Interview with Mercedes Lander of KITTIE
February 22, 2010

http://www.myspace.com/officalkittie

By: Valerie Bennett

Fazer’s Valerie Bennett chats with Mercedes Lander, Kittie’s drummer, to talk about the differences on their latest album, their old school influences, and beings the girls of metal.

Valerie: First I want to take the chance to ask about your newest release “In the Black” and its new sound. You had the freedom to write and record without any outside influences, so it’s very real and very authentic sounding. How do you feel the reactions have been towards the album and its sound?

Mercedes: I think so far everybody has entirely enjoyed the album. I have been hearing, and my personal opinion as well, that it’s the best album we have ever done.

Valerie: Would you say there are pretty overt differences between this album and albums past?

Mercedes: In comparison to the last album, I think there is definitely. It’s pretty big. With the last album before In the Black, we ended up doing a different kind of production style and it didn’t really work for us. [For] In the Black we decided to go back to basics and record an album as close as possible to our live show. We always have a live feel to our music but the differences are definitely leaps and bounds from our last album.

Valerie: Is that what makes this one different? You’re taking it back to the basics?

Mercedes: Yes. In this album, each guitar has two tracks; the drums were done in a day. The entire album only took three weeks to do. We are getting to a point now where we are pretty efficient in the studio but the feeling was right, it felt right. Definitely I think we hit the nail on the head, that’s for sure.

Valerie: Yeah, definitely. Why was it important to write and record this album being agent free; would you say In the Black was kind of the antithesis to Funeral for Yesterday?

Mercedes: It’s definitely the antithesis. It was important because we feel this band knows what’s best for this band. We have had people in the past try to tell us what’s right and it’s never really worked out recording wise or career wise. It was nice not having the label breathing down our neck trying to tell us what to do and what’s right with our music. Trying to have people who aren’t musicians and don’t know how to play music, try to tell you what to do with your music is just kind of laughable, you know what I mean? But I’m very proud of [In the Black.]

Valerie: That’s how you should be and that’s how you should feel about your music.

Mercedes: A lot of times you go into the studio, it just doesn’t come out right, whether it be the person who is recording you or whatever. But I feel like we were in the right place at the right time with this mindset and we definitely recorded this album in the right mindset, so I think it turned out well.

Valerie: Great. There have been comparisons between Kittie’s work and older music – late 70s classic rock and early metal. Why do you think it’s important to look back, to be able to look ahead when creating new music?

Mercedes: To be honest with you, I don’t listen to anything in the metal genre put out past the mid 90s. People are trying to talk to me about all these metal bands that are new and I’m like, “I have no idea. I’ve never listened to half the stuff your talking about.” So for me personally, I don’t really identify with any of the newer kind of metal. I think maybe that’s definitely a reason why there is a little bit of a classic metal influence on the new album, which I think is kind of awesome.

Valerie: For sure.

Mercedes: I’d rather rip-off somebody from 20 years ago than somebody that just put out a new album yesterday. (Laughs) That way you’re paying homage to something, paying homage to the great musicians instead of ripping off a 14th generation Slayer, which I’m not too interested in. I think it’s really important to educate yourself on where the music you are listening to came from and I’m definitely well educated in that aspect.

Valerie: How did that come about? What got you into that style of music?

Mercedes: Growing up with my parents, my mom and dad listened to a lot of 70s hard rock and that’s what I grew up with. I basically cut my teeth from that kind of thing and it went from there.

Valerie: You look back at classic rock and early metal for influences, so what elements do you take from each when creating music?

Mercedes: I don’t think there are really any certain elements that we take or anything like that. It’s more like a feeling or an influence more than anything. It’s not anything that we magically list where we decide, “Oh, we’re going to rip-off this.” It’s not really about ripping-off it’s more about paying homage and making sure we still have a sound of our own. But you can just tell we have a strong influence from older bands.

Valerie: Who has influenced you specifically?

Mercedes: Personally, Van Halen; they’re one of my favorite bands of all times, for sure, and as a band, Pantera. Literally, there are just so many different kinds of music. Tara [McLeod] is a jazz and blues guitar player. We all listen to so many different kinds of music but definitely Van Halen for myself and I know Pantera for the whole band. You know obviously Metallica, everyone likes Metallica in our band.

