Life isn’t normal right now. You didn’t need me to tell you that, between the burning buildings and the overcrowded hospitals it looks like a warzone out there for many of us. Luckily, we have bands like Kitten over here purshing against the border of the emotional warzone for us. We were able to spend a few moments with Kitten a few weeks ago (prior to the protests for Breonna Taylor and George Floyd) to see how they’re handling the chaos of the current moment.
mxdwn: Hey everyone, I’m here with Chloe and the rest of her band, Kitten. We’re going to be having a quick interview just talking about the band as well as some stuff about Nasty Cherry and a little bit, of course, about the thing on everyone’s mind. How COVID-19 is affecting everyone. So hello, Chloe and everyone else. Nice to be with you all.
Chloe Chaidez: Hello
mxdwn: So I think we’ll get started with the obvious thing on everyone’s mind. how has the current coven 19 situation impacted you all personally? Whether it be through, , business stuff canceled tours are simply general life things that it has gotten in the way of?
CC: I think that it’s an emotional roller coaster or for everyone that I’ve spoken to, even though we’re all in one place and not having other types of roller coasters. It’s been tough. Every day is different, but we’re trying to stay positive and I’m thankful that I have the band here with me and we can be creative, and share our feelings and emote towards one another when we feel sad or upset.
mxdwn: On that note I was listening to your latest single “My House”, which is clearly a reference to all this stuff that’s going on right now. One thing I noticed and really enjoyed was that I found the song to invoke a lot of nostalgia despite being about the current rather tough moment. So despite the lyrics putting forth a feeling of being unsure about what’s going to happen I found the song oddly comforting. Is that something you were hoping to accomplish with the song
Dave Stango: I think the music at points can seem uplifting even though the lyric has the sort of defeatist maybe attitude in it and it’s sort of a lack of hope, but, but I think my favorite spot music personally, sort of when the lyrics sort of can express sort of the lack of hope in the music kind of sound uplifting cause almost sad in the club.
Parker Silzer IV: Well, we were trying to get across in this song, I Parker here. Also there’s just, there’s a lot going into this song, despite his time in modern production, there’s a lot going into the song that’s pretty classic or classic Rocky, or “Tiny Dancer” or “Don’t Stop Believing.” And then there’s a guitar solo and there’s a kid’s choir at the end. So it kind of has been trapped into the kind of throwback classic rock song, even though it’s sort of been smashed into this weirdo anxiety, modern, whatever it is. So I think that’s sort of where some of the elements of familiarity or comfort come from in the song.
CC: I agree with both of you guys. I think the juxtaposition between the lyric and I think, , the piano hook and the way the music grows to Epic proportions, hopefully to the listener, I think the two together are cool juxtaposition and yeah, I agree with what they said.
mxdwn: So I know that you guys are particularly well known for your energetic and eighties inspired live shows. So what specifically was it about that decade that made you want to do performances that?
CC: I personally never associated the eighties with our performance, but I think that’s funny. And I think that’s cool. Well, I mean, personally I’ve always been inspired by the singers of that era. And even their careers post the eighties, anyone X or Prince … Sinead O’Connor, I really love too, as a vocalist. So I think yeah, in terms of my instrument they’ve inspired me a lot.
PS IV: Nowadays there are so few traditional bands that I think that anytime you get up there with four or five or six people and there’s keyboards and there’s guitars and there’s a powerful lead singer, it’s going to have sort of a little bit of the element of from another time most people are getting up now with a computer or a laptop and doing whatever freak out they do, which is pretty cool at the time. But I’m not sure if it’s necessarily they were intentionally inhabiting other areas with what we plan for performance. But I think it’s almost impossible not to. I’ll sort of think of a golden age of rock and roll sort of when you see people up there doing that just because it’s kind of a little bit less of a common thing now.
CC: Yeah.
mxdwn: I think that definitely makes sense. You’re right, there’s a lot fewer bands. There’s a rash of solo performers lately, which is cool in its own way. But , it does add a level of novelty almost to seeing a full set band.
