KITTIE Frontwoman Says Bassist's 'Serious Eating Disorder' Prevented Her From Touring

Bob Suehs of Rock N Roll Experience conducted an interview with the members of KITTIE on August 19 in Baltimore, Maryland. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Rock N Roll Experience: Does it piss you off that one of your ex band members is doing a reality show/talent show and they are using a KITTIE video for it [referring to "America's Hot Musician", the reality competition for instrumental artists which features ex-KITTIE bassist Talena Atfield as one of the judges]?

Morgan Lander (guitar, vocals): [Laughs]

Mercedes Lander (drums): It's not really a reality show, it's an infomercial, and it's not being broadcast anywhere, so we really don't care... We don't care what she does. I mean at the end of the day, we are still doing what we love to do.

Morgan: I mean, she obviously is allowed to move on with her life too, but at the same time, using our likeness is a big no-no and there was a bit of a dispute about that and there's not really much more we can say about it other than, we took it to the Oxygen network and they dropped the show because they were using our music without our permission and I mean, Mercedes and I wrote the song.

Mercedes: On top of that, we also own our own publishing, so in order for them to use that, they need our consent.

Morgan: And they probably need to pay us too, but they are still allowed to use her likeness.

Mercedes: We don't own her face.

Morgan: Our faces are in there too!

Mercedes: I don't wanna be a part of that (show)!

Rock N Roll Experience: How come KITTIE didn't play on a festival this year like Sounds of the Underground or Warped Tour?

Mercedes: Those have major buy-ons, except for Warped Tour, major buy-ons, and we were offered a lot of really awesome tours, but none of which could we afford to pay for because a buy on nowadays is 50-100 thousand dollars and I don't have any money! [Laughs]

Morgan: So, yeah, the financial backing is not like a major label, so it's a little difficult, but whatever… We're still doing it, so it's no big deal. We'd love to be able to do that sorta thing eventually and I know that there is gonna be a point when we can, so...

Rock N Roll Experience: Have you started writing for the next KITTIE record yet?

Morgan: Not really. I mean. we have ideas and stuff, but right now we are still focusing on the tour and it's really hard to write on the road and we will be heading other places after this run of the United States as well. I think we are going to South America for a little while. We've never been there before and there's been some really great offers there and a lot of interest in, like, Brazil.

Mercedes: We are hoping to go back to Europe as well.

Rock N Roll Experience: Is it better for KITTIE in Europe than in the USA?

Morgan: I don't know. It's been, like, five years since we've been there, but honestly, I know there's a lot of kids there that are just so excited to have us back and I think the scene is a little bit different, but I think kids will wait a long, long time...

Mercedes: They'll love your band for your entire career.

Morgan: It's not so much about what's new and what's hot and the passing trends... I don't know, they are just exposed to different things over there and the way that their industry works is a little bit different so it allows for them to be a fan for life.

Rock N Roll Experience: Why isn't Trish [Doan] playing bass on this tour?

Morgan: She is unfortunately sick and can't make the tour... It's at the point now where we don't know when she's gonna be back and unfortunately, she has a really serious eating disorder and these things take time; it could be two months, six months, two years, or never, and it's all in her hands and it's all up to her and it's all up to her whether she has a speedy recovery or not and it's a totally difficult subject to talk about even. It's difficult for us because we have touring commitments and such, so yeah, we support her 100% and just hope that she pulls through.

Read the entire interview at Rock N Roll Experience.