MUSIC INTERVIEW: KID SISTER

Chicago’s Favorite Daughter Kisses & Tells About New Music and a Move to the West Coast

By: Team Buzzine

December 2, 2011

Melisa Young catapulted from being a local hero to an international star with the global success of her 2007 Kanye West collaboration, "Pro Nails," and only reinforced that standing with the well-loved 2009 debut album, Ultraviolet. In 2010, her Kiss Kiss Kiss mix-tape (created in partnership with Nick Catchdubs) was an instant classic, and now, here in 2011, she has just released the Kiss & Tell EP as a prelude to a still-untitled follow-up full-length already building buzz as one of 2012’s most anticipated albums. The ever-busy Kid Sister recently found a moment to sit down with Buzzine’s Stefan Goldby in Hollywood, California to talk about her musical past, present and future, and reveal why her new music will be "less techno, more booty…"

Stefan Goldby: Let’s begin at the beginning: As a point of reference, tell us about the earliest days of you becoming a musician – your brother [J2K of Flosstradamus] played a big part in that starting point, right?

Kid Sister: I wrote a song about it. Wanna hear it? Here it goes… [laughs]

No, honestly, my brother had these parties that were going on in Chicago, and they were wildly popular, and I jumped up with a mic on a couch and started to rap, and after that, everything fell into place. It was just like all of a sudden… I have all these big-name people on my songs, and no planning went into it whatsoever. [Laughs] So I will say that it was completely organic, the way it came together, which was great. So now it leads me into my second album, which I’m working on now, and it’s much more planned [laughs], but it’s still fun.

SG: We’ll get to that second album in a minute, but keeping things chronological for a moment… Ultraviolet came out the end of 2009 after a couple of years of recordings – obviously your organic process was a little longer than the planned approach of, “All right, let’s nail this thing down!”

KS: Right!

SG: With some time for reflection, what do you like best about Ultraviolet as a debut album?

KS: I like that I wrote every single song. What I learned, now that I live in LA, is that no artists write their own songs: None of them! Not one. I mean, they might co-write them, and let’s not get crazy, they have some writing skills some of the time, but I wrote 11 of 13 songs… one of which was a co-write, the other was a cover… and people just don’t do that. So I think when you’re reading criticism of the album, what many music journalists don’t know is that there is an army [Laughs] of people to write songs for artists, and that’s how they turn around the albums so quickly.

I didn’t know that, and I can’t be mad because they didn’t know it either. We’re all ignorant in this. But yeah, now I’ve got my little writing army too [Laughs], so the album is about three-quarters done… the new album… and it’s still a lot of fun, but definitely more of a focused effort.

SG: How do you think you’re a different musician today, compared to the one that started recording that first record?

KS: It’s like asking someone in a foreign country… when they move there, they don’t speak the language… like how do you feel now, two years on? It’s like, if you went somewhere and you completely didn’t speak the language and now you do [Laughs], that’s just the difference right there. It’s like black and white, pretty much.

SG: Last month you released the Kiss Kiss Kiss mixtape. Making a mixtape can be a little bit more down and dirty, a little bit quicker, but did the format make you change your approach to making music in any way?

KS: I just did it. I had a lot of fun with it, like anything else, but it was like nose to the brimstone… Is that the right word…?

SG: Grindstone?

KS: Grindstone? I’m like, what’s ‘brimstone’… It sounds like a restaurant!

SG: Fire and brimstone…

KS: FIRE AND BRIMSTONE! Stones. [Laughs] Anyway, so nose to the grindstone, and I just ground it out. And even though I still had fun with it, it was definitely like, “Okay, this is the due date – we have to have it done by this date.” And I just did it. But it was just a lot of fun. Working with artists that I hadn’t maybe worked with before, or being able do things on an album that I wouldn’t be able to do, like the Jodeci track, which I had been wanting to do for like three years. It was my idea. I was like, “Okay, you take “Forever My Lady”, put it on a Juke song with DJ Gant-Man screamin’ like a fool… yes, let’s do it!” Three years later, it finally happened… But Kiss Kiss Kiss was the right place for it.

