At this year’s Hellfest in Clisson, France, KITTIE drummer Mercedes Lander and guitarist Tara McLeod spoke to Loud TV about the Canadian metal band’s first album in over 13 years, “Fire”, which was made available in June 2024 via Sumerian. Regarding how the idea to reunite the group came about, Mercedes said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Things kind of just like spiraled out of control, let’s be clear here. It wasn’t really our idea [to officially reunite for a new album and tour]. We just wanted to play a couple shows. We got offered a couple shows, and the idea for that was that we were just gonna play a couple shows and then go back into our coffins. But the universe had other plans for us. And we ended up getting an offer to do a record from Sumerian. So we agreed, and then we wrote the record, and then we put the record out, and here we are in France. It wasn’t really something that we had planned to do. It wasn’t on our Bingo card, so to speak. But we’re happy to be here, and I think that we really outdid ourselves with ‘Fire’.”
On the topic of what it was like to play with KITTIE again after so long, Tara said: “It was a actually quite an experience to get into the studio with these girls and be, like, ‘Wow, I’m locked in perfectly with Morgan [Lander, KITTIE guitarist/vocalist] still. Mercedes, I can lock in with her kick.’ And it was such a mind-blowing experience to be, like, ‘Oh, yeah, those are the people I’m supposed to be playing with.’ It was, it was very cool. I played with plenty of other musicians, and it never felt like that. And it was such an eye-opening, wonderful experience. But we just never thought we were gonna be able to do it again.”
As for the songwriting process for “Fire” and how it compared to the way KITTIE worked on music in the past, Tara said: “So we had to have an updated version, because we don’t live so close to each other anymore. Ivy [Vujic, KITTIE bassist] lives in the United States now. I was living across Canada, and Morgan and Mercedes are in Ontario, Canada. And so we had to use our computers and Dropbox to swap a lot of riffs. And there was like a dumping ground of riffs and ideas and songs. And then Morgan and Mercedes were able to play together. And then anytime I’d come to Ontario, I would jump in with ’em. And it was, honestly, a very nice way for us to be able to dissect the songs a little more, because we did use to do it just all of us standing in a room. And it was nice to be able to make adjustments on your own… [Mercedes] doesn’t have to sit and play the song 10 times for us to work out the guitar riffs. She’s got the drum parts. We can figure out the guitar riffs. Mercedes was recording herself, like all of us were doing it, and it was a good way to get in there and be more precise.”
Added Mercedes: “And I feel like we were able to give a little better attention to the songs as well. Those subtle nuances that you wouldn’t have heard in the room, you hear on the recording. And you can kind of work around that, which is quite nice.”
Asked what KITTIE tried to change or improve in the studio this time around, Tara said: “We’re a pretty pure band. The songs were still continually being written and finished while we were [in the studio]. So that was a little different before. The producer that we worked with this time was Nick Raskulinecz, and he was a very hands-on guy. And so he was in there with us, jamming. He stole one of Mercedes‘s drumsticks and he was conducting with it. And that was a much different approach, because previously we would just go into the studio, record the songs, and that’s that. And we had more of an opportunity to actually work with our producer. And that was new for us, for sure. And we just really clicked so well with him.”
In November 2023, it was revealed that KITTIE was working on a new studio LP with Raskulinecz at Nashville’s Sienna Studios.
Raskulinecz, who moved to Nashville from Los Angeles around 17 years ago, had previously worked with such acts as RUSH, ALICE IN CHAINS, KORN, RISE AGAINST, HALESTORM, EVANESCENCE, SKID ROW and the DEFTONES.
KITTIE played its first concert in five years in September 2022 at the Blue Ridge Rock Festival at the Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia.
Prior to Blue Ridge, KITTIE had not performed since its reunion show at London Music Hall in the band’s native London, Ontario in 2017, celebrating the group’s documentary “Kittie: Origins/Evolutions”.
Vujic joined KITTIE in 2008 and appeared on the band’s fifth studio CD, 2009’s “In The Black”. She also wrote and recorded bass for KITTIE‘s sixth album, 2011’s “I’ve Failed You”.
After KITTIE completed the touring cycle for “I’ve Failed You” album, the band entered a long period of inactivity during which Morgan focused on a marketing job for a chain of fitness clubs while Mercedes worked in real estate and more recently at a software company. The group also began work on a career-spanning documentary, the aforementioned “Origins/Evolutions”, which finally saw the light of day in 2018 via Lightyear Entertainment in North America.
“I’ve Failed You” sold 3,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 178 on The Billboard 200 chart.
Photo credit: Dante Dellamore
