Kittie drummer Mercedes Lander has launched a new band called The White Swan, which sees her singing as well as playing drums. She recently  spoke exclusively with BraveWords scribe Carl Begai about how the band came to be:

"Basically, I had all these songs I couldn't use for any band that I was in and really thought it would be a challenge for me to write everything and try vocals for a change. In all honesty, these songs were my babies and I didn't really trust anyone to do them justice. My first choice for someone to work with was Kira (Longeuay / bass), as we have a long history of playing in The Alcohollys together. The band is about to take a long hiatus, and her and I had always worked well together. I knew Shane (Jeffers / guitars) from him being over at the house taking guitar lessons from my boyfriend, and we all run in the same circle of musicians so it was really a no-brainer.  

I have always loved the doomier side of rock music and really pulled a lot of my inspiration from bands that I grew up listening to. I wanted the songs to be aurally pleasing and written almost like a pop song, but have a hint of darkness and the feeling of that darkness about to boil over into chaos just underneath the surface. After a few weeks of demoing riffs, Kira and Shane came over to jam and it was possibly the greatest feeling I've had in a long time. I was amazed at how easily everything clicked. From there we recorded our EP, Anubis, with Alastair Sims in August in one day. He really captured what we wanted to achieve with our sound and really understood what we wanted get out of the recording."  

Lander has followed up with a track-by-track overview of The White Swan's three track 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. 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."

The White Swan is:

Mercedes Lander – drums, vocals, keyboards, guitar
Shane Jeffers – guitar
Kira Longeuay – bass

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

Photo by Rock Solid Images