SG: Kiss Kiss Kiss is kind of a one step in the past, one step in the future affair, is that just the nature of a mixtape? You went back and took another stab at a couple of the songs from Ultraviolet…

KS: …yeah, it was basically keeping everybody up to speed on what’s been going on in the last year, basically.

SG: That’s also a part of how the industry has changed recently: Mixtapes have always been around, but it seems in the last couple of years, you almost can’t go just straight from album to album… you’ve got to put something out in between: Is that freeing as an artist?

KS: Freeing or fraying? [Laughs] Yeah, I mean, I guess it’s cool… I don’t know. I think that maybe not isn’t necessarily even like the rule. I don’t think there are any rules anymore. So if you want to release a mixtape, if you want to release a single, if you want to release a short film, nobody cares! You do what you want to do because the record labels don’t have any money anymore, and they don’t know what they’re doing, so there’s basically no rules. So if there’s no rules, let’s go crazy, WOO!

SG: [Laughs] Labels don’t know what they are doing? What about Fool’s Gold…

KS: Oh, I mean the major labels. I’m sorry – Fool’s Gold, yes, I love you.

SG: I’ll let you put the record straight: What does Fool’s Gold do to help you?

KS: Fool’s Gold Records was started because I had nowhere to put out my music, and we needed somewhere to release these two or three tracks that I had. I was largely unknown at the time. I had a publicist. What up Biz3, I love you guys! But really, I didn’t have anything beyond that and I was pretty unknown. So Alain [Macklovitch] came along – A-Trak, rather… and we just decided to start this label to get the music out, and that’s how it happened. And it’s just been like a family dynamic ever since then and looking after each other. It’s a great home for me.

SG: That family dynamic and indeed your brother has always been there or thereabouts for you throughout your music career. You’re actually the third sibling we’ve interviewed in the last few weeks, so I’m getting very interested by this: How do you, as musical collaborators, sort out decisions/discussions, because there’s a part of you that just sorted it out with shouting, fists or whatever you used as a six-year-old…

KS: Or 16-year-old. [Laughs]

SG: [Laughs] You’ve said that as adults, he’s now your best friend and so much more. How do you go about working together when you have all that history?

KS: It’s about not letting your ego get the best of you, and keeping all of that insecure whatever in check, and letting the other person get out their ideas. And, for the most part, both of us have really great gut instincts when it comes to music. Sometimes my brother just knows; sometimes I just know. For instance, I have a new song by The Neptunes, and I couldn’t figure out what to do with the hook, so he helped me write it, and they played it for Chad [Hugo] and for Pharrell [Williams], and they were like, “Oh my God! This hook is so DOPE!” So sometimes Josh knows better, and you’ve got to be able to trust your little brother. [Laughs]

SG: That sounds like the end of a very long journey – to say, “Sometimes you’ve got to be able to trust your little brother.”

KS: It’s true! For me, it’s like saying, “I was wrong. You were right.” [Laughs] It’s very difficult to say, but sometimes you’ve got to know when to shut up.

SG: So the Neptunes are a big part of the new record: Talk to us about where you’re at with that right now.

KS: Production will largely be done by Scoop DeVille, who did “I Wanna Rock” with Snoop and Fat Joe’s “Ha Ha,” and he’s working with a lot of other artists, but we’re concentrating on my album right now, and that’s what we’re in the middle of! I took a month and a half off. It feels so weird! But I live in LA now, so it’s lovely, even though today is a little rainy. Better than Chicago. So yeah, I’m just working on the album with Scoop, and then we have a couple other songs by other producers, but for the most part: Scoop DeVille.

SG: Is that what you’re doing over at Red Bull’s studios?

KS: Yeah. Oh, we did a record with Corey Gunz there. That was really good. Do you know who he is? He’s on “6 Foot 7 Foot”: You know that song?

SG: Lil Wayne!

KS: He’s Peter Gunz’s son. Do you remember Peter Gunz? “Uptown Baby”?