Valerie: Right on. So what’s it like to be an all-girl band in a world of metal? Do you ever feel that you face any stereotypes?

Mercedes: I think everybody faces stereotypes whether you’re a man or a woman in whatever kind of music you play. I think with us it’s always going to be there because we’re women, but I can’t magically change who I am so people are just going to have to deal with it.



Valerie: Yeah, I like that. Do you think the standards are different for girls – either higher or lower – or do you think there is really no difference in this industry and in this genre?

Mercedes: I would to love to say that the standards were exactly the same but they’re not. We have to play a 100 times better, 100 times faster than most people or most bands because we have something to prove. I think that’s why we are so hell bent on improving ourselves with every album. There’s not much we can do about it really; you can’t please everyone and not everyone is going to like your band. At the end of the day, it’s all about pleasing yourself and pleasing the people that enjoy your music and fuck everybody else.

Valerie: Yes, that’s good. I think you girls shred harder than a lot of guys out there.

Mercedes: Probably. I know every band goes through hardships. There are so many things that can happen to a touring band or a professional band. I think maybe we are just a little different where maybe we may have a different scenario; I guess that would be the best way to put it. We are still a little different and I think that is what makes us stand out at the end of the day. But it also hinders us. It’s a help and a hinder. Not much you can do about it though.

Valerie: You win some and you lose some, I guess.

Mercedes: Oh welcome to my life. I don’t really care anymore. There was a time when I cared what people thought about me but I really actually don’t care anymore.

Valerie: Well after 11 years in the business, I guess not. You have to shrug off the bad and just go with the good and keep doing what you love to do.

Mercedes: Exactly, I like to have a good time and I would totally be a mess if I paid attention to everything everybody said about the band or whatever. Who cares? I am having fun. 99 per cent of the people that have something bad to say about the band are probably living in their mom’s basement and jerking off to Sears’ magazines… Whatever! (Laughing)

Valerie: (Laughing). Well, they can stay in the basements then. So tell me a little bit about your upcoming tour and performing. Do you feel that performing has changed over the past 11 years, since you started?

Mercedes: I think our performance has changed definitely. We obviously have become a better band… a lot better band. I think audiences are a lot more fickle now and I feel people really don’t appreciate the work and effort that is put into a live show because, “Oh, I think I will see them on YouTube” or whatever. It’s that kind of stuff, for the most part. There are a lot of bands that are studio bands that sound really good on albums, but don’t sound good live because their vocals are all out of tune.

Valerie: Right. I think that is my biggest pet peeve.

Mercedes: You have no idea how many bands we’ve taken out where they give me a CD and they’re like, “Oh, listen to our record!” I go and I listen to it and it’s completely different! I just don’t understand it! Literally everything we do on our album we do live. Why can’t other bands be like this? (Laughs) I feel like technology has really hurt this business because it really makes unattainable live expectations. Everything is so over produced, chopped up and made to sound perfect. Nobody can sound like that live. So automatically, there are all these bands that suck live, but sound great on albums. We definitely try to stay away from that as well.

Valerie: Yeah. I guess that kind of takes you back where you said your newest album is stuff that you can play live and would play live.

Mercedes: Exactly! I don’t believe in auto tune or over editing drum fast to the point where they sound like machines and stuff like that. It’s ridiculous. If I want to go see a band live, I want them to sound like the album, not completely different you know what I mean?

Valerie: Right. The simplicity in the music can be one of its’ joys and when it’s over produced it kind of loses it a little bit.

Mercedes: It sounds like shit and like robots, if you like robot music. No thank you.

Valerie: Yeah. I am not down for that either, not right now anyway; maybe in the future.

Mercedes: (Laughs) Who knows what going to happen in the future?

Valerie: Awesome! Well I look forward to everything you’ve got coming up in the future year and I definitely look forward to the show next week in Toronto. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it, Mercedes. It was nice talking to you.

Mercedes: You’re welcome. We’ll see you at the show.