Mercedes Lander, the drummer for Canadian bashers Kittie and vocalist/guitarist in The White Swan, recently spoke with YesterdazeNews about Kittie's forthcoming 20th Anniversary Documentary, Origins/Evolutions, and forming the band at the age of 12. 

Mercedes: "I had the weirdest childhood ever. I don't really know anybody else that grew up like that. It's definitely surreal, and it puts a lot of things in perspective. Also, it makes social interactions kind of weird, too, because you're sitting around with a bunch of people that aren't in the business and you all start telling stories; all my stories involve strip clubs and a lot of alcohol and debaucherous things, so normies are kind of weirded out by that." 

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 3-disc set (DVD, Blu Ray and CD) is due out on March 30th. Also, look out for a 12" record of the audio portion of the release in the coming months.

On October 27th, 2017 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)