SG: Whoa.

KS: Yeah. Like father, like Gunz.

SG: More family ties! OK - the new album that you’re in the middle of recording here in LA, give us the sneak-peek: How is it gonna be?

KS: The new record is just a lot more focused and there are less cooks in the kitchen. It’s just me and it’s Scoop, our executive producer… and then there’s Fool’s Gold - Alain… I’m sorry, A-Trak, Nick Catchdubs, and Dust La Rock helping us, of course, in guiding everything, and we’re all working together to mold this project. But I just think that it’s gonna be dance, but it’s gonna be dance that will f*** you up. So it’s less techno, more booty. So, however you want to take that! [Laughs]

SG: I’ll be happy about it. How about that? Can I take it like that?

KS: That’s good, yes. A big old luscious booty – how can you be mad? [Laughs]

SG: It’s straight up club music – a soundtrack to a fun night out: Is that what you mean?

KS: Club music… Um, I actually think that Kiss Kiss Kiss kind of meanders a bit, and I don’t think it’s just straight one thing because you have “Gucci Rag Top” and you have “Click Clack”, and you have songs like “Imma Get It” that are way more grimey hip hop, and then you have songs like “Work Them,” which is just a club cut – that’s all it is. It’s like [singing], “Let me see you work ‘em. Work that ass, girl.” That’s all it is! So it’s gonna be more like “Gucci Rag Top” and more like “Click Clack,” and more like those kinds of songs, rather than, “Let me see you drop it low, girl. Let me see that booty. Let me see that booty go, girl.” It’s gonna be less of that. But there’s still gonna be that – just released on the side.

SG: You were a film student. You worked on a couple of indie movies. You also worked on at least one reality TV show…

KS: I logged and transcribed. [Laughs] I was really doing it.

SG: So that gives you something of a scary intro to the entertainment industry while still in Chicago: What did you think of Hollywood before you came here?

KS: Horrible. I still think Hollywood is horrible. No offense! Hollywood has some nice parts, like this. Actually, I went to a producer’s house that lives in this area, so I recognized it by the Hollywood Tower, which is so beautiful and everything. I think there are areas like that that are nice, and areas of Hollywood where there are like hacids [Laughs], and those are kind of more normal. And then you have Hollywood & Highland, and you’re just like, “What?!” Everyone wants to be an actress, everyone is crazy, there’s a naked man right there. What’s going on?

So when I came here for the first time – and I had not done a lot of traveling – I was like, “This is just crazy.” It’s like a panic attack in intersection form. What? It’s shape-shifting. Anyway, I moved here, and as long as you avoid the really mental areas, you can really enjoy yourself. I live downtown; I love it. My friends live on the east side – cool. I’ve got some friends on the west side – it’s so cool. Everyone here is just nice and relaxed, and I love it now.

But I hated it then. It’s like weird ladies with leopard print pants and UGG’s and a fur boa on their head. I’m just like, “What are you doing? Do you have a job? What the f***?” [Laughs] Sorry. “How do you find work? What are you doing?” That stuff still bothers me, if you can’t tell. I’m like, “Stop wearing ridiculous clothes.”

SG: Well, unlike you, apparently [smiles], we like to let everyone’s style flow in a manner of their own choosing to end our interviews: So what would you like your final words on camera to be?

KS: [Beatboxing and singing] “Take, take…me out…to the ball…game.” [Laughs] No, I’m sorry. I love you, Bernie Mac! That’s so random, but I love that standup bit. What should I say? I don’t know. All right, cool. Well, you can find me: My name is Kid Sis, you know it’s like this. It’s @KidSister on Twitter, The Real Kid Sister on Facebook, and we’re touring right now, doing radio tours to promote “Gucci Rag Top” all around the country, and the album is coming out after that, so yay!

Kid Sister’s album-teasing new ‘Kiss & Tell’ EP is out now on Fools Gold Records.

Buy it and then download the free ‘Kiss Kiss Kiss’ mixtape direct from the Fool’s Gold site…