KITTIE INTERVIEW
October 18, 2002


Ed Martin for Prophecy21.com: How's the tour been going so far?
Morgan Lander of Kittie: Awesome, it's been metal as fuck and all the shows have been totally energetic. I mean from the get go we've been absolutely ready to just get in there and get crazy. We're totally like amped just to play. Amped is one of your words Jen but I had to use it.
Jennifer Arroyo of Kittie: Yeah amped I'm always amped, cept right now I think that pizza we had messed me up.

P21: What are your plans for after this tour?
Morgan: I think we're gonna take a couple months off I know we all wanna do the Christmas thing with our families. I know Jen wants to have Thanksgiving with her mom.
Jen: With my mom, my metal mom.
Morgan: So yeah, we'll prolly just take the rest of the year off. Maybe, if we feel like it we'll hook up and demo some stuff. But, we'll prolly be back out on the road in January.

P21: What do you usually do to kill time on the road?
Morgan: Uh, pick our butts. No, we fill our time with mirth and joy and happiness and interviews...
Jen: Yup, good long interviews.
Morgan: ...and traffic jams and people not knowing how to get back to the clubs. Yeah, there is always somewhere to go and someone who doesn't know how to get there.
Jen: And they always ask us how to get there cause we know of course.
Morgan: I dunno we just chill. We got our Tetris machine here. It's not even a Game Boy anymore its just the Tetris machine.
Jen: We've got Playstation 2 on here and as you can see there's lots of good stuff for killin' time.
Morgan: The beauty of this tour is that we are all friends and we all love each other. So we just sit and chill and talk ya know.
Mercedes Lander of Kittie: And makeout and stuff.
Morgan: Hey, hey ever seen the back of a bus. Actually I dunno if you'd wanna cause Rick is back there.
Jen: Yeah, he's back there diddling with the channel changer watching Charmed. He's like ahhhhh that girl who was in Teen Steam.
Mercedes: Isn't it Alyssa Milano on that show.
Jen: Yeah, that's it Alyssa Milano.
Morgan: Wow, she's got big boobs are they fake or real? Anyways go ahead with the questions?

P21: What are some of your favorite bands you have played with in the past?
Morgan: I think we can all agree that the last tour we did. The tour with Poison The Well, Shadows Fall, and Killswitch Engage. Those were two of the most exciting, fun months that we have ever had on a tour. I mean we all got along with those guys really well they were like brothers to us and they are all like our favorite bands so it was totally cool to get to hang out with them and chill and drink and party.
Mercedes: Yup they are our boyfriends.
Jen: Oh yeah, they are all our boyfriends, all of 'em.
Morgan: Oh and Mastodon, we've never played with them but those guys are cool. And Cephalic Carnage we never played with them either but those guys are our friends. We have lots of friends that are in bands and stuff cause we just really love music, we love touring, it doesn't even matter if we like the bands music as long as their cool.

P21: What bands would you like to play with in the future that you haven't yet?
Jen: December.
Morgan: Yeah, and Lamb of God, they are very cool nice guys so that'd be cool.
Mercedes: Kinda weird they drank all of our beer.
Morgan: Yeah, the first time we met them they were totally weird, but the next time we met them it was like we had known them forever.

P21: What is your favorite song to play live?
Morgan: Mouthful of Poison. We added this magical extended breakdown and its all slow and like aahhh.Mercedes: It's a happy surprise.
Jen: And it makes the song ten times better.

P21: What will the Safe EP have on it other then the remix of Safe?
Morgan: Actually there are two remixes. One is kinda like a radio sort of mix ya know and then there is the KMFDM one as well. And there are five live tracks that we recorded at the Anaheim House of Blues on the last tour and it also has like a little CD-ROM thing with three songs that we recorded at the Whiskey in Hollywood. It is really like a super added bonus. It is like a more fruitful Paper Doll EP with better stuff on it.
Mercedes: But it's not fruity!
Jen: Its ripe, very ripe.
Morgan: It's like a cool fan package thing like ya know what I mean. For people who haven't had a chance to see or hear the band yet in this incarnation. It's like here it is and here is your opportunity to rock 'n' roll.
Mercedes: Have fun ass holes hahaha that's what it means!
Morgan: Haha yeah rock 'n' roll in your bedroom, by yourself or with friends.
Jen: Yeah or with a friend preferably.

