Who: Katie Mitchell of Kilo Tango
What: The TribeLA Musicians Acrostic Artist Interview
When: Thursday, June 29, 2017
Where: The Satellite in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA
by Natalie Durkin
artist Gabriel Bernini
It’s Thursday night at The Satellite in Silver Lake and Kilo Tango goes on at 9:45 pm. I arrive an hour prior to have a pre-show chat with Katie Mitchell, Kilo Tango’s frontwoman. I approach Katie at the bar where she’s with her friend and bassist, Caitlin Dee. She lights up like her fiery red hair and gives me a warm hug when I say, “Are you Katie?” We step outside to talk, Dee in tow. Mitchell tells me about her cottage cheese addiction, the café in Echo Park that has her heart, and how to do what you love and survive the meltdowns that come with it.
Tagline. Give your band a tagline.
Mitchell is stumped so she looks to Dee for an idea. I can’t say Dee’s tagline here, but Mitchell finds a fitting pop culture reference to describe the essence of Kilo Tango. “Angry girl music,” she says. She reveals her Instagram bio used to be, “Angry girl music of the Indie Rock Persuasion, from 10 Things I Hate About You.” She settles on, “Songs about boys.”
Reason. What got you started in music? What is the reason you are where you are today?
Mitchell’s heart lies in what she describes as, “this weird kind of surf garage sixties genre.” She discovered the female-fronted band Best Coast in high school and remarks on her fascination with lead singer Bethany Cosentino’s tattoos, weird haircut, and songs about, “plain-and-simple, her feelings.” “I knew I wanted to do music somehow but I just wasn’t sure how to do it,” she says. She attended design school for two years but, “didn’t have the passion for [fashion],” prompting her to move back home and start a band. Her goal now is simple: “Have fun and make good music that I want to listen to.”
Influence. What influence do you hope to have on us?
Mitchell wants to take us to “a different world,” noting music is “escapism” to her. The track “Boys and Drugs” gets you high and brings you right back down; “Don’t Bring Me Roses” takes us to Mitchell’s Echo Park digs in the middle of the night as she wards off an unwelcome ex.
Block. What do you do when you’re blocked or stuck?
“Oh, man,” Mitchell starts, adding, “just not think about music.” Instead, she’ll “take a breather” or “go for a run,” to clear her head. Mitchell says she finds solace in Dee, who she called recently mid-meltdown. “The other week I [told Dee] ‘I quit music. I’m done.’” “It’s hard,” she says. “You can’t force it.”
Energy. What fires you up and gives you energy?
Mitchell is a natural collaborator, drawing energy extrinsically from others. “I love going to shows,” she says. She’s found good company in Dee and Kilo Tango’s drummer, Zeh Monstro, saying that there’s “nothing better than playing music and having fun.”
Photo by Katie Mitchell
Little known fact. What would we be surprised to learn about you?
“I really love cottage cheese,” Mitchell shares. “It’s [so] disgusting but I don’t care.” She laughs.
Angeles. Where is your favorite place in Los Angeles? Where would you take visitors? If you could defend the city in one sentence to someone who doubts it, what would you say?
Mitchell is an Echo Park resident by way of Florida. “Well, my favorite place in Los Angeles has probably got to be this old café across the street from where I live, Stories.” She loves the “Mom and Pop” vibe, “really good coffee,” and hip patrons. “Such a cool place.”
“I would definitely take visitors to the [Griffith] Observatory.” She knows it’s a Los Angeles staple, but recognizes she still has her share of exploring to do, confessing, “I still need to do a bunch of stuff.” An item on her list? Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “I would take people to museums. I actually have some friends who are coming so I should probably plan this.” Another one of Mitchell’s LA essentials? Getting “some good tacos.”
“I would say that LA is full of opportunity. It’s definitely not easy, but, I think if you really [want to] do something in the art industry, LA is where you need to be.”
Making. Briefly chronicle your creative process for making music.
Mitchell’s creative process is a lack of a set process. She’ll record voice memos if an idea comes to her and spends time playing with GarageBand. She’s responsible for Kilo Tango’s guitar parts and lyrics. “Yeah usually I just can’t sit down and be like, alright, I’m [going to] write a song.”
Upcoming. What can we expect from you in the near and distant future?
“I’ve been recording since I moved here and I put out an EP” (Boy Problems, available on Spotify, Apple Music, and BandCamp). “New music, possibly more shows and…who knows, maybe one day we’ll tour.”
Style. Describe your style, musically and otherwise.
Mitchell’s go-to style is sixties, seventies, nineties, and the aforementioned surf garage rock, fitting for a Floridian-Angeleno hybrid. Another one of her favorite genres? “Old school Dad rock.” “I like so many different things that I want to put into [Kilo Tango’s] music.” Listening to Boy Problems, her sixties, seventies, and nineties inspirations seem fitting; Mitchell’s voice is high-pitched, sweet and bubblegum-like. Her content is not-so-bubblegum-like; boys, psychedelics, and heartbreak.
Impart. What is the best piece of advice you’ve received? What is the best piece of advice you can give?
Mitchell says to “chill out” and “let it happen. If you know you have talent and the drive that’s really all you can do. And, at the end of the day, something’s [going to] work out if it’s meant to work out. So, I’ve gotten that advice plenty of times ‘cause I’m really bad at chilling out” (laughs). But, I guess, the best piece of advice I could give is to just surround yourself with good people and good friends and never let toxic people in your band or in your life because that’s not ever [going to] be good. So, yeah, just really surround yourself with good people ‘cause that’s really how you get through.”
Close. Any last closing words?
“Thank you for doing this; this was really awesome.”
Photo by Lisa Durkin
Natalie Durkin is a content contributor and social media assistant at TribeLA. She is a student at Bard College in New York’s idyllic Hudson Valley and returns intermittently to L.A. to see her parents and black Labrador Retriever, Buoy. Don’t ask her what she is majoring in; she doesn’t know yet, but she plans on pursuing a career in drama therapy. Once, she was a debutante. Sometimes, she is an actress, waterskier, and snow skier. She is always a Sex and the City fan, animal lover, and proud Angeleno. Nat’s website is: https://nataliedurkinwriting.wixsite.com/nataliedurkin