story+ photos / Emma Kathan
makeup / Melinda Kay
Where are you from Kitty? Daytona, Florida.
Do you make your own music/beats? No, when I first started I would just rap over Mad Lib and MF Doom beats and just random instrumental songs that I already liked. And then, people would just send songs to me. All of the songs that I made where just random guys who would email them to me or my friends made them for me, stuff like that.
So, do you write words a lot then? Do you keep a journal? Yeah, I write all the time! A lot of it’s not songs though its just random things and then I turn them into songs later.
Do you ever write full stories? I do write stories but I don’t write fiction. I’ll write an entire story about something that happened to me.
Like a journal entry? Yeah, like that.
Do you ever post those stories online? No. (laughs)
How many albums do you have out now? I have two EPs out now. I had a mix tape from a while ago then there was one EP that’s actually been publicized and I’m working on a new one now.
Who are some of your favorite musicians and rappers? My favorite bands of all time are The Talking Heads and Why. Also, Daniel Johnston and Elliot Smith are some of my favorites. And then there were some rappers who came up when I was in middle school that I liked, like Petey Pablo, Chingy and Young Jock and the whole snap music thing.
Are you on a label or just releasing your music by yourself? Just releasing it myself.
Have you done a full American tour yet? No, so far I’ve played Los Angeles, Atlanta, Madison, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and Florida.
Are you touring right now? Well sort of. I’ll be playing Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles and Florida coming up in the next couple of weeks.
Are you touring with anyone? No, they’re just my shows but in the end of October I’m opening up for Why? which is really like a dream come true. Also, Danny Brown has been my favorite rapper for a year or so and then I got to open for him for a couple shows just this past week so that was really exciting.
When did you start making music? It’s been a little over a year now, about a year and a half.
Wow, well you’ve done a lot in a year! So how did you promote yourself, how did your music get noticed? All I ever did was post a song on my blog, on my Tumblr. I would just be like, “Ha ha look, this is funny,” and it just caught on you know. People would repost it on their blogs and stuff.
What was the song that was the viral hit? “OK Cupid” was the one that made it the farthest in the blogs. It got the most notes on Tumblr and then we made a video for it.
Did you grow up in a musical family? Yeah, kind of. I mean, my Dad has always been super into music and he plays guitar and he got me into a lot of the stuff that I like now. And my brother is like a musical prodigy. It sucks kind of because he can play any instrument and he’s just amazing at all of them and he has a really good ear for music. It’s really annoying because I didn’t have any musical talent and for instance one time a newspaper interviewed my dad and they asked him, “So what do you think of this whole phenomenon with Kitty becoming so successful in music?” And he was like “I don’t understand why because Kyle’s the one who has all the talent.”
And yeah, I can agree on that.
Has your brother made any music with you ? No, not yet. I’m really, really picky with my music.
You two just have different styles? Yeah kind of I mean he’ll do things exactly the way that I wanted to if I tell him to but I don’t want to do that.
Is there a certain person who makes most of your beats? It started with Beautiful Lou, who made “OK Cupid” and “Orion’s Belt” and then lately my best friend Grant. He’s an incredible producer and all of the songs that I’ve been writing to lately are by him.
How many video’s do you have out now? Two, and I’m working on another one for the song “Ay Shawty”, which we’ll be filming soon in NY.
So you’re working on your third EP now? Yeah, recording that now. Everything I’ve recorded so far has just been by myself in my room and in Grant’s room.
What program do you use to make your songs? Garage Band. All of my songs have been made with Garage Band.
And where can people buy your music? I have a bandcamp site and that’s the only place right now, it’s jokersintrousers.bandcamp.com
