Kitty the Lion

Photo by Alan Roney

At the moment we keep going back and forth here at Elba trying to decide who we want to go and see at Hinterland next week. When we sent our initial lists to each other I wasn’t particularly surprised that some of the same names were on each others list. I mean, I’d like to think we have pretty discerning tastes here at Elba (ahem, if you knew about one of our collective’s cheesy pop collection, you’d surely disagree). Several of those names also seem to have animal names in them – nearly every band I seem to like these days has an animal in the title! Anyway, today’s feature is no exception to that rule and someone we’ll definitely be going to see next weekend. I present to you Anna from Kitty the Lion…

You used to perform as ‘Anna Meldrum’. Why the change, and do you enjoy having a full band behind you?

When I was gigging as Anna someone asked me what my real name was because they thought it was a stage name. I thought that was a bit bizarre because my name is really ordinary, but maybe that’s only because I read it on envelopes a lot. Anyway, we decided to change because when I started playing gigs with a band behind me it felt really awkward when we’d get introduced as ‘Anna Meldrum’…and there were three of us. I absolutely love having a full band together now, I get all grumpy when I have to do acoustic things nowadays. The songs sound the way they always did inside my head, but everyone else gets to hear it too!

You released your single ‘Lion in the Bed’ in November. Any plans for more releases? Or maybe an album?

We’re definitely going to have another release at some point this year, not sure what it’ll be yet but most likely an EP sort of idea. A single and an album’s baby.

Glasgow has a reputation for having a lot of good venues to play in, what’s your favourite?

I like the Captain’s Rest and Nice n Sleazy. The sweaty dank ones where you get no phone signal. There are good memories hanging about in those places.

Stornoway is listed in your recent gigography, if you could play a gig anywhere, where would it be?

I’d really like to go to Iceland and imagine I was Björk.

Hinterland 2010 is fast approaching and we are looking forward to seeing your set. Is there anybody else playing the festival who you’re hoping to catch?

As many as I can! It will be cool to see the bigger names but will also be nice to see some local people I’ve listened to but not seen live, like Panda Su and The Boy Who Trapped the Sun.

We always ask anyone who does a podcast or interview on for Elba Sessions if there are any bands we should be checking out? Any recommendations?

Findlay Napier, Kristina Cox, Julia and the Doogans, Matt Norris and the Moon, Sparrow and the Workshop…

What can we expect to see from Kitty the Lion in the next year?

More commitment because I’ll have graduated from Uni!

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Kitty’s aforementioned single is out now and available for download at i-tunes, get yer mitts on a copy. For all the latest news on the band be friends over on myspace.

You can catch Kitty the Lion as part of this year’s Hinterland Festival, next Saturday (3/4/10) at various Glasgow venues (tickets here).

*The lovely photo above was brought to you by the lens of Alan Roney