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Interview: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

We chatted to the London trio during the Viva tour

03 Aug 2009

Interview: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

With terrific, retro-flavoured London trio Kitty, Daisy & Lewis heading towards the end of their 17 support dates with Coldplay, we gave Daisy (pictured, centre) a call to find out how they’ve been getting on…

Hi Daisy, how are you?
I’m alright, thanks.

Where are you now?
We’re on the tourbus. We’ve just crossed the border into Canada.

Did your bus get raided?
No, it was all pretty smooth. Although we did all get woken up.

So, you’ve been on the road with Coldplay for about three weeks now.
Yeah, I think we’re just past halfway through the shows.

How’s it been going?
Really well. It’s hard work though, sometimes. You get quite tired. But you travel overnight and then wake up in the next venue, so it’s not too bad.

And how have the gigs been?
Some of them are really good. Because we’re the first band on, sometimes there’s not that many people there, but when the audience really go for it, it’s good. The audience are quite far away as well – we’re more used to playing small clubs where they’re really close to you.

Which was the best show so far?
The second one, in George, was really good. That one really got going.

How would you describe your music to any Coldplay fans who haven’t heard it?
It’s quite a big mixture of stuff, a bit of classic R&B, a bit of blues, bit of swing, bit of Hawaiian. There’s not really one way of describing it. A lot of people call us rockabilly, but we’re definitely not that. I think people don’t really know what to call us, then they look at us and see our style with the quiffs and everything and assume we’re rockabilly.

The band is quite a family affair.
Yeah, it’s my brother and my sister. And our mum and dad are out here too. My dad plays acoustic guitar and my mum plays double bass.

Is it tricky being on the road with your whole family?
It’s alright actually. Even when we’re at home we hang out with our parents. We’ve been doing it all our lives, so it just feels normal.

How did you come to be on this tour?
Apparently Chris Martin came to one of our gigs back in London and next thing we know he got in touch and wanted us to come and support Coldplay.

Have you played in venues this big before?
We’ve done a couple of large venues, but nothing like this. Today’s one is apparently 40,000, which is definitely the biggest one we’ve done. Oh shit, I just realised I’ve missed Lewis’s birthday.

When was it?
It’s today! I completely forgot.

Oh dear. You’ll have to make him a present.
Mmm, I dunno what though.

So, have you seen Coldplay’s set on this tour?
Yeah, I have. It’s good. I like the way that it’s a proper show. But I suppose you have to do that in these huge places.

Are you a fan of the band?
I like the first album, but it’s not really my usual thing. The music that we play is the music that we listen to, old R&B, stuff like Louis Jordan or blues like Muddy Waters.

Have you played in America much before?
We played at South by South West a couple of years ago, but that’s it really. We haven’t toured like this. We haven’t even toured Europe properly. So we’ve kind of been thrown in at the deep end!

Has it been an enjoyable challenge?
I actually thought it would be much harder work, but it’s been quite enjoyable, yeah. You get treated really well and the catering’s great. Even when we have a day off, I start missing the catering!

Do you get much time to look around the places you’re in?
Yeah, we’ve had a few days off here and there. LA was probably my favourite place. We mainly spend the days looking through thrift stores. Lewis likes to check out old 78 records and I bought a vintage dress in LA, which was really cheap. You can’t really get much like that in England these days, and it’s all really expensive.

Have you had much feedback from the fans at the shows?
Yeah, even on my personal Facebook I’ve had a few people trying to add me as a friend and leaving comments. And a lot of people in the crew have always been watching us.

Have you been able to hang out with Coldplay?
Yeah, we’ve bumped into them backstage a bit. And they gave us a couple of microphones the other day as well.

How about the other support bands?
We haven’t really met Elbow yet, but we were hanging out with Amadou and Mariam quite a lot. We were jamming and stuff. We just sat around a pool table, making up silly lyrics and singing the same song for about an hour. We’re quite sad that they’re gone now.

Are you on a tourbus for the whole tour?
Yeah. I think the longest journey we’ve done so far was 17 hours. It’s alright, though, cos you sleep through a lot of it. Then you spend the rest of the time just sitting and watching movies.

And presumably you get to stop off at those amazing American truck stops.
Yeah, we’ve stopped at a few. We bought a stuffed snake and an armadillo from one in Texas!

What do you guys have planned for the rest of the year?
We’ve got a gig in Germany and one in France, and then we’re going to Australia in December.

Is there a new record coming at some point?
Well, we’re meant to be working on a new album now, but we haven’t really written much yet.

That’s what you should be doing with your 17 hour stretches on a tourbus!
I know! It’s kind of hard on a bus, though. So I doubt the album will be out for a while.

The final question is, what’s your favourite Coldplay song?
Um, I think it’s Trouble, from the first album.

For more information on Kitty, Daisy & Lewis head over to myspace.com/kittydaisyandlewis

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