Southampton based trio The Lounge Kittens might be the feistiest females in the business, with their unique three-part harmonies giving some of our most loved songs a makeover. We spoke to Zan, Jenny and Timia after their performance at Download Festival earlier this year to find out more about their dream collabs, set favourites and why they’re sticking to their ways for the foreseeable future.
Hey girls, yesterday you played at Download – how was it for you?
Z: It was phenomenal.
T: Magical.
J: Sensational.
Z: We should have brought a thesaurus with us. It was so good, it was so fun.
You take some of the most well-loved songs out there and put your own twist on them. Do you find it’s harder or easier to get people to check you out?
T: Easier I think.
Z: In many ways easier because people already know the song and they’re interested to see something different with it. Obviously, we’ve had a lot of help from other bands who’ve enjoyed the covers we’ve done and shared them on our behalf which has been amazing. When Limp Bizkit share something out to their millions of followers you instantly go up a notch from our own reach. We’re just growing really organically!
If you had to choose out of your covers which would be your favourite?
J: It changes all the time, we just enjoy playing. At the moment I’m loving doing the cartoon medley. That’s quite a new one to our repertoire, basically, it’s a medley of the 80s and 90s cartoon themes and it’s so much fun to do live.
Z: The medleys always kind of stick out as our favourites as they’re really challenging and they’re hard and fast. They’re instant grat with the fans as people really seem to love the medleys. It’s just the best bits of the best songs. I’ve been really loving how Violent Pornography goes down.
J: I was just about to say that one!
Z: That was one I really wasn’t sure of when we first arranged it but seeing the reaction to it live it’s really come into its own. That’s probably one of my favourites at the moment.
Who would you love to do a collaboration with?
T: So many people.
Z: Cher, Slash. I’d go weak the knees.
J: Queen.
T: Slayer.
Z: What’s the weirdest thing? Napalm Death, Slayer. The heaviest thing you could think of. Nobody would expect it but people might expect us to do something with Steel Panther or Alestorm one of the more comedy side of the bands. But nobody would expect us to come out with a bonafide metal act to be like “yeah we’re going to sing the harmonies to Slayer.”
You recently released your debut album but how has the reception been from your point of view?
T: I think they really liked it.
Z: Nobody tweeted us to say they were really disappointed. So that was good.
J: Nobody came up to us at a gig like “I want my money back, it’s awful. Waste of plastic and cardboard it’s taking up space in my house.”
Z: No it’s been really great, better than we thought again. Surprisingly great.
T: People have loved it, it managed to go into the charts when it was released which was amazing. So far so good.
Z: It’s still available if you haven’t got it have a listen. Maybe you’ll be the person to hate it.
Do you think you’d ever do your own material?
J: We do get asked this all the time but it’s not something we’d never say never to but at the moment it’s going really well at the moment.
Z: We’re not done challenging our arrangements, more and more complex and technically more difficult each time and so we haven’t exhausted ourselves with what we can achieve with our covers yet. The fans don’t seem too bored you know?
T: When’s the next song come out, play this do this!
J: If we thought for a second fans were getting bored but that packed tent proved very much otherwise. It was very busy and people were there to hear covers.
Z: If anything the fans would prefer if we stopped playing new stuff and just played the stuff they know and love. We can’t stop doing new ones though!
What would be your ultimate festival anthem?
Z: Sometimes when I listen to Jimi Hendrix I wish I’d been to Woodstock you know? I think wow that must have been really really special but it wouldn’t be the same listening to it now. I’d kind of want to go back in time. A bit of Janis Joplin.
T: Let’s all go back to Woodstock and hear all of the anthems. All the old school festival anthems.
What’s next in 2017 for The Lounge Kittens?
T: More touring.
Z: Glastonbury next week.
T: More festivals, more songs, more videos.
Z: It’s never ending, it’s a never ending story. Maybe a new t-shirt. Perhaps badges, a new t-shirt who knows.
Interview By: Nicola Craig
