Canadian metal quartet Kittie have recently released their sixth album, I've Failed You, which is their darkest, most personal and emotional release thus far. As frontwoman Morgan Lander explains in an interview with Exclaim!, the album marks the first time that she was able to fully let her guard down lyrically and open up about the hard time that was the last few years of her life.
"I think in a way [the title I've Failed You] sort of sets the mood of the content. Lyrically, everything on the album is basically about the same thing. It represents the feeling of letting someone down," Lander says. "It's really hard to explain, but the last year and a half of my life has been really crazy; my personal life has been completely turned upside down and I really could only focus lyrically on writing about one thing. It's just where I was at in my life, feeling like you've tried, you've done all you can and there's no helping it, there's no saving the relationship and feeling like you've let yourself down and you've let everyone else down that cared about you."
Due to the highly personal approach on I've Failed You, Lander says she had a tough time during the beginning of the lyric-writing process. "It was sort of like 'Where do I begin? How do I tell this story? How do I purge all of these feelings that have been bottled up for the past year and a half?'"
But she resolved to not hold back on opening up about her emotions. "I think a lot of times lyrically and on past albums I tend to keep things really vague, for my own personal safety I guess and not revealing too much about myself," she explains. "But for this album, I feel like I just let that guard down and I just wrote about stuff that just felt right to me and purging all of those feelings. So it is a little bit hard for me to talk about just because it's like, how do you sum up a really fucked up year in a few sentences?"
Being able to express these feelings also stems from the place Kittie are at now in their career. Their 2009 album In the Black marked a crossroads for the band, as they were able to redefine their sound.
"I think we made a point with In the Black and we sort of made a foundation, which we could lay the metaphorical house down for this particular album. We're just building on what we set in motion with In the Black because, in a way, I feel like it was a turning point in things," she says. "Funeral for Yesterday [2007] was kind of confused. I feel like the songs were there for sure and the writing and everything, I'm very proud of that, but I just found that the production wasn't really what we had anticipated and what we'd hoped for. In a way, In the Black was sort of undoing all of that. After that it left us able to be free to do a few more challenging and different things with the new album, which I feel like we did with I've Failed You."
While Lander's more personal approach makes I've Failed You Kittie's darkest and most emotional release lyrically, the mood also transfers into the melodies on the album. Featuring some of Kittie's best work to date musically, I've Failed You marks the band's most accomplished effort thus far.
"We're all sort of in the same place in our lives and we definitely all vibe off each other when it comes to writing. But definitely lyrically and melodically it all stems from a very dark, very personal place. It's the only album that I could write."
I've Failed You is out now via eOne Music. You can read more of Exclaim!'s newly published Kittie interview here.
"I think in a way [the title I've Failed You] sort of sets the mood of the content. Lyrically, everything on the album is basically about the same thing. It represents the feeling of letting someone down," Lander says. "It's really hard to explain, but the last year and a half of my life has been really crazy; my personal life has been completely turned upside down and I really could only focus lyrically on writing about one thing. It's just where I was at in my life, feeling like you've tried, you've done all you can and there's no helping it, there's no saving the relationship and feeling like you've let yourself down and you've let everyone else down that cared about you."
Due to the highly personal approach on I've Failed You, Lander says she had a tough time during the beginning of the lyric-writing process. "It was sort of like 'Where do I begin? How do I tell this story? How do I purge all of these feelings that have been bottled up for the past year and a half?'"
But she resolved to not hold back on opening up about her emotions. "I think a lot of times lyrically and on past albums I tend to keep things really vague, for my own personal safety I guess and not revealing too much about myself," she explains. "But for this album, I feel like I just let that guard down and I just wrote about stuff that just felt right to me and purging all of those feelings. So it is a little bit hard for me to talk about just because it's like, how do you sum up a really fucked up year in a few sentences?"
Being able to express these feelings also stems from the place Kittie are at now in their career. Their 2009 album In the Black marked a crossroads for the band, as they were able to redefine their sound.
"I think we made a point with In the Black and we sort of made a foundation, which we could lay the metaphorical house down for this particular album. We're just building on what we set in motion with In the Black because, in a way, I feel like it was a turning point in things," she says. "Funeral for Yesterday [2007] was kind of confused. I feel like the songs were there for sure and the writing and everything, I'm very proud of that, but I just found that the production wasn't really what we had anticipated and what we'd hoped for. In a way, In the Black was sort of undoing all of that. After that it left us able to be free to do a few more challenging and different things with the new album, which I feel like we did with I've Failed You."
While Lander's more personal approach makes I've Failed You Kittie's darkest and most emotional release lyrically, the mood also transfers into the melodies on the album. Featuring some of Kittie's best work to date musically, I've Failed You marks the band's most accomplished effort thus far.
"We're all sort of in the same place in our lives and we definitely all vibe off each other when it comes to writing. But definitely lyrically and melodically it all stems from a very dark, very personal place. It's the only album that I could write."
I've Failed You is out now via eOne Music. You can read more of Exclaim!'s newly published Kittie interview here.
