In 1995 we recorded our fourth album Kitten Licks.
The recording took place at Rocking Horse Studio outside of Byron Bay, and it rained solidly for 13 of the 14 days we were there. Kellie reads from her diaries about the rain, and about everything else; our new drummer Dean, our producer Paul McKercher, and the excitement surrounding our new batch of songs.
1995 was a big year for us, we had a line-up change and got Dean Shwereb in the band. This was a massive deal, his drumming changed everything for us; our approach to songwriting, our practice routine and even the songs themselves. We felt a huge creative freedom.
Dean also brought a crazy new level of fun and humour to the band – we try to explain his “unusual” mind, and tell the story of how he got his nickname Rat Beef.
Tim explains that a lot of the lyrics and song titles on the record were blatantly stolen from various places: books, films, and other bands’ records and songs.
Kitten Licks changed us forever. We wrote the songs in a new, fast and spontaneous way, throwing ideas around in the practice room together, where anyone was encouraged to step up to the mic and “sing any old shit”.
Take a peek inside preceding months as we worked the songs up, the two rainy weeks we spent in the studio, and hear the inside dirt on all the songs.
See below for all the places we’ve stolen from, as well as others we were heavily influenced by:
- Martin Amis: London Fields, also: Money and other early 90s books
- Douglas Coupland: Shampoo Planet, also: Life After God.
- Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash
- Liz Phair: Shane (song, on Whipsmart)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsEvv237rGU
- Win Wenders: Until the End of the World – film
- Dream Whip fanzine
- Regurgitator: Blubber Boy