singer/guitarist Morgan Lander has named her “goofiest” tour memory. The Canadian musician, who co-founded Kittie with her drummer sister Mercedes in 1996, offers the anecdote in . She looks back to a 2002 tour with New Wave Of American Heavy Metal stars and Shadows Fall, plus post-hardcore beloveds Poison The Well.
“For Poison The Well’s last show, we wanted to do something special,” Lander tells journalist Emily Swingle. “We hired male strippers to come onstage and dance during their set. It was very, very silly.
The band were like, ‘What are these guys doing?’ They went up onstage fully clothed, and Poison The Well thought they were just going to stagedive – then they started taking their clothes off and dancing!” Lander adds that Kittie pulled a similar prank on Shadows Fall during that band’s last show of the tour, as well. “We wanted to do something for Shadows Fall’s last show too,” she continues, “so we had one of our techs set Brian [Fair, vocals] up with a special microphone. It looked like a penis.
So Brian had to perform the whole set singing into a penis.” Kittie enjoyed breakout success in 1999 with the release of their debut album, . It reached number one in the US Top Heatseekers Album chart and made the band a prominent name in the movement.
However, Kittie never neatly fit the genre, as Lander explains. Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! “Throughout our career, we’ve been lumped in with nu metal,” she tells . “As far as the music is concerned, in the early days, I’d say we fit in pretty well.
But there’s more to Kittie. Even was a little unhinged, a little grungy, a little riot grrrl. Since then, we’ve explored all different kinds of metal.
” Kittie released their new album, , earlier this year. It was their first full-length record since 2011’s and received positive reviews. ’s Paul Travers gave it .
“This is a supremely assured return from a band who, while acknowledging what has gone before, are intent on creating something fresh, new and exciting,” wrote Travers. “This Kittie still has claws.” Kittie are currently touring North America and headline Concord Music Hall in Chicago on Friday (August 23).
They’ll play Havoc Fest in Jackson, Michigan, the next day. As well as featuring an exclusive interview with Kittie, the new issue of offers the story of new album . It also celebrates 20 years of classic and gives the stories behind the greatest songs.
Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too.
When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering. "A new heavy metal classic for the ages": The song Ronnie James Dio called one of the "proudest things he'd ever done" Black Smoke Trigger come from a small city in New Zealand but their ambition is global Former Jethro Tull members Martin Barre and Doane Perry guest on new Chris Herin single.
