Kittie, as a band, is resetting the standards by which female dominated music is judged. They have matured and evolved into a dynamic metal force that transcends all age and gender barriers. If anything, they have proven that it doesn’t matter hold old you are, how young you started, or what gender the members of your band are, in the end it all comes down to the music After over a year of non stop and relentless touring in support of “Oracle”, Kittie return home to rest, which is where we find them on this unusually sunny December afternoon. I had a chance to catch up with Morgan Lander as she hung out at her house a few days before the holidays got into full swing.

MR: So what has your month been like?

Morgan: Actually, we’ve been at home for a little awhile. Right now I’m just kind of chilling at my house. We’re in London, Ontario. We’re gearing up to go back out on the road in January. We’re taking a little break for the holiday season and all that sort of stuff, spending time with our families. It’s something that doesn’t come all too often so it's been kind of a nice change.

MR: A normal holiday! Much better than being on the road I bet.

Morgan: Well ya know, the road is a great place to be really, especially when you’re surrounded by your surrogate family. It’s not so bad, it's like a different kind of normalcy I guess you could say, for us anyway. We’re so used to being out on the road, that it’s like home to us too.

MR: So the road is more normal then being at home!

Morgan: Oh yeah, being home and just relaxing and not having a schedule, and just working on your own time is something that’s completely weird now, its more relaxing to be out on the road really. I don’t know, I think it's one of those weird role reversal things. (laughing)

MR: Didn’t you tour three times for Oracle?

Morgan: Yeah, were still touring for Oracle. Were still being troopers about it. I think it deserves a lot more attention then it actually got so were still out there playing it live whenever we can. 

MR: I have to totally agree with you. I’m not sure how things are for you with Artemis, but I don’t think they did a lot of advertising. I think your fan base is totally based on your live performances. I think that it’s an incredible album and that not enough people know about it. I’ve played it for so many people that had never heard of you and were completely blown away.

Morgan: Well that’s good though, that’s why we continue to go out and tour and do interviews and talk to people and make new fans, that sort of thing. It’s pretty much all in our court now, were out there slugging away with the touring and making new fans every day. You know it really didn’t deserve the lack of credit that it got.

MR: I think it totally rises above all the hype too; people can’t argue with your performance. There’s no stereotype or label about it, its Kittie in your face!

Morgan: Absolutely! I think anyone that hasn’t seen us live has heard of the band, or kind of interested in the band will get a taste for what were all about! I would rather have them see it and judge and decide on that sort of basis rather then hearing the album or hearing a rumor, or what somebody else said. It’s a lot more real.

MR: I have been checking out your website at www.kittie.net and it doesn’t seem like the label has really put together your street team. I think that’s a shame, I mean I found over 200 fan sites dedicated to Kittie in one search!

Morgan: Yeah, unfortunately we don’t have a street team right now, we’re not sure why, and were working on it. I don’t know what the hell is going on over at Artemis, but we don’t have one. It’s crazy, it really hurts. We’re out here touring our asses off, and setting up interviews and loving what we’re doing and enjoying ourselves in being creative. We’re fulfilling our end of the bargain, why the other end is not being upheld is beyond me, but I think eventually things are going to get better. For every low point there’s always gonna be a high point afterwards, its only gonna get better from here.

MR: Are you still working with the band Acacia?

Morgan: Yeah! We set up a management company, and have been working with them. They’ve been submitted, and their demo finished. We’ve got some people looking at them now in terms of record labels and stuff like that. The whole management company thing has been pretty cool, it's an opportunity for us to branch out and sort of show and use what we’ve learned through trial and error over the past couple of years of being in the business. We kind of stepped into it blindly, but now we sort of know the workings of it, its kind of cool to be able to help other people that are your friends.

MR What’s it like producing?

Morgan: For me its kind of like one of those strange leadership things that comes naturally, I’ve always sort of had that outlook on things, especially when it comes to music. I just know what I think sounds really good, and which way to go about things, and if it goes wrong, you only have yourself to blame! You know you're going to get the best product if you’re doing it yourself. I Co-Produced “Oracle”, and for me that was an important thing because I wanted the second album to be so much more fierce then “Spit” so I had something to prove.

MR Well I think you really proved it with “Oracle.” It was incredible to see the growth from the first album. Do you think you’ll go on to produce other bands, and work with the management company? 

Morgan: I’d love to; I would love to be involved with that sort of thing.

MR Not like you’re not busy or anything! (laughing)

Morgan: Yeah, already as it is! I would love to be involved, I think it’s important sort of to be involved in all aspects of this business. Not just the artistic side of it, I’ve got that covered as it is, but I d love to produce other things and that sort of thing. I do need to take some time to go back to school and do the full courses to make sure I have covered all of the technical side.