P21: When do you plan on getting started on the next full length?
Morgan: That is a good question. Well I dunno who sent you, but if you have ever had to deal with Artemis records then you know they are not the coolest people in the world.

P21: I dunno, I dealt with a girl named Jodie and she seemed to be pretty nice and helpful.
Morgan: Ok you got lucky then. I know Jodie, Jodie's alright, Jodie's cool. The whole thing in general...
Mercedes: The whole establishment is sucking ass!

P21: I actually heard you were leaving Artemis is there any truth to that?
Morgan: Really?! Did you hear it from them?!

P21: Read it online actually.
Jen: You read it online, wow.
Morgan: Shit, I would love to leave them. We actually have not been getting the support we want, especially not from the get go of Oracle. Like, there was no real press, they weren't really pushing it. They just didn't seem very enthusiastic about it. I think we don't want this next album, which will be amazing by the way, to fall on deaf ears, again. Sort of like Oracle did in a way, we really felt it wasn't given the attention it deserved. But, we'll see what happens. Hopefully, we'll be able to rise like the phoenix from the ashes and play metal 'til we die.

P21: How was Jennifer picked to be in the band?
Morgan: Well, one day Jennifer she was in our garden growing and I picked her.
Jen: They grew me in their basement.
Morgan: No, umm we met Jen at FarmClub when we did that show. Who else was on there? Queens of the Stone Age...
Jen: It was Disturbed, Kittie, and Queens of the Stone Age. It was around two years ago on that television show FarmClub and we've hung out and partied since then. So, when homegirl left they called me and I had two days to get my life together and I shot straight up to Canada.
Morgan: There really wasn't much of a question of who we wanted. There wasn't like a line of people. It was just like we had one person in mind and that was Jen and we knew that she would be up for the job and completely would want to just dive in 100%. It was totally cool she has added so much to the band, it has been a complete turn around with positivity and everything. She's been a blessing. Its really cool.

P21: How do you think the sound of the band is going to change with the new line up?
Morgan: Well, I mean even with the Safe EP with the live tracks just to hear what's been added to the songs off of Spit and the songs off Oracle its pretty apparent that where its melodic there is gonna be way more melody. I mean a bass player is the person that brings it all together and takes it from being one-dimensional to being three-dimensional. So there is definetley gonna be a lot more depth in the songs with heaviness and all that sort of things. I just think the bass lines are gonna be a lot more slick and the rhythm section just in general, ya know Mercedes and Jen are a unit in itself now.
Jen: Haha, were a unit.
Morgan: So that's gonna be way tighter and way more advanced.
Jen: I think you can definitley, with the third record, you'll be able to see what great players everyone in the group really are. I mean Oracle is a great showcase of that, but there's far more to come.
Morgan: Absolutely, its gonna be like a new beginning.

P21: Will there be another guitar player brought in on a permanent basis or are you going to continue with a touring guitarist and use a session guitarist in the recording?
Morgan: It all depends, I think, on the situation label wise where we are at that time, because I think it would be excellent to feel not disjointed and to feel whole once and for all and be cool about it and all that stuff. Ya know, not have to worry and maybe start over with a new label and just take it from there.

