being held down and not really able to continue on with our lives. It was a very interesting time. We didn’t know what the hell was going to go on.
Mercedes: We weren’t really sure that we were going to be able to continue on as a band so, you know, I think definitely the music reflects that.
Morgan: They tried to flush us, but we plunged ourselves right back up.
Rachel: How did you end up staying on with the label then? Did you want to look for a different label?
Morgan: We went through every avenue believe me. [laugh]
Jen: We went through every avenue you could possibly think of and things you’d probably never think of we talked about and really explored. There was honestly a couple months that we didn’t know what was going on, we didn’t know if we could continue on a band, and it would have been such a shame if we couldn’t because we had worked so hard. And we were like ok we’re not going out like that so what could we do. I think a lot of bands would have given up at that particular point…
Mercedes: I think a lot of bands would have given up a long ass time ago.
Jen: Yeah, but especially at a point like that, it’s so crucial. I think a lot of people would have said, “You know what this is not gonna happen, this is not gonna work out.” We just weren’t taking no for an answer. We knew we were more than that, but trust me we thought about every avenue. We thought about breaking up and reforming under another name, we thought of absolutely everything. But hey at least we have an album out, that’s really the main thing.
Morgan: And we’re able to tour, we still have great fans. That has never gone away. The fan/band relationship has never been in jeopardy or anything like that. We have great fans and they are very cool. I guess…there’s a train going by. Ahhhhhhhh!
[Enter loud ass train whistle behind the tour bus coming through the window at full volume]
Morgan: But no, believe me, we did try every avenue and from our side of things we would have loved to have been able to find another home, but they weren’t having it.
Mercedes: They wouldn’t let us do it. They weren’t havin it.
Jen: We weren’t havin it either.
Rachel: What would you consider “Career Suicide?”
Mercedes: Artemis Records.
Morgan: Well, the actual song itself not necessarily about that, but…
Mercedes: Well I’m just saying.
Morgan: It’s about doing something to destroy your own career. That’s sorta what the song’s about.
Rachel: I know you said you don’t focus on politics or religion and stuff, but I was wondering. Even though a couple of you are from Canada, do you have any thoughts on the upcoming U.S. presidential election?
Mercedes: Let me handle this. This is a Canadian talking. I personally think that people should make up their own minds about political whatnots and whatever. I personally don’t think it’s a musician’s place to tell anybody what to do or how to vote or what’s right or wrong. I don’t think it’s a musician’s place, I think people should make up their own minds. And I think political bands, that’s really not my thing and I don’t agree with political bands at all. I don’t agree with bands with any sort of message that tries to change people’s minds about things or, you know, influence people. So I am definitely keeping quiet about that.
Jen: I absolutely agree with her, I think we all definitely do; to each his own. If you want to put that into your music, have an awesome time with that, but I also think that if you don’t vote then you shouldn’t bitch.
Mercedes: Yep, I agree with that too.
Jen: So, I’m going to leave it at that. I think we need to rethink our system, it’s never gonna happen, but we need more than two choices.
Rachel: No kidding.
Jen: Leave it at that, but if you don’t vote… I think that’s the beauty in a strange way of being an American. If you want to vote, vote. If you don’t want to, then you don’t have to. But I think there will be some people not voting because they don’t care and because they don’t have any good choices. But you know, whatever, to each his own. But I don’t think in music, for me personally, it’s a bit of a turn off. I like hearing about things I can relate to a little bit more than hearing somebody whining about how much this person sucks.
[laugh]
Rachel: Will you vote this year then?
Jen: Um, actually my absentee ballet still hasn’t shown up and I registered for it weeks ago. If and when it shows up then absolutely I am because I will bitch. I want to be able to bitch for four years, but it doesn’t matter because I will bitch anyway. It’s just an interesting scenario. I do hope that people do whatever they want to do, whatever makes them happy.
Rachel: How do you protect yourself from vocal strain? It’s just unfathomable to me.
Morgan: I don’t even know what protecting from vocal strain is. I don’t, it’s just something I do. It’s not, I don’t know, I don’t want to say that it’s not unnatural because it sounds pretty unnatural, but it kinda is pretty natural. I mean there’s no right way to do it, there’s obviously a wrong way to do it, but there’s actually no right way to do it without doing some form of damage, but whatever I’m doing my voice has lasted for the past five years so I’m obviously doing something right. You know, I have a humidifier…
Jen: You don’t smoke.
Morgan: No, I don’t smoke, that’s a good thing. I try to take drinking to a minimum, but you know sometimes you just gotta let loose.
Jen: I quit smoking and that helped me out a lot for backups. You can tell a huge difference.
Morgan: But that doesn’t mean that we’re not getting all the smoke in the world from all the fuckin...
Jen: Oh yeah all the shows, all the smoke. Why don’t I just…
Morgan: Eat a whole pack! Put them all in my mouth at once and just smoke em at once.
Jen: Exactly.
Morgan: Yeah I even stopped warming up on this tour. I’m happy things aren’t broken.
Rachel: I hope it stays that way.
Morgan: I had the scope one time, they put it down my nose into my throat and I think there’s nothing wrong, so I don’t have any problems.
