In a world that witnessed the rise of Celine Dion's Titanic hit, My Heart Will Go On, The Switchblade Kittens have dared to recreate the tune with their pop/punk style. Adding humor to the sacred tune might have aroused protesters, but the only protesting came in the form of radio listeners calling to request the reincarnated song. The frisky foursome has started with an iceberg crash and is determined to keep fans with the release of their new indie 6 song CD, with no guitars in sight.
We sat down with Drama, lead singer and band leader of the Switchblade Kittens to talk about the band, their songs and her recent change into cartoon stardom.
Girl Zone: Was the name Switchblade Kittens just a play on words or did you really imagine kittens with switchblades?
Drama:The name actually came from a short film directed by Jim Edwards-the founder of Barking Weasel Productions (who will be directing Switchblade Kitten's). My Dad's A Janitor music video). He made a really funny short film about this menacing cat named Switchblade Kitten that attacks and eats green army men that a little boy leaves lying on the floor. I won't tell you the end but it is quite humorous. So the name of that cat was Switchblade Kitten.
Goddess, sometimes I feel like that cat. Like I just want to pounce on macho schmuck men that constantly make comments and annoy me. I could just chew on them. It was also a perfect name cause I wanted a "feminist, we are all grrls in this together" name but we are by no means wus grrls. I liked the fact that Switchblade brings to mind toughness and Kitten is a slur for female. So people would know we are tough grrls.
Girl Zone: Who originated the name?
Drama: Your mum.
Girl Zone: So Drama, you are the inventor of the Bass-o-Rama. What is the secret behind this instrument?
Drama: Shhhh! (Looks around suspiciously) Bassorama? (She runs and shuts the door. Then she sits very close to the interviewer and talks in a soft voice, well soft for Drama). The Bassorama was named the Bass O' Drama-very Irish. But I didn't think the name gave any credit to Pep.
It was my idea and I started to change tunings and try to rip basses apart. Pep saw these bass parts around and I think it upset him to destroy perfectly good basses so he said, "Drama there has to be a better way." The kool thing about Pep is that everyone thinks I am crazy but Pep thinks I am crazy in an Einstein way.
So I had this bass in the early stages and Pep (on his save the basses campaign) started to play with it. Pep took my idea and perfected it. And I tried to get grrls to play it but bass players thought it was too high and guitarists really wanted to play guitar so grrls just came and went and Pep was the only one who wanted to play it. So I said OK fine a boy can join the band just be quiet and don't cause trouble, cause we all know boys can't play. It took me like 6 months to allow him to join, and now he is the only member of the band that is not dead! Hahaha The Bassorama is a mixture of tuning and several effects through a processor. So Pep had to play it everyday so he tweaked it and made the final effects combination that you hear on the CD. But much to the chagrin of Pep I am taking apart basses again. I invented what I am calling the bassola. It is a bass that sounds like a viola. Hey if you don't like instruments, invent your own.
Girl Zone: You've managed to create a band and a whole EP with only bass, drums and vocals. Will you ever let a guitar player into the band?
Drama:Guitar. We don't need no stinking guitar.
Girl Zone: You've been known to say guitar players have egos and bass players don't. Do you think it might be a natural process that the bass players in the Kittens might take up the ego with the absence of a guitar player?
Drama:Hahaha so I see you met Pep. I created my own Frankenbass player. Oh my Goddess! If you had seen some of the clothes Pep has been trying to wear on stage lately. He comes in with this long sleeve shirt entirely made of sequins. He looked like an overgrown disco ball with legs. And I said "Hello! What band are you playing in? Cause the rest of us are in a punk band." So he is acting strange but he is not acting like a "rock star" per se. And he never tries to take a solo. Usually when he shows signs of becoming an egomaniac we beat him.
Girl Zone: Even though you've had Pep in the mix, have you experienced a backlash because of the girl vibe of the band?
Drama:Yes it is tough having Pep in the band. First of all the reporters only ask him about his hair and make-up when they ask all the grrls in the band about their equipment. We have run into people accusing us of writing all of Pep's parts for him cause they think he is a guy and therefore can't play. We have been accused of putting Pep in the band just to get attention. Some reviewers actually only comment on how good-looking Pep is and we actually suffer bad reviews when Pep isn't looking pretty and it is worse when Pep gains weight (ugh what a nightmare). Pep is always quoted as saying gossipy type stuff, not anything serious and sometimes people actually walk past Pep to talk to the grrls in the band because they think a guy could not possible be the "real musician" behind the band. Sometimes it is very frustrating.
Girl Zone: How long have you been involved in music? And who inspired you to get involved?