P21: When you first started playing in the US how did you find the seen differed between here and the seen in Canada?
Morgan: Well Canada sucked and Americas great! That's it right there. Well, Canada definetly thrives way more on like radio friendly Top 40 music. Like I dunno if you have heard any of the bands that are superstars in Canada, but its pretty watered down.Jen: Oh man its really bad.Morgan: Our Lady Peace, they're like huge. They're like the main staple of Canadian Top 40 music.Jen: You would choke yourself, cause I get your vibe and you would be like oh dude this sucks.
Morgan: Yeah man, your ears would start bleeding, it is fucking horrible. I really don't think that there was much of a place in the Canadian scene for a band like us or for any metal bands at all really. I mean there are kids definetly that love metal music and I mean any band can go up there and play to as many or more kids cause there's not that many bands that come through as much as in the States. Espescially in this area, I mean kids here must just go nuts it seems like you have a lot shows round here right?

P21: Yeah usually there are at least 2 or 3 decent shows a week.
Morgan: I would be there like every day man.
Jen: Yeah that's so great, that's so great.
Morgan: I mean people love metal music, but there's just not really a lot ya know I mean I just think that bands in America will find a lot more success. Because Americans are risk takers and they wanna hear great stuff and they wanna take risks and take on bands and listen to bands and ya know be extreme.

P21: Its pretty commonly known that a lot of guys in the metal industry take place in the whole groupy scene, but what about you girls?
Mercedes: No, we all have sweet things.
Jen: Yeah, we all do have our sweet things, not at home though.
Morgan: Yeah, well my kitty cat. I don't know though its really hard to say that there is like a male stereotype of a groupy. Cause I mean you see the lady groupies and they all have like either lace up leather pants and the claw style 80's hair. Or they're like nasty porn star bitches with like fake boobs and everythin like that. So, there's not really dudes that are like that.
Mercedes: Can you imagine a dude coming up like that. I mean if a dude came up to me like wearing spandex and was like, "Hey baby, you want a piece of this ass?" I'd be like, "What the fuck get out of here buddy!" Then I'd kick his fucking ass.
Jen: I think some guys are obviously a little intimidated by us. I mean they see us on stage rocking out and yelling our heads off. And I think guys at first are kinda like wow there scary. Every night at least a couple guys tell me, "I didn't even wanna talk to you, the tattoos and everythin kinda threw me for a loop. But really your kind of soft spoken and down to Earth." And then I'm like yeah we're all like that.
Morgan: Yeah a lot of times people are like, "Wow I didn't expect you to be so nice."
Jen: Yeah, ya hear that and yer just like, "Wha?"
Morgan: But yeah we don't participate in any of the groupy stuff, but people will always be like "Hey, ya got a boyfriend?" nudge nudge ya know?
Jen: "Hey ya got a boyfriend, can I marry you?" Or like the other night a guys like hey here's my card.
Mercedes: Or they're like, "Hey give me a call some time." Then its like "Hmmmm, No."
Jen: Or they give ya their number which is all very nice ya know, its flattering, because I mean...
Morgan: Cause it is, but yeah on the flip side no groupies for us.

P21: Ok well thank you, that's all I have unless there is something any of you would like to add.
Morgan: Cool well there've been a lot of additions in between anyways I mean you'll prolly gonna have like the most interesting quotes from any band ever. But, here's something to add. Pick up a George Forman Grill, if your in a band and in a van, RV, or bus it doesn't matter just pick up the little one and plug that shit in and you can eat like a fucking king forever.
Mercedes: Or uh check your walls for asbestos.
Jen: Yeah, and prevent forest fires.
Morgan: That's right, cause only you can prevent forest fires.
Mercedes: Check your walls for asbestos, that's my quote of the day.
Morgan: Oh yeah, and pick up Oracle, because it's a metal as fuck album and its totally not what you expect from the band and I look forward to seeing you people in the future. Oh yeah, and Safe.
Jen: November 19th. November 19th. November 19th. Safe EP. Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday. November 19th. November 19th. November 19th.
Morgan: Oh yeah and where is this interview going?

P21: It'll be at Prophecy21.com.
Morgan: Oh, okay I've been there before. Cool. Thanks.

P21: Thank you.