“The world is ready for us now.” Why nu metal heroes Kittie are finally ready to grab the limelight once again
In 1999, Ontario, Canada-based nu metal four-piece Kittie put out their well-received debut album, Spit. Spearheaded by popular, bullish lead single Brackish, the album positioned the quartet as one of the most promising young bands of the era, going on to become certified Gold in the US with sales of over 600,000.
Sadly, Kittie would experience a mixed bag of a career from thereon in, with a combination of lineup issues, label troubles and brushes with tragedy (the band's bassist, Trish Doan, died in 2017 at the age of just 31) all stalling any further momentum.
Earlier this year, however, Kittie announced that they had signed with Sumerian Records and would be releasing their first full-length studio album for 13 years. The band's latest single, Eyes Wide Open, is a crushing, grinding slab of groove metal that promises great things for their next chapter, and in a brand new interview with Metal Hammer, the band reveal that they feel the climate is finally right for them to step into the spotlight once again.
“I just think that the world is ready for us now,” says frontwoman Morgan Lander. “A lot of the things that we were doing 25 years ago were still... I don’t want to say controversial, but they seemed so new. It definitely has a lot to do with a shift in thinking and acceptance and representation in the years since the very first time that Kittie came out. Sometimes it just takes the world a bit of time to catch up and appreciate those things.”
“I think the best way to describe it is we just sort of overstayed our welcome,” adds the guitarist/singer when discussing why Kittie's career ultimately petered out. “We were doing a lot of headlining shows, constantly touring, and never really seemed to gain much footing or interest.”
“There were some nights on some of those tours in the very last few years where 50 people would show up to a show,” she adds. “That’s a hard thing as an artist to grapple with. I do remember having conversations where it was like, ‘I don’t feel like I can do this anymore. I need to try new things.’”
Speaking of the new album, titled Fire and expected at some point later this year, Lander says that Eyes Wide Open is a good indication of what to expect, but notes that there'll be plenty more going on that fans can look forward to getting stuck into.
“There’s a lot of variety,” she says. “I think the kind of variety that you will expect from Kittie. If you listen to the production of Eyes Wide Open, that kind of visceral, raw, but very modern sound is prevalent throughout all of the songs. The songwriting is definitely next level.”
Read more from Kittie's exclusive interview in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer, out now.