Drama:Sheesh, where do I start? At age 4 I would stand up on tables in McDonald's and sing for the whole restaurant. So very embarrassed my parents tried to find me an outlet so they could get a cheeseburger in peace. I started in musical theater very young. I went to a middle school for the arts and a high school for the arts. But the person I worshipped was Courtney Love. The first song I learned on guitar was Teenage Whore and of course I was nurtured in punk when the riot grrl movement was at its peak. It really helped me to just sing what I felt and pick up an instrument.
Girl Zone: I heard you girls and boy are sXe (staying away from drugs, alcohol and promiscuous sex). Do you ever feel like you're not getting to live the full music experience?
Drama:You must be kidding. My band EXISTS because we are sXe. If there were drugs involved, it would be even more chaotic than it this! You cannot have a successful band if members are drinking and doing drugs. You will never get anywhere, bands that use drugs run in circles and drinking saps a person's motivation. I work all day and night on this band; I sleep 4 hours a night. We as a band are constantly going, photo shoot, interview, music video, and then show. Touring is very tiring. You can't work or focus on drugs. Success in the music business is EXTREMELY hard to accomplish and you just won't get there if you aren't straight.
Girl Zone: The Switchblade Kittens do a cover of the Titanic theme song, "My Heart Will Go On". I read somewhere that you believe that many soundtracks have songs that give the wrong idea about sex to young women. So how does this Celine Dion classic do that?
Drama:Well one I think the movie Titanic was very unfeminist. The plot of the film- there is a jobless card playing drifter who draws naked girls, our heroine immediately sleeps with him even if she is a rich socialite and will lose everything, big ship sinks, card player dies. Imagine if that guy lived, this now poor woman who would have to shield her 10 kids from the no-good cheating drunk she married to get away from her other life that was just as much fun. : P The movie says to grrls don't think about the future just sleep with a guy. Well my best friend is a single mother and she says if she had thought about the situation for 5 minutes she never would have done it.
Girl Zone: You have a killer website www.switchbladekittens.com. Who is the one who puts all the work into it?
Drama:Pep and I. I get these design ideas that are usually impossible to code. I come up with these off the wall things like "let's make it like a Truffaut movie where you see the picture through a close-up on the cat's eye." And Pep stares at me like I lost my mind, refuses to speak to me, then he goes away for two days and meanwhile I still look for my missing mind. Then he comes back and says OK I figured out how to do it and then we put in on the site. Pep is a technical genius and I am the creative part. One day I said to him "You've got the looks and I got the brains, let's make lots of money." So far, people keep calling me pretty, Pep has to deal with the complicated tech stuff, and we have no money. BUT we have a damn good website, and that my friends is teamwork.
Girl Zone: So, do the Kitten and Pup characters have names and personalities of their own?
Drama:Do they ever! Switchblade Kitty is very sassy and tells it like it is. Punker (the puppy) is friendlier and has a great nose for sniffing out problems. They talk to me at night when I am trying to work on the website. I think Switchblade Kitty is the personification of me and Punker is the personification of Pep. We have two other characters that are the bass player and the drummer. We are going to introduce them soon. We are working on an animated piece with the characters to be downloaded on the website. And a friend who works for a huge comic book company has expressed interest in turning Switchblade Kitty into her own comic book.
Girl Zone: Any additional details about the animation series planned for Voxxy (Interactive TV for Girls) with the Kittens?
Drama:The show is called Miranta is a teenage stick figure grrl with rainbow hair. She skateboards, has a cat with a tattoo, and she has a punk band. When the punk band rehearses (in the garage of course) Switchblade Kittens is what you hear as the band. And the lyrics that Miranta (i.e. Drama) sings pertain to issues affecting teenage grrls. She is really fab.
Girl Zone: So what's it like to be a cartoon?
Drama: I feel so 2-dimensional. Actually it is really kool being a stick figure I can hide behind doors now and no one can find me.
Girl Zone: What's next for the Switchblade Kittens? Any new material coming out?
Drama: The very next thing is the soundtrack CD for MIRANTA. All the songs for each show will be compiled in one CD. We are contracted for 15 shows so I think there will be 15 songs on the CD. That will come out on Voxxy Records. Then we are working on our own CD. We are starting to pick a producer right now. We will start recording this new CD when everything is settled with the new label. But the new songs are very Switchblade Kittens. It is good ol' pop punk fun. But with the new songs I think I am adding more of a feminist message. I think Miranta is rubbing off on me and that is not easy to clean cause she is made out of black marker.
Check out the Switchblade Kitten Website
You can hear the Switchblade Kittens on the GirlMedia Net Radio Show. Click here to tune in.
Read more about girls who identify themselves as Sxe (promoting a healthy lifestyle without drugs and alcohol ) at SxeGrrl.
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c. Blink 182
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a. Like a Prayerb. Material Girl
c. Like a Virgin
3. On what popular TV show did Britney Spear's make fun of herself?
a. SNLb. David Letterman
c. TRL
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a. Cooliob. Weird Al
c. Blink 182