KIDS N CATS - Special Mail Interview

2016/09/02

[GAITARE MAMIRE TOUR 2016] coming soon!

It's a special mail interview from Mari to KIDS N CATS!

kidsncats

Interview with Marten & Jeanne from KIDS N CATS

KIDS N CATS - Juicy Worlds - Artwork

<About You>

Please introduce yourself. In other words, who's answering the questions?

Hi, We are the band called KIDS N CATS from Vienna. Jeanne Nickels & Marten Kaffke are answering the following questions!

<About Your Band>

1. Could you tell us about your band? Anything from the members and instruments in your band and the genre you play to the unique personality of the band.

KIDS N CATS - Juicy Worlds - Artwork

KIDS N CATS are actually 4 people:

Jeanne Nickels: Vocals, Synths

Marten Kaffke: Guitar, Vocals, Synths

Peter Paul Aufreiter: Synths, Samples

Maximilian Atteneder: Drums

Note: In Japan we’ll play our shows as a duo: Jeanne & Marten. It will be superfun!

Our music genre is best described as experimental pop music. We’re trying to be as open as possible in the creation process, while giving every idea a chance to evolve and then filter it into pop tunes.

2. What do you think your appeals are to the Japanese music fans? Is there anything that you hope them to look forward to?

I think we actually could fit great in Japan, at least, that’s what everybody tells us here because we are colorful, loud, wild and fun! We like to play in costumes, and try out new things.

3. Who and/or what are your musical influences?

Marten: Refused, Devendra Banhart, Breakbot, John Frusciante

Jeanne: Barbara, Tic Tac Toe, Tu Fawning, Les Misérables

Peter Paul: Radiohead, Arthur Russell, Animal Collective, Flying Lotus

Maximilian: My Family, Surroundings(!), other musicians i work with or meet

<KIDS N CATS>

I was absolutely shocked and mesmerised by your music video "Tip Tip" on YouTube. The images including your other videos are absolutely extraordinary, and I very much enjoyed them all! Who is making the artworks and videos? Could you tell me where your ideas come from and how they become concrete in your creative process?

Thanks ! 🙂 Well, we made “Tip Tip” with our best friend Daliah Spiegel, who is a great Viennese artist, currently living in Shanghai. We are often influenced by our friends, who are very, very talented. We love to create together with people we love, a whole environment, a whole new colorful world. We have many ideas concerning alternative society models that are built around the respect of nations, environment and animals. For us it is very important to deconstruct stereotypes and show new models of living.

<About Your Country>

1. Could you tell us about your country and its culture? Anything brief will absolutely be helpful for some of our fans would not know what it's like.

“Grumpy”, “calm” and “cozy” are some words that would describe Austria, especially Vienna. Viennese people tend to be very chilled, hang out in cafés, eat cake, read the newspaper for hours - at the same time they often grumble - the weather for example is never good enough, it’s either too cold or too hot!

Currently Austria is very divided politically, that is also what our presidential election is showing: there are two candidates : one is extreme right (Hofer), the other one is green (Van der Bellen). The extreme right movement has become very powerful in Austria, like in many other European countries - people have lost faith in the “big” political parties and now tend to go either more left, or more right… Let’s hope the election in October will give place to an environmental-friendly and open president !

2. What would you recommend to visitors from Japan? Could you perhaps come up with your favourite sites, shops, restaurants or even bars that serve good drinks?

The Schönbrunn Palace is a classic, but even if you lived in Vienna for a long time it is always very impressive to go to this beautiful place. The best pizza in Vienna you’ll get at “Discovolante”. In the 7th district, you will find many very hip and cute places to shop (e.g. Meshit fashion label) or to eat (e.g. Café Jelinek).

To go out, we like to go to a fun club called “Rhinoplasty” at the Club U, it’s ran by friends of ours, two homosexual crazy guys, who always dress up like crazy to a theme, every two weeks on Saturday night.

<About Japan>

1. Would it be your first visit to Japan? What kind of impression do you have about the country?

Yes, it’s our first time we are traveling to Japan! We think there are just a few countries in the world which are so unique in terms of culture and style. We are very interested into meeting new people and discussing with them how they feel about the future, about traveling, about food. WE LOVE TO EAT and are so excited about Japanese food!

2. Apart from playing the shows, what would you like to do in Japan? Any particular places, food, drinks that you hope to experience while your stay?

We’re really looking forward to visit places to see the rich cultural background of Japan. Furthermore we are „foodies“, so we will try out as much different dishes as we can, everything vegetarian (without fish or meat)! For example we love to have some Inari Sushi or Curry Udon!

<About TsuShiMaMiRe>

1. How did you get to know TsuShiMaMiRe in the first place? What do you think about the band?

A friend of ours, Mareike, is an absolute Japan-fan! She listens to Japanese music and was in Japan twice already and told us about TsuShiMaMiRe! That’s why we wrote to them and they immediately wrote back ! We have never seen a band that is so committed and active! We are so excited about meeting them!

2. TsuShiMaMiRe are very much looking forward to hanging out with you all after gigs throughout the tour! Do you think you can perhaps join us? What kind of fun/entertainment are you looking for at after-parties?

OH YES! We want to hang out, eat, drink, karaoke, dance we are basically up for everything!

<About the Gaitare Mamire 2016 Tour>

1. What are your hopes/expectations towards the tour? Anything particular that you look forward to?

The most important thing for us is meeting fun and nice people! Also we love to tour and play in different places and discover new cities and new cultures, we are really looking forward to go for a walk in all the cities we will play at and meet some fun people from the audience!

2. What do you think your shows can offer to the Japanese fans? What should they expect of you?

I hope Japanese friends will have fun with us! We are quite unusual here in Austria, because we are really loud and colorful. We will sing in English and French and perhaps that would be something new for the audience. We would love people to come by after the show, to talk to us!

3. During the tour, we will be having Japanese bands such as KINOCO HOTEL, MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS, MowMowLuLuGyaban and Arukara as guest performers. What do you expect of them?

We love the music videos of MowMowLuLuGyaban and we are really looking forward to play together with them! I think they are crazy (in a positive way).

We are very excited to meet all these cool bands 🙂

4. You will be touring with musicians from Australia, Japan, Korea and the United States. What would you like to achieve/what sort of experience would you hope to have through touring with a group of multinational musicians?

We think that’s actually supercool! That is the future! People from different countries, speaking different languages, all communicating and spending time together thanks to music, which is something universal! We are really looking forward to exchange ideas, experiences, thoughts and stories. I hope this relationship will also bring future bonds. I hope we can invite some of these bands (Japanese or other countries) to Austria soon to play with them.

5. We are going to play in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe (Hyogo), Nagoya (Aichi), Sendai (Miyagi) and Tomakomai (Hokkaido) this time around. Among the cities above, do you have any cities that you are particularly looking forward to visit? If you can name one, why are you intrigued by the city?

Tokyo has alway fascinated us because we always saw the city through movies and series. We are excited about the architecture, the food, the people, the language and the size of the city. We’ve also heard a lot about Osaka and are as excited to go there! For Kobe (Hyogo), Nagoya (Aichi) and Sendai (Miyagi) we don’t have any images in mind, so we are completely free of any expectations!

6. Are you planning to sell your CDs/any band-related merchandise at venues? Any Japan-only items that your fans can expect?

It will be a surprise!