Rachel: Well this is kind of a dumb question, but Tommy Lee is at my school, the University of Nebraska right now…
Mercedes: Going back to school right?
Rachel: Yeah filming some sort of reality series or something.
Jen: Good lord.
Mercedes: He’s going back to school!
Jen: He’s getting a facelift.
Morgan: He’s seriously getting a facelift?
Jen: He’s doing some extreme makeover reality show with plastic surgery.
Morgan: He needs liposuction too.
Mercedes: He needs to stop eating hamburgers.
Jen: Dude.
Rachel: So I was wondering if you had your own reality series what would it be about?
Mercedes: It would be just about us on tour because…
Morgan: The struggles of an all female band…
Jen: Just follow all four of us. That is all you have to do.
Morgan: Totally the whole premise could be like, I mean, we’re not a rich band by any means. We don’t have anything handed to us at all. It would be like the struggles of a small to medium sized band trying to make ends meat on the road. Not only that but there are four chicks in a metal band of which there aren’t very many so it’s interesting in itself. And it would be fucking funny as hell.
Jen: Oh, it would be so hilarious. Everyone would be like wow.
Morgan: It would be ridiculous.
Jen: If you would have followed us so far on this tour amazing footage would have been shot.
Rachel: Do you bring a video camera with you?
Jen: Yeah, we try. Sometimes we’re involved in what’s happening so it’s hard to remember oh let me grab the camera…
Morgan: Oh, this is great stuff let me get the camera!
Jen: So it’s kind of hard to do that, but we have some priceless footage.
Morgan: Oh yeah, like the guy we met a couple nights ago.
Jen: Yeah, this dude other night, I can’t remember where it was…
Morgan: It was in Toledo, Ohio.
Jen: Yeah, it was in Toledo and he had this sweatshirt wrapped around him and he was playing it like guitar so he was like wooooooooooo and he was playing the “guitar” and he was singing into it and was like rahhhhh rahhhhhhh rahhhhhh [high pitched notes]. Ah, he was so outstanding. He could be like the DVD menu like when you get to that part of the DVD. Just him going for it. That would be great. We have people playing broomsticks, we have people running themselves or cars into gates and all kinds of shit. People are crazy.
Mercedes: Drunk idiots.
Jen: Some people have no regard so we try to catch that on tape.
Morgan: Crazy fans.
Mercedes: Sluts.
Morgan: Everything.
Jen: People that just need to be smacked, all of that.
Morgan: All across the board.
Rachel: Sounds like fun! Is there any sibling rivalry?
Morgan: Well we’re sisters, but we’re not like rolling around in hallways beating the shit out of each other.
Rachel: I can’t imagine being on tour with my sister, so I was just curious.
Mercedes: Morgan and I get along pretty well.
Morgan: It can be interesting sometimes, but I mean I think we do get along fairly well.
Rachel: That’s good. So what are your future plans?
Mercedes: Put out some more records and find a decent home.
Jen: Find a decent home that supports us.
Rachel: Have you had time to work on any new material?
Mercedes: We have some ideas I’m sure.
Morgan: When we get home when this tour is finished we’ll have to all sort of chill for a few weeks and then regroup and figure out what the timeline is. I mean… [laugh] what the hell we’re going to do because we really have no idea. I mean there could be another tour, but at the same time we could also possibly go in the studio in a few months.
Rachel: How long does this tour run?
Jen: The middle of November.
Mercedes: It ends in Mexico.
Jen: I can’t wait for that. We’re big down there.
[some indistinguishable Mexican related singing begins from Morgan and Jen]
Rachel: Really?
Jen: It’s great down there, we felt like Metallica last year. People were at the airport. We were like woah.
Morgan: Yeah, getting autographs. That was funny.
Mercedes: Next time I need to make sure I fly with makeup on.
[laugh]
Mercedes: I’m just like ohhhhhhhhh.
Rachel: What town?
Jen: It was in Mexico City and it was spectacular. Those kids went berserk. I really underestimated… I didn’t underestimate those kids, but they were absolutely fucking crazy so I can only imagine this time out to see what it’s going to be…
Morgan: Yeah, cause it was our first time there and we has no idea what to expect. And they put us in this HUGE place. I remember going, but 50 people are going to show up, whatever. And 3,000 showed up.
Jen: Three thousand in a small stadium and we were like holy smokes.
Mercedes: I think the place we’re playing this time is probably even bigger. And when we played last summer we hadn’t had a record out in three years so I can only imagine…
Jen: Our new record’s out down there too so…
Morgan: We do have distro in Mexico actually for the first time ever.
Rachel: That’s awesome. Do you have anything else you’d like to add?
Mercedes: Go to http://www.kittierocks.com, buy our new album Until the End, it’s awesome.
Jen: Forget what you’ve heard and buy that record and play it loud.
Rachel: I haven’t had time to review it yet, but I’m on it.
Morgan: Cool.
Rachel: So that’s about it.
Morgan: And come to a show.
Jen: Come to a show; come see us play in your town.
Kittie collectively: Yay… [complete with golf claps]
Rachel: Thank you very much.
Jen: Thank you!