Utter Trash--Kittens For Christian

Cool Cats

An interview with Hiram Fleites of Kittens for Christian

By Bob Ignizio

Kittens For Christian l to r: Hiram Fleites, Neil Young, and Ed Diffner

Don’t let the name fool you; Kittens for Christian are not a cute and cuddly band. Their music is rooted in the edgy alternative rock sounds of eighties bands like The Cure, Sonic Youth, The Birthday Party, and The Pixies. Working from that foundation, KFC (Hiram Fleites – bass and vocals, Neil Young – guitar, and Ed Diffner – Drums) take those sounds forward and put a new twist on them rather than merely wallowing in retro nostalgia. Hiram says, “We don’t see ourselves as being derivative, but at the same time we’re not reinventing the wheel. Hopefully we’re giving enough of our own little thing to it. Even in LA, the jaded old scenesters who’ve been around and seen it all will give us some props. They’ll say, hey you guys, your sound is pretty unique.” You can judge for yourself when Kittens for Christian’s new album ‘Privilege of Your Company’ hits record stores September 9^th on Serjical Strike records.

Unique as KFC’s sound may be, that hasn’t stopped people from trying to put a label on them. The band’s press release describes them as “dark neo-new wave”. “I’m really dubious of any descriptions nowadays,” says Hiram. “We’ve been doing our thing for a long time, and I think maybe that sound is kind of catching up to us. Even The Strokes and The White Stripes are totally bringing that post punk kind of thing back, and we fall somewhere in that milieu. There’s so many subgenres. At a certain point you’ve just got to pick something. I just wish it could be like, hey, here’s some cool music. Check this out. I hate describing our music and our sound.” Fortunately for KFC, their label knows a thing or two about marketing hard to categorize bands. That’s because the man who runs it, Serj Tankian, is best known as frontman for the unique in their own right System of a Down.

Hiram says he first came in contact with System of a Down while working at an indie record store where he met System guitarist Darren. Hiram says, “We had put out some stuff on our own back then, and he just really got off on our music. When SOAD went on the road he turned Serj on to us just by playing our CD on the road and wearing our T-shirts.” When Serj decided to start a label of his own Kittens for Christian was one of the first bands he sought out. Although at first intended as an indie company, Sony records decided to handle the imprint through their Sony Red division. Despite the change in scale, however, Hiram isn’t too worried. He says, “We’ve got a great buffer between us and the big bad label. But even still Columbia’s been great. Everybody at Columbia who needs to be into the record is really into it. It’s not just like he’s pushing this thing onto them and they’re grudgingly putting it out.”

Although it sounds a bit like an “overnight success” story, it really isn’t. Kittens for Christian have been around in one form or another since 1991 and have released a full length album and an EP on their own Dirtbox Records label. They’ve also been through almost as many drummers as Spinal Tap and a couple vocalists as well prior to Hiram taking over singing duties. He says, “The original vocalist quit a couple months after we started. Then we had a guy in the band for a couple years who steered us in a theatrical direction, sort of like a poor man’s version of Marilyn Manson, but that wasn’t where we were at. We were more about the music. Obviously you need a little bit of a shtick, but not to the extent this person wanted to take it. Once he left I just started singing by de facto.” With Hiram’s voice one of the most distinctive and interesting elements of Kittens for Christian’s sound, it’s hard to imagine why they ever bothered with anyone else.

Hiram handles most of the band’s public relations, but when it comes to the creative side of things all three members are very much involved. Hiram says, “Nobody makes unilateral decisions, it’s a very collective creative environment as far as the songs go. We write as a band.” Hiram does write the lyrics himself, and like his band’s music they tend towards the dark side. “You have to make a decision about what kind of lyrics you’re going to write, but the music shapes the lyrics,” says Hiram. “Since the music is usually pretty dark and moody and heavy the lyrics follow suit. It’s pretty visceral, minimal lyrics for the most part and I keep them pretty vague. We’ve been told that our music has a certain kind of soundtrack quality to it and I think hopefully an emotion comes through that’s easy to grasp. But the lyrics aren’t stories. There’s no pot smoking anthems on the record.”

With the album finished and ready to be released to the world, KFC’s focus now is on touring. Hiram says, “Serj puts a really big priority on touring. We’ve got really good tour support from the label. Serj wants to handle touring and marketing the right way, basically applying a similar type of work ethic and marketing ethic as System’s success story.” Although Hiram is happy with how the album turned out, he says the band’s live sound is a bit different. “The record has keyboards throughout it and we don’t have keyboards live. There’s also a lot of layered vocals on the record, so Neil is starting to do back-up vocals live. We’re trying to meet the record half way, but we’re not really concerned with reproducing it. There was some talk about us maybe getting a keyboard player, but there’s just something about a three piece that works for us live.”

While Hiram certainly has hopes for success with ‘The Privilege of Your Company’, he tries to keep a realistic attitude. He says, “The album’s not going to sell 2 or 3 million copies. It’s very much an indie model in terms of how they’re going to market it. We’re not really on Columbia; we’re being distributed through Sony Red. In the label’s eyes we’re an indie band, except we have substantially more tour support than an indie band would have.” Whatever happens, Hiram isn’t likely to have too many regrets. “We’re all just really good friends and having a good time,” he says. “We don’t take ourselves seriously but we take our music seriously and we’d love to be successful on our terms. We got to make the record that we wanted to make, so why not? There might be a day when we look back on it and say that stuff was pretty immature, but we won’t be looking back on it saying we were forced to do this and that. We’re getting to run our flag up the flagpole.”