Kittie drummer Mercedes Lander has launched a new band called The White Swan, which sees her singing and playing guitar. She recently spoke with Noisey about launching th eband, her need to tour, and looked back at life on the road with Kittie. An excerpt is availabel below:

Lander's biggest financial priority for The White Swan is funding a tour. She's been staying close to home the last few years, and it hasn't been easy on her—although it has influenced the music she's putting out.

"I wanted everything to be slow and sad," Lander says of the first few tracks she wrote for The White Swan, "like how I was feeling because I wasn't on the road. As a human being, I feel like I was built to be out on the road all the time. That's just who I am. I love it…I feel like a piece of me has really died."

Maybe it's because she's spent months time-coding old footage for Kittie's 20th Anniversary documentary—a crowd-funded project two years in the making—but Lander still remembers the early tours like they were yesterday. Take, for example, her reminiscences on late 90s New York.

"We got lost in Brooklyn once—when Tanya (Candler) was still in the band, so this was mid-1999...We were coming from some CMJ thing, and then we were going to Brooklyn to play at L'amours that night…We were lost for three hours. And we got out to ask for directions and a cop was like, 'You need to get back in your car, turn around and go back wherever you came from.'"

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Mercedes recently spoke with BraveWords scribe Carl Begai about the band and the future of Kittie, who are currently on an indefinite hiatus. 

"Honestly, I don't even know," Mercedes says of Kittie's future activities. "Everyone knows where I stand; I'm more than happy to write a new record and put it out, but it's up to the rest of the band as to whether they want to continue to do it. That's not something we've really even talked about. Kittie is on hold until they figure out what they want to do."

Mercedes also commented on The White Swan's live debut which put her on stage front and center, a position usually occupied by sister Morgan Lander when Kittie performs. Asked what Morgan thought of Mercedes singing and playing guitar rather than drums...

"Morgan came to the band's first show and she said 'That was really weird. It was like I was in an alternate universe...' laughs Mercedes. "It is fucking odd, though, which is cool. I knew it was going to be strange and it'll be that way for other people until they forget I play drums in that other band. Until everyone becomes comfortable with it they're going to be weirded out by it."

Mercedes recently offered a track-by-track overview of The White Swan's three song debut EP featuring the songs "Illuminate", "Blood", and a cover of the Wings classic "Jet".

"'Illuminate'  is more or less about the feeling of profound loss, says Lander. "I felt like I wanted to ask all of the questions you would want to ask, or things you would want to tell someone if you've been separate from  each other for a long period of time. 'Blood' originally started as a song I wrote for a friend for her solo album. Gradually I changed the key and wanted to keep it for myself.  The song is about all of the different emotions you cycle through with any relationship, platonic or not."

"In March 2016 we started compiling riffs, songs, and demoing ideas. One night I was driving home from the yoga studio I teach at and 'Jet' came on the radio. Instantly I was like 'Damn, this song is heavy' and asked Kira and Shane if they would be cool with a cover version of the song. From there we started working on a version that would fit The White Swan."

Stay tuned for more. Check out The White Swan Facebook page here.