MR I have to ask you this. I read somewhere that during the Killswitch Engage/Shadowsfall tour that when Shadowsfall went on stage you replaced a microphone with a big black dildo. Truth or Myth?

Morgan: (Laughing) Yes, that did happen. We had such a great time on that tour, I mean everyone really got along. We toured with Shadows Fall in Europe before, but we had never met any of the other bands. By the first few shows they were all like the brothers we never had! We got along super well and the whole tour was just a lot of fun, all the bands hanging out and that sort of thing. It was just a great kind of fun experience and we got to fuck around with all the bands, you know the last day of the tour, messing around with gear, and the usual end of tour antics. I think it's one of those things that happens with every band, and we’ve had our fair share of it in the past, so it was cool to be able to get back at them. When we were on tour, Poison The Well dropped off a week early because they had been on the road for 9 months and they were gonna go home and do some demoing for their next album. So the last night of the tour was in Las Vegas, which by the way is the easiest place in the world to get strippers! And Mercedes took it upon herself to call up a male escort service and hire male strippers to come up on stage during Poison’s set and just take their clothes off in front of hundreds of people. It was like the greatest thing in the world!

MR: And they just kept playing? They had no idea what you were doing?

Morgan: No, they had no idea! It was like a complete surprise. We’ve got pictures! I would love for them to go into the next home video thing.

MR: Speaking of that, how did the DVD do?

Morgan: Good! It’s still the “Spit In Your Eye that we had from 2000, though obviously an updated version. Its been doing really well I think it kind of rejuvenated the interest, there’s a lot of new people checking it out.

MR: Have you had a really good response to “Safe?”

Morgan: Yeah, it’s actually been really positive. I think a lot of people took a liking to the remixing, were very interested to hear what it was going to sound like. They were very pleased with the outcome I think, I mean definitely we were. It was something we just kind of went into blindly I guess, gave Sasha the green light to do exactly what he does best. It was like, let's flirt with some different things, and I think everybody was very pleased with the outcome, and very surprised at how it ended up sounding, and were really happy with it. It’s a good fan package, there’s a lot of stuff in the video. I think it let’s them know we’re still out there, playing shows, and give them a chance to see the band, especially if they haven’t ever seen us yet with Jen playing bass.

MR: I read a review in Rolling Stone magazine that I thought was interesting. It was a good review, it got like three and a half stars but the reviewer wrote “Went from death metal to chick Goth rock” which I thought was a label that really didn’t fit you.

Morgan: We don’t know what direction the future will take us, but we like to experiment with different things, and this gave us a chance to do that. I don’t know about that whole chick Goth rock thing!

MR: You’ve got to incorporate new things, I mean, sounds evolve. I think the music appeals to a lot of different genres. I mean, I have a 12 year old daughter that loves it.

Morgan: That’s so sweet. I love that, I mean that kinda touches me in my heart, after all I was that young when we started this band.

MR: She’s really into harder rock music. She’s been to lots of shows with us, and even worked at ours. She really loves all music. She went through a rap stage, but thank god that’s finally over! She was a big Eminem fan for a while

Morgan: That’s all right though, I’m sure you're pointing her in the right direction!

MR Oh yeah, I let her listen to whatever she wants. I don’t believe in censoring kids too much, I mean within reason. I always tell her it's not about the words, it's about the music and how it makes you feel.

Morgan: Absolutely! I mean, like with Eminem and all the controversy going on their going to want to listen to it I mean, if they hear bad things about it they’re going to want to listen to it more!

MR: She says she loves music that makes her feel something, like chemistry. Speaking of chemistry, how’s it been since the change in line up? Has it been an easy transition?

Morgan: It’s been amazing really. It’s been a complete new beginning, a complete makeover I think. I mean, Jen brought the positivity level of the whole band up like ten million notches. She’s totally into the better future of the band, she wants to stick with us through thick and thin and wants to see this band go as far as possible . She’s a veteran when it comes to touring, having been stuck in a van with a bunch of guys, but having the bus, and doing the festivals is really new to her so she is really excited, and we all feel that. I mean, she’s an amazing bass player, so she definitely deserves this break, and what a better way then to be out in the public eye and play with your favorite band! It helps when you feel that everyone is together, and everyone is really enjoying their selves, and you can just totally draw off that energy. She was a piece of the puzzle that was missing. Talena wasn’t happy at all, she wasn’t really into it, you know what I mean?

MR: Yeah, and that’s a setback, cuz you cant be three parts, you’ve gotta be a whole.

