Kittie’s Morgan Lander Says the Band’s “Second Chapter” Has “Been a Win”
It’s been two months since Canada’s own Kittie released their comeback album Fire and since then, they’ve been periodically playing live shows and taking it all in. During a recent interview on ‘Artist Friendly With Joel Madden’ (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), frontwoman Morgan Lander said this time around, things have been going great for the band thanks in large part to fan reaction and media coverage (hey, that’s us!).
“Right now we’re in this weird second chapter where it feels like everything that we’ve done so far has just been like a win. And it’s the wins that we never thought that we would have been able to achieve in any other period in our career. And it’s just so weird to see that happening and unfolding in real time. And being able to enjoy it and experience it as the people that we are now, with the experience and the maturity and all of those things, sort of just heading headfirst into the unknown. Things are just lining up.”
Ever since coming back as a band, Kittie’s been making headlines for all the right reasons. Cool new music, awesome festival gigs showing they still got it, hell even the revival of long-defunct metal acts played a role.
Looking at the band’s career, Lander was asked how the other women in the band were feeling now that Kittie’s relevant to the current metal scene.
“I think that we wouldn’t be back at it if it wasn’t exciting, if it wasn’t a challenge, if it wasn’t something that we didn’t think was important. And ultimately, if it’s exciting and fun, that’s where we wanna be. That’s where we’re at in our career. If it’s not, we don’t want a part of it. I think that’s a beautiful thing… And I feel like all of that experience lends to what’s happening right now. We certainly have a lot of experience. We feel like veterans.”
As for what led to the band’s decision to go on hiatus 11 years ago, Lander said it was all just a matter of things progressing naturally, but in a less than ideal way. Especially as interest began waning and tours started netting less and less of a financial return.
“The last few years that we were touring, things kind of kept getting more and more diminished. We had switched labels a few years prior and we put out what I think are two of some of our best albums, but we were touring in a van, the guarantees were getting smaller and smaller, the crowds were getting smaller and smaller, and that can also weigh heavily on your psyche, having to grind it out like that night after night, and feeling like you have to do it rather than you want to do it.
“We are all great friends. We were still at that time. There was no interpersonal drama or anything. It was just a case of just being tired and feeling the weight of almost defeat, just from putting in so much and sort of receiving so little. And for us, it wasn’t really like a conscious thing. It just like kind of just drifted, just kind of fell through our fingers. We didn’t sit down one day and were, like, ‘Let’s break up the band.’ There was no announcement or anything. It was just kind of, like, we all just started to do our own things and find our own way and it sort of just naturally kind of drifted.”
Kittie’s latest album Fire is available now. You can also catch the band live at one of the remaining headlining shows they’ve got lined up. See where they’re playing and get your tickets through the links down below.
KITTIE FIRE 2024 EXCLUSIVE HEADLINE SHOWS
August 23rd – Chicago, IL – Concord Music Hall w/ VCTMS and Conquer Divide [Tickets]
August 24th – Jackson, MI – Havoc Festival [Tickets]