PS IV: Yeah. Especially since we’ve got the synthesizers and the backup vocals and things there’s obviously a lot of bands that are kind of doing their indie rock being or punk or whatever, but it does play some more than seventies, eighties. Sp to have the sense and the guitar solos and all that kind of stuff. Yeah.
mxdwn: Cool. So of course Nasty Cherry, your other band, was recently featured on Netflix’s, “I’m With the Band” so of course I wanted to ask a few questions about that. What’s the response been to that?
CC: I’m super thankful to have been a part of it. And it was great working alongside Charlie and we were introduced to a lot of amazing people. And it was also cool to have Kitten involved in the whole process because obviously they were following my life and that that is, and was, my life at the time. So yeah, it was a really great experience.
mxdwn: So I was looking up some stuff about Nasty Cherry and I read an interview where, and I believe it was Charlie who said it, it was stated that a foundational element of the band was sisterhood. Do you feel that that came through and that it had an impact on the creative process?
CC: Yeah definitely. I’ve never had a sister. So I think this is my first experience having three other sisters was beautiful.
mxdwn: Moving back to Kitten is there something in particular, I mean, especially now with your latest song and with the way the world is is there anything that you hope listeners are taking away from your music or a specific message that you wanted to get across or feeling you want to inspire?
CC: For me, I think hope. It’s a song of great lament, but I think I want it to invoke a hopefulness in the vocal performance and in the sound of the music. So that’s what I wanted to, to do.
mxdwn: So obviously no one can really get into much of a studio unless they have a home studio right now. But if you could get into the studio with anyone and you can choose a person who is no longer alive for this, for this answer who would you really like to work with?
CC: For me it would be, if I could do a session with three people, it would be a lovely band, Michael Jordan, Prince and Kanye West. And then that would be the writing session and I think we would come up with something great.
mxdwn: I think that would be a pretty incredible session. I think people would like to see a documentary of that. Maybe even Netflix will pick that up.
PS IV: Probably. They’d probably be okay. Chloe wasn’t in that documentary though so maybe not. Let’s go with that.
mxdwn: I’ve only got one last question for y’all. I always try to end on something a little more fun and a little more personal. What outside of music is currently something that you’re enjoying or that is inspiring you? And it could be anything. A book, TV show, a painting, I don’t know. Anything.
PS IV: Star Trek, Deep Space Nine is a fantastic series and it’s streaming on Netflix right now. The entire thing. I don’t know if you’re a Trekkie at all. Great characters Cisco, Clark, WARF, Dax,. It’s great.
CC: Cooking. I’ve been making very poor meals if I do say so myself. And I’m going to say his name again, but the Michael Jordan documentary we just watched last night and it was very inspiring and it’s probably gonna continue to inspire me with the one week left, if anything.
DS: Cheers, really good show. We watched that whole thing. Frazier was doing the really premier nineties TV. Right. Cheers. It’s very inspiring and really got us through the beginning of quarantine. And since it’s been gone things kind of shifted, but it’s a good series, it kind of gets us through it. It’s exciting. Oh, and listen to your heart, the Bachelor of music series, the reality TV show on ABC. That’s tonight actually. Yeah. It’s really good to see an honest, candid portrayal of what two musicians meeting and falling in love looks like in real life. I’m really glad that someone finally got that onscreen.
mxdwn: Nice. I was gonna say, it’s funny that you mentioned Star Trek in particular, one of the most recent interviews, I guess this isn’t part of the interview right now, but one of the most recent interviews I did was with Katie Stelmanis of Austra. And she was mentioning that she has been cooking a lot and watching a lot of Star Trek during quarantine.
P.S. IV
It’s funny. The same mutations.
D.P.
Yup. Everyone, every single musician on the planet is a big Star Trek fan and you, you’re the lone holdout. Well, it was great to talk to you guys. Thank you so much for your time. is there anything you’d to say before we we close up
C.C.
Do not stream “My House.”
D.P.
You heard it here everyone, don’t stream it. Well, thank you again so much. It was great to talk to you. stay safe, have fun, and enjoy the Michael Jordan documentary and star Trek. Bye.
You can check out the latest single from Kitten, titled “My House” on Spotify now. Be sure to follow Kitten on twitter and instagram to keep up with the band and see how they’re handling the quarantine.
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