Morgan: Yeah, you cant be three parts excited about doing this, and one part wanting to go home all the time. Everyone has to be on the same page and I think finally we’ve gotten that far and I think that’s gonna be the formula that takes us to places we haven’t been.

MR: And I think you have proved you're going to have some longevity in the music world as well. I think there was so much media crap over the first album, and with oracle, and all the touring and all the fans you have proved that you're going to be around for a really long time.

Morgan: I hope so! I plan to make a career out of it, definitely. We’ve accomplished more than I ever dreamed of, when we were younger and just starting out. I’ve been all over the world, and sold a lot of albums, and met so many cool people I think we still have some life in us yet, I think.

MR: So what was the first album that you ever owned?

Morgan: Hmmmm…..Let me think. I know I bought a lot of stuff when I was younger. I think INXS was one of the first ones I owned. On tape, or course.

MR: Have you bought anything new, or had anything in heavy rotation lately?

Morgan: Well I’ve been listening to the new Otep album, “Deliverance”. That’s pretty good, pretty epic! Let me run over here to my CD player and have a look. Alice in Chains, Jerry Cantrell, In Flames, the new Cave In CD is pretty good. That band is so great, and they used to be this crazy kinda converged knock off kind of hard core band and they just kind of evolved into this crazy weird ambient metal, or rock…its really cool.

MR: So what’s your favorite city or venue to play in:

Morgan: Ooooh that’s tough…I think San Antonio, TX is definitely one of the craziest cities we have ever had the pleasure of playing in. We were there in July, and we played like 10 dates in Texas, like weird places like Amarillo, and Corpus Christi, and in Amarillo thousands of people came out. In Corpus Christi there was like two thousand people there, like this huge festival thing going on, but it was just us, it was just Kittie! They definitely like metal there, and a lot of kids come across from Mexico too, so that was cool. We gotta play down there sometime. I mean all over Europe is fun too, we had a great time in Amsterdam, Paris, France was amazing to us last time we were there.

MR: I love Amsterdam. If I could pick any country in the world to visit, that’s where Id go.

Morgan: Yeah, it’s a good time. It's one of those cities that if you stay there too long you’ll probably get lost, or never want to come back. You can only take it in small doses, then you get burnt out and you're like “I need to go home!”

MR: So what would be the perfect day off for you?

Morgan: A day off? Well, on the road, definitely we would have to be in a place that had a mall, or preferably a Wal-Mart! It’s the best, especially at 3 in the morning. We bought a George Forman grill and we like to use it on the bus stove, and we go to Wal-Mart, and the food center and buy stuff. Usually the day starts with me sleeping in till like 2 or 3. You know, like recharging my batteries after getting in at like 3 or 4 in the morning. Yeah, I take a lengthy shower followed by a whole lotta nothing. If the other bands are staying at the same hotel, I usually go and say what’s up and maybe make dinner plans, and if not just cook on the Forman grill! Pretend like your Wolfgang Puck or something!

MR: I can see it now “Cooking with Kittie.”

Morgan: Yeah! It’s usually all meat, maybe Carnivorous Cooking! We do steaks, and fish, and we get some spicy marinades and go crazy! 

MR: It must be lunch time you're starting to make me hungry. Who has been your biggest inspiration, I mean personally or musically in life.

Morgan: There’s a lot of stuff that inspires me. My parents have always been really good to me in terms of giving us the encouragement and the strong backing and self confidence, if you don’t have that then you’re screwed. No matter who you are, everybody needs someone that gonna cheer them on. When I was really young, I LOVED Ted Nugent! He is so cool. That’s brutal. I saw him play when I was younger and I remember it being a crazy experience, I went and saw the show and I was forever changed. So that was pretty cool. I’m always inspired, like by music. Especially at Ozzfest, watching Pantera play from the side of the stage. Watching, Slayer with Dave Lombardo! I’m inspired all of the time.

MR: Yeah, Pantera is a very inspiring band. They inspire me to get injured every time I see them play! Every time I’ve ever seen Pantera, which is five or six times, I bleed.

Morgan: Hahaha inspire to get injured, I love that. It's the kind of music that makes you grow some balls and get carried away with it and just go crazy!

MR: Everybody has that potential for Rage inside them, and I think their music really harnesses that and direct that energy. I think a lot of people, if they didn’t have the outlet in the music or weren’t listening to it would probably be out doing some really crazy shit. A lot of people just have it in them, and HAVE to find an outlet, and what better one then music.

Morgan: Totally, absolutely. I mean that’s totally why I write. I have to have some form of directing my energy somewhere, and that’s what I do.

