Journal
Saturday,Aug 22 2009, 10:30:18 PMInterview with Kitty, Daisy & Lewis at All Point..
Upon seeing Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, I knew that they were one of the most “niche”-like groups booked for the All Points West festival. The trio was completing a photo shoot as I prepared for our interview, Michael Jackson jordan shoes and the two women in the group, Kitty and Daisy, were teetering in the muddy grass in their stiletto platforms and form-fitting suits. Their pompadours were neatly arranged, and their brother Lewis’ tortoise-shell eyeglasses matched his three-piece brown 1950’s style suit to a T. Their dark features seemed exotic and mysterious as they horsed around with one another, nike jordan shoes and you could sense there was a strong bond between the siblings that an outsider could probably never understand.
Kitty, 16, Daisy, 21, and Lewis, 19 do not seem like they belong in this era. Hailing from Kentish Town, London, this trio performs R&B, swing, jump blues, country and Western, blues, Hawaiian and rock 'n' roll – primarily from the 1940’s and 1950’s – or new songs which sound as if they are from that era, wholesale jordan shoes also known as the Rockabilly style. Each member plays at least 4 instruments or more, but Kitty acts as the main singer, Daisy focuses on the drums, and Lewis’ main instrument is the guitar. The music they play has somewhat of a cult following, especially in Europe. Shoes wholesale The song structure is fairly straightforward, and usually consists of a tunes with a three-chord change, “hillbilly vocals, and a boogie bass line.” Think “Rock Around the Clock”, “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Folsom Prison Blues”, or the music of Buddy Holly or Louis Jordan, and you are on the right track. The group released their self-titled debut in 2008, which contained a cover of Johnny Horton’s “I’m A Mean, Mean, Mean Son of a Gun.” This single was featured in the 2008 movie Last Chance Harvey, and the group is currently touring with Coldplay.
Rockabilly, as defined by Wikipedia, is the “dissatisfaction with mainstream culture, music, and stylistic icons. Michael Jackson jordan shoes Rockabilly often becomes a way of life or lifestyle to those involved, who consider the larger group to be a brotherhood. The rockabilly lifestyle is not confined to just the music but also the home furnishings, cars, and even small things like the cigarettes smoked. The rockabilly culture is an antithesis to current trends as it embraces its roots in ‘old school’ societal fringes.” (Source) This is definitely true with Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, as they even record their albums the old-school way: analog, with no digital format used at all. Cheap handbags Lewis claims recording this way “helps to capture the energy; it captures the vibe in the room when we’re playing.” Daisy adds, “It’s not all cleaned up – they don’t try to make it sound perfect.”
The curious thing about the group’s bold definitions about their lifestyles is that their parents are actually performers in the group. Their mother (who used to be a drummer, although they claim to have never really heard her play) is the bass player, and their father is a guitar player for the group. Wholesale handbags They tour with the band and are with them on the road the whole time. Yet a true rockabilly is defined by their disdain for authority as a whole and especially in the case of their parents. This may be why, when I asked them the reason their parents weren’t involved in the interview, they replied with “We don’t really want them to be.”
The trio wrote some of the songs on their debut, including “Buggin’ Blues”, “Swinging in Hawaii”, “Baby Hold Me Tight”, and “Say You’ll Be Mine”. When I asked about how they go about the writing process, Daisy answered, “It was kind-of a jam. Really, wholesale jordan shoes someone will come up with a riff or an idea for a song and put some lyrics to it, and we’ll just jam to it and see where it goes.”
As the interview continued, I sensed the group was getting frustrated that I was asking questions about their career that dealt with “current trends”. I asked if there were any modern artists they would consider collaborating with, and they responded that all of the artists they liked were already deceased (like Louis Jordan and Bert Kaempfert and his Orchestra). After discovering that Lewis was also a DJ, I asked him what kinds of things he DJ’d in order to get a feel for what other genres of music interested him besides rockabilly. His reply? “Music.”
The conversation softened between the group and I when we started discussing our mutual affinities for thrift stores and rummage sales. I asked them if their look was born as a result of their music, or vice-versa. Daisy said “I can’t really explain how we got into it.nike jordan shoes It just kind-of happened over time once we heard about the music. It’s about good quality material.” Lewis nodded as he lit the tobacco in the pipe hanging out of his mouth. He said “Thing is, like, in thrift stores and charity shops, in England as well as here, all the clothes go to the 80’s, and that’s it, there’s nothing before that. It’s really hard to find stuff. Up until the 60’s everything was made in England; the clothes were hand-made in small factories and stuff so everything was quality. Now everything is made in China”.