Morgan Lander was born to be brilliant. When she was eight years old, the Kittie singer formed her first band with her then six-year-old sister, Kittie drummer Mercedes.
“We called ourselves the Beautiful Bitches,” she hoots. “We were literal children. But that was the mindset of where we were at, and maybe who we were destined to be.”
Now 44, she’s seen and done it all. She’s ridden the highs and lows of nu metal, stared misogyny in the face and survived the band’s descent into irrelevance, only to experience a resurgence of fame in the last few years. Here, Morgan looks back on her life so far.
WHAT IS MEANT TO BE WILL BE
“There wasn’t ever a key moment in my life growing up, or in my formative years early on, where I thought, ‘Wow, I think that this is what I want to do.’ It’s almost as if it was already planned out.
While I was in high school I was taking courses on certain things, but I never really concerned myself too much, because I just had this idea that it was probably going to work out, even before opportunities with the band came about.”
BE THANKFUL IF FAMILY SUPPORT YOUR DREAMS
“When we formed the band in 1996, Mercedes was 12 and I was 14. Three years later, in 1999, we signed our first record deal. My dad was a little more on the rebellious side, and he was very into the idea of supporting us. He eventually had to take on the role of being our manager because nobody wanted to talk to a bunch of children booking bar gigs.
But when things started to get more serious, my mom was definitely more on the apprehensive side, and was very much like, ‘There’s no guarantees.’ But she ended up coming along for the ride. It still boggles my mind that almost 30 years since we formed the band in the basement of my parents’ house, we are still talking about this and still doing this. It is such a bizarre and wonderful experience.”
ADRENALINE WILL ALWAYS OVERCOME NERVES
“I vividly remember how nervous I was at our very first show ever. My legs were physically shaking. I’m definitely a Nervous Nelly! I fret over a lot of the little details before a show, making sure everything goes well.
Kittie has played upwards of a thousand shows over the years, and there is still a little element of nervousness and apprehension. I’m really nervous when I’m standing beside the stage and we’re getting ready to go. Then the intro starts, you walk onstage, and something else takes over.”
CHANGE CAN CHANGE YOU
“When I was 12 years old, my family moved from my previous home to London, Ontario for my dad’s job. We uprooted the family and left all of the things that we knew and our friends behind, and then the darkness took over. I don’t want to say that I was really depressed, but I certainly became a different person.
I firmly believe that the adaptations, making new friends, and having the opportunity to become a different person led me to the place that I’m at right now. I would have never been able to be in touch with the darkness within me that has helped to shape the music that continues to inspire people.”
DISCOVERING FEMALE RAGE WAS A GAME-CHANGER
“I remember buying Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill [in 1995] and being like, ‘Yes! Female rage!’ I discovered alternative metal bands] Human Waste Project, and My Ruin with [vocalist] Tairrie B, a little bit after that. But the lyricism of Jagged Little Pill inspired me to put words down on paper and express how I was feeling. Alanis was able to convey a lot of those feelings really well.”
NU METAL IS NOT A DIRTY WORD
“It’s certainly taken me a little bit of time to appreciate the role that we have played in the nu metal movement. It used to be a bad word, when it felt like it was getting old and becoming a parody of itself. In the 2000s, it seemed like there were so many 10th-generation nu metal bands; there was nothing new.
But the recent resurgence of interest in that genre and its continued influence in modern metal music is undeniable. A lot of bands that were coming up in the late 90s and early 2000s are, again, experiencing a wonderful second life and interest from a whole new audience – and we are a part of that as well.”
WE HAD TO GROW A THICK SKIN VERY QUICKLY
“We moved away from nu metal early on and that had to do with wanting to be taken more seriously as musicians. We constantly struggled and, as women, still continue to struggle, with being taken seriously as musicians.
But, especially when we first came out, we were questioned on our merits: ‘Did you write these songs? Did you play on that album?’ Those things certainly have had an indelible mark on my psyche, even to this day. Speak to any woman in the music industry and we all have a story, and can share similar experiences.”
I REGRET SOME OF THE THINGS WE SAID IN EARLY INTERVIEWS, BUT WE WERE SO YOUNG
“I have looked back at conversations or interviews we did way back in the day where we said, ‘We’re not feminists.’ We were, it just seemed like it was a bad word, because we didn’t understand what it meant. Those are difficult questions to navigate when you’re 16 and 17 years old. You don’t really realise the gravity of the situation. You don’t really realise even your presence and just daring to do the things that you do is a defiance.
Back then, we were very much alone. There wasn’t anybody else in that genre in the late 90s and early 2000s, really doing what we were doing as an all-female band.”
THE WORLD WASN’T READY FOR KITTIE IN THE 2000s…
“There was so much resistance back then from so many people. We were so divisive. People either really loved us or really hated us, and we got a lot of really great press, and a lot of really terrible press. I don’t think they knew what to do with us.
Questions were cutesy, almost used in a way to take away from our validity as musicians and whatnot – like, ‘Do you guys all do your make-up together?’ We were so young. Young women. And we dared to take up space in an industry that I don’t think wanted to take us seriously.”
…BUT IT IS NOW
“We are playing to bigger crowds now than we ever have, even at the height of [seminal debut 2000 album] Spit. When I look back at that time, I think, ‘Wow, there was so much press and there was so much demand.’
But all of the things that we’ve done in the last few years – as far as people listening and discovering us, the number of people that we’re playing to, and where we’re being invited – has far surpassed those times. The world has changed and adapted, and women in extreme music is something that is more accepted.”
FAILURE IS CHARACTER-BUILDING
“You can’t change the tastes of the music industry and eventually, trends and bands fall out of favour. The slowdown of our career and everything, it happens. It’s bound to happen for just about anybody.
From around late 1999, early 2000 to 2012, it was a slow decline for the band. Sometimes we were playing a show and fewer than 100 people would show up. That certainly taught me humility. It taught me to be humble, and it taught me resilience.”
THERE’S NO POINT IF YOU’RE NOT HAVING FUN
“We still went out and did that stuff, not dragging our asses onstage and being bummed out. Even at that place in our career, we still got up onstage and had fun. That is a very important element to this. When it stops being fun, that’s when you need to take a step back. So, yeah, I think I see the place that we’ve been and how hard it has been. And so it certainly allows me to really appreciate all of the things that we’ve accomplished in just these last few years.”
BEAUTIFUL BITCHES REALLY DO KNOW BEST
“My core values? Mercedes would say ‘trust no one’, but mine are resilience, resistance and defiance. They embody the things that we have done and will continue to do. Even when we weren’t even really setting out to do it at the start, the Beautiful Bitches knew. They’re in there somewhere.”
Spit XXV is out now via Sumerian. Kittie play Bloodstock Festival in August.
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