MR: Do you have any before show rituals?

Morgan: Not really, we just break off into our own little world for a little bit, have our own quiet time in our own little space. I usually go to the back lounge in the bus and warm up. Mercedes just watches the bands and warms up her hands, Jen usually is in the front lounge warming up her voice and that sort of thing, and Jeff usually plays guitar. But just before the show starts we all come together and pat each other on the back and are like “are you ready to destroy this place!” It sounds really cheesy, but it's the coolest part, just before you actually go out and destroy the place, you’re all together, all cheering, “Lets have a good show, I’m ready to have a good time!" And we all walk out and play.

MR: I think your voice has really grown. I mean, when I listen to the albums back to back I think your range has gotten really incredible. It’s so different you can hear it grow almost, if you listen to the albums together. 

Morgan: It doesn’t even seem like the same voice to me! At first I didn’t even realize that it had changed on me, it was weird, I came back after Ozzfest and I was like oh my god, my voice was sort of manly now.

MR: Do you ever lose it or anything?

Morgan: No, not really, I mean when I listen back to the Spit era and I listen to what I was doing to my voice it sounds like it really hurt, and I remember it hurting all the time. I guess maybe I just built up some scar tissue or concrete lungs or whatever! Or maybe I just sort of learned on my own how to do it in a way that’s not going to hurt my throat I guess.

MR: Do you have any advice for new artists that are looking to have a career in music?

Morgan: There’s not really any 12 step program that’s going to get you from point A to point B. Its kinda the luck of the draw, and I think if you're persistent enough, and you want it, then its gonna happen to you. I mean, definitely attempt to send all your stuff out to the indie labels. Because if there’s a buzz within the lower regions of the musical pyramid then higher people up are going to be able to hear it, and if there’s a buzz then people are going to become interested. We sent all of our stuff out to indie labels, I mean we didn’t really know that major labels don’t accept unsolicited material so we started out on the indie bases and we got letters back, they actually acknowledged us, and that’s the first step, even if they didn’t sign us At least they have our music and actually listened to it.

MR: Yeah, maybe they gave it to someone else, 

Morgan: Yeah, they were at least acknowledging the band and heard the name. That was at least they know you exist! I guess that’s the first step. The thing for us that really got us going was the industry festivals that we did. Like South by South West, South by South East, Canadian Music Week, CMJ, there are things like that happen semiannually or every year that are a good opportunity for local bands. To sort of get out and play within their scene and meet people who are important on that level, people who might in turn know people who were a little higher up. So for us that was really something that gave us a lot of our contacts. And you just have to be friendly and open to people and go up and say hi and introduce yourself and say “hi, what did you think?” That’s what got us hooked up with Artemis Records.

MR: I think that’s great advice. And with that, I will probably see you in February when you play in Seattle. I know you probably have a hundred more interviews to do today.

Morgan: Not really, it's all good, this is the last one today! I’m taking my time! Bring your daughter to the show. If you guys are gonna be there we can have you stand on the side of the show and she can see it from a different angle.

MR: We will definitely do that, she will be so excited. I know it’s probably hard, you probably get asked the same questions over and over again.

Morgan: Sometimes yes, but it's always fun to have an interview with someone that enjoys the music, it gives you that comfortable feeling.

MR: I’m fortunate to have a great editor, and I’ve never had to interview anyone who I didn’t really feel their music. That way I never have to give anyone a bad review, I mean I never would, but it's great to write about music that I love. It's been great talking to you Morgan. I don’t always get to talk to people that are so down to earth. I did an interview with Evan Seinfeld from Biohazard once, and he was really intimidating. He was really great towards the end of the interview, but I think he’s just cautious, and used to being screwed a lot by the media.

Morgan: Yeah, you always have to be careful about what you reveal. Even for us, we’ve had a lot of nasty, nasty people saying crazy stuff about us and putting forth the wrong image, which I think people still believe to this day.

MR: They are the people that are just in it for climbing up the ladder, they don’t really care about music. Even though it got off to a bad start, the interview with Evan ended up being one of the greatest interviews I’ve ever done, but it was also really intimidating because I have always been such a fan of theirs. I think it was one of the best pieces I’ve ever written, he had so many intelligent things to say.

Morgan: That’s awesome. They have been at it for a really long time so I imagine they have some really great stories.

MR: They are one of those legendary bands that are so important to the history of music that have not gotten the notoriety that they deserve.

Morgan: Oh absolutely.. There are a lot of bands out there like that and it’s so sad.

MR: But you are not going to be one of them! Well you have a good day, and take the rest of the day off, have a great Christmas, and I will see you in February.