How many people do you know that accomplished something that effectively changed lives while they were in high school? Morgan and Mercedes Lander didn't intend to become heavy metal feminist icons in their teens, but that is exactly what they have become. They held their own with some of the biggest metal bands in the genre and made music as brutal as any of their male counterparts. They were RIAA certified gold and have sold millions of records since their debut 20 years ago. With plays in the millions on YouTube and Spotify, the band is even more relevant today, due to the international dialogue about women in entertainment.

The Lander sisters recently spoke with Tourism London about their forthcoming documentary release, Origins/Evolutions, due out on March 30th as a 3-disc set (DVD, Blu Ray and CD):

Thanks in large part to a devoted legion of fans and produced by bandmates, and sisters, Morgan and Mercedes Lander, Kittie: Origins/Evolutions is slated for release Friday, March 30 — four years to the day after launching the initial crowdfunding campaign.

To make it happen, the rockers took a giant step out of their comfort zones, taking the reins on a project that would lead them from centre stage to the big screen.

“I had seen some bands raise money with Indiegogo to do a multitude of things, from making videos to making records,” Mercedes explained. “I thought it was the best platform because I knew there was no way we were going to be able to pay for it ourselves. Movies are expensive — we found that out the hard way.”

In order to get the financial support they needed, the duo reached out — offering campaign backers everything from signed pictures to long-retired T-shirt designs, Skype calls with the band, and even a custom guitar.

It took just 24 hours for the campaign to crush its initial goal of $20,000 before going on to raise more than double that, thanks to 936 individual backers. The instant support came as a bit of a shock.

“We didn’t want to make our goal too out of reach, but it was amazing and a little surprising that many people were wanting to see this happen,” said Morgan. “We’ve always had an amazing fanbase, but it really went beyond that.”

Read the complete interview here.

On October 27th, 2017 Canadian Kittie celebrated the premiere of their career-spanning documentary Kittie: Origins/Evolutions by bringing a One Night Only unprecedented afterparty concert event like no other to Rum Runners in their home town of London, Ontario.

The show was an anthology set featuring past and present band members: I've Failed You / In The Black era, the Oracle / Until The End era, and the Spit era. Fan-filmed video and the band's Facebook livestream is available below.

The setlist was as follows:

Morgan Lander, Mercedes Lander, Tara McLeod and Ivy Vujic
"My Plague"
"Cut Throat"
"Empires, Pt. 2"
"Forgive & Forget"
"We Are the Lamb"

Morgan Lander, Mercedes Lander, Jennifer Arroyo and Jeff Phillips
"Oracle"
"Pussy Sugar" (first time live since 2011)
"Mouthful of Poison" (first time live since 2012)
"Burning Bridges"
"Pain" (first time live since 2007)

Morgan Lander, Mercedes Lander, Fallon Bowman and Tanya Candler
"Spit"
"Charlotte" (first time live since 2008)
"Choke" (Fallon on vocals. First time live since 2001)
"Paperdoll" (remix version. Tanya on vocals and Morgan on bass, First time live since 2002)
"Brackish" (first time live since 2008)

Encore:
"Funeral for Yesterday" (acoustic; dedicated to Trish Doan. First time live since 2011)