Interview with Mercedes from Kittie
By: Ken Brzezinski |
Monday August 03, 2009 |
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New Album - In the Black - out September 15th |
| Kittie have been tearing down the house all over the world for about 13 years now. Despite several line up changes, a bitter court battle, and even the tragic passing of their father, Mercedes and Morgan Lander are still keeping Kittie alive, kicking, and making sure the rest of the world knows they still have their claws and still know how to use them!! They will be releasing their 5th album, In The Black, on Sept. 15th. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me today. What kind of music did you and your sister listen to growing up? Mercedes: Well when we were really, really, super little it was basically what our parents listened to. Late 70’sm early 80’s rock and metal like Led Zepplin, AC/DC, and Van Halen was like a BIG deal in my household, everyone liked Van Halen. Van Halen or Van Haggar? Oh, obviously NOT Van Haggar! Van Haggar is a great singer, just not with Van Halen. Have you been playing drums since you were 12? Yeah. And did you take lessons at all?  I only took lessons for 3 months. I had one really awesome drum teacher and one really not so awesome one. And after that I just decided to teach myself and it’s worked out a whole lot better that way. Also with us, Morgan was learning the same time I was, so before we were a band, we still played together. It’s a good way to learn your instrument because you always have somebody to jam with. Especially for a drummer because when you always playing with somebody, you have to keep good timing. What was the music scene in Canada like when you guys first started playing shows? London is a really small town and we found it pretty hard to get shows. When we did start playing, we ended up playing with a lot of punk bands, because at the time there were only three metal bands who were in town, excluding us. They wouldn’t play shows with us because they were elitist death metal bands. So we ended up playing a lot of shows with punk bands because the punk scene was huge. And now it’s just the opposite, metal is huge here and there are only a few punk bands who are doing well. Did playing with punk bands influence your style at all? It was definitely different but it didn’t really influence us at all because that wasn’t the type of music we wanted to play. I mean we were just happy to play shows with anyone. We didn’t necessarily like the bands we were playing with but we loved playing. Who inspired you on the drums? Alex Van Halen and Vinnie Paul. What do you think of the virtuoso drummers like Danny Carey, Mike Portnoy, and Neal Pert? It’s not really a style I've really been into. But they are great and wonderful drummers who have done a lot, like develop their own style. Because it’s very rare that a drummer will develop their own style. What do you think of metal now-a-days? Honestly, I don’t listen to heavy music anymore. What do you listen to? Ohhhhh gosh. Mostly, like classic rock. And a lot of nice, slow paced, melodic music. Because I sit around and play metal all day and I don’t feel like being on 11 all the time, you know what I mean? It's a nice break. Have you guys had any Spinal Tap moments? My whole fucking LIFE is a Spinal Tap moment on tour. I've been lost going into my dressing room a hundred times. It's funny because I never had any idea what that movie was about. Then about 10 years ago I was watching it for the first time while I was on tour and I was like "wow...that is so me". Like we had just watched the movie and we were over in England and we all got lost going to the stage from the dressing room. What was it like touring the first time with Slipknot? Yeah it was really really good. I mean they are nice people and we had a lot of fun. I mean we had done some tours before that, but obviously not on that scale. And Slipknot at that time, they weren’t HUGE like they are now, so we got their core fan base. It was a really great tour and we had so much fun. What other bands did you really enjoy touring with? Pantera was probably the most fun to tour with. Ohh, I bet they got you guys f*cked up. I mean you know their reputation for drinking... Yeah, but you know what, I got THEM f*cked up a couple of times too. What they didn’t know was that the alcohol content of our beer is almost twice the content of American beer. Sounds good! Yeah you have to watch out. I've seen people puke all over themselves because they didn’t know what hit them. Have you ever opened for a band whose audience just didn't get Kittie and was not hearing what you ladies had to say? No, well we haven't opened for a band since 2000. And that's not by choice either, we really don’t want to headline anymore. We want to broaden our fan base again. But really, you know, who f*ckin cares, I just want to play music and if you don’t like it, too f*ckin bad. Who would you like to open for if you could? I think Metallica, you know, because they are back being heavy again. I don’t know because I haven’t heard that record but yeah, Metallica would be fun. Do you think they sold out? I don’t think there is any kind of meaning to the word "sellout". Whatever, I'll sell my soul, I don’t give a s*it. Who cares you know? As long as you have a good time, you make some money, and you aren’t starving to death like a lot of bands at our level are, that’s all that matters. So what if you make some money in the process. Who cares? I think "Sellout" is cop out for people to stop liking bands once they get too big. Let’s talk a little about In The Black. It's honestly my favorite album. I hate every other one! Normally I'm really, like super hinky about production, and with the last few records, the production hasn’t been very good. Sonically, they haven’t sounded the best but on this album, I have NOTHING to complain about. What makes In The Black different from your other albums? Honestly...we just took our time with it, and we did our best. We put forth our best effort, you know what I mean? It was really nice with the song writing because for the first time we had Tara there and she put her two cents in. And it was really nice because, you know, we had another set of ears. And towards the end of the writing of this album, Ivy came in and she is just this amazing bass player. She has written some of the most WONDERFUL bass lines. But I think for the most part, this album is the most intricate yet sonically pleasing at the same time. Describe Kittie's writing and recording process... Well with the new record (In The Black), it was the first time we ever had outside people writing with us, which was really nice, and it brought a breath of fresh air. So you and Morgan never had the other members of the band write with you? No, not really, maybe like a riff here or there. But if, like a bass line needed to be written, they'd usually just follow the guitar line. But for the most part it was just Morgan and I. So I guess you are the female equivalent to Lars (Ulrich) and James (Hetfield) from Metallica then eh? I wouldn’t say that. I'd like to think we are at least a LITTLE bit better looking! No, that's just the way things have been. I mean people write their respective parts, but that’s not what song writing is right? Song writing is lyrics, and melody, you know what I mean? Kittie have had a lot of line up changes over the years; when you and your sister Morgan started the band, did you have the attitude of “Ok it’s gonna be us against the world?” No, not at all. I mean the thing is, people either grow up or they change, or whatever. You’re not still friends with the same people you were friends with when you were 12 right? Not really. Well there you go. People’s opinions change. Also the road is not for everyone and I realize this. The road can…it makes people crazy, I’ll say that, and it makes people do crazy things. The reason Morgan and I are still in this band is because we kept a level head and we continued to keep focused on the task at hand. Plus dealing with women is a COMPLETELY different than dealing with men. Women are…very different, I’ll say that. But really, nobody gives a sh*t when someone in a guy band leaves. When someone from our band leaves it’s because they more focused on the aesthetic part of the band and not the music. Can you talk at all what happened with Artemis (Records) or is that a touchy legal issue? I can’t. I wish I could, but I can’t. You know what though, at the end of the day it's whatever. I'm sure, one day those people will get theirs.... How about KISS, can you talk about what happened with them? Yeah see people blew that WAY out of proportion. It was, we were using the name "KISS" and they sent us a cease and desist order so we just had to change the name of the label. It really wasn’t that big of a deal. People said we were in this huge court battle and they really only just sent us a letter.... Any hard feelings? Or is it just business? Well no, if someone was using the name "Kittie" I'd send them a letter, you know what I mean? You have to protect your name and I totally understand that. Has the death of your father influenced how you write? Actually, this album was written before all of that happened. Probably the next record is going to really FUCKED UP. Do you have anything you want to say to the fans in closing? Thank you so much, and.....we love you? And don't forget, the new album is out, Sept. 15th!!!! |
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