By Jhumpa Lahiri,Sheila Regan
Copyright minnpost
Ten years after forming Kiss the Tiger, Meghan Kreidler is finally starting to get the hang of fronting a rock band.
“I’ve come to realize that I started out feeling without an identity as a lead singer in a band, and now I feel really powerful and empowered in that role,” said Kreidler, who founded the band with her now husband, Michael Anderson, and their musical collaborators. “I think a big part of that is because I’ve started to claim more ownership of the music that’s being written and being collaborated on, and I feel like more of a force in the creative part of the band.”
Kreidler and Anderson had been dating for less than a year when they decided to start playing music together. “Before we even called ourselves Kiss the Tiger, we were playing all of Michael’s old music,” Kreidler recalled. “I’d never been in a band before, so I just didn’t know what that felt like.”
Over the past decade, Kiss the Tiger has become a steady presence on the Twin Cities music scene, known for their energetic live shows, solid musicianship and Kreidler’s captivating stage presence.
She came into the musical project with plenty of skills. She could sing, had a background as a professional actor and brought a wealth of creative energy. “It’s just been really fun to grow in this band as an artist,” she said.
In the early days, it felt like Anderson was driving the musical part of the band, while she was the face of it. “Now I feel like we’ve really merged as a creative force together,” she said. “I feel really confident now as a songwriter, and I feel like the opportunities are even more endless in that realm.”
On Friday, September 12, the band will release its latest album, “Infinite Love,” following a concert and tour kickoff on Thursday at Icehouse. Four years in the making, it’s their first album since the couple tied the knot a year ago. The record retains the immediacy of their stage performances while expanding the band’s range in the studio, adding strings, saxophone and layered textures to broaden the sound.
Kreidler and Anderson often write music together, with Kreidler writing lyrics for Anderson’s compositions and the other musicians fleshing out the arrangements. For four songs on the album, Kreidler wrote both music and lyrics using a different process.
For two of her solos, Kreidler drew literary inspiration from sources like “Crying in H Mart,” a memoir by singer and songwriter Michelle Zauner about losing her mother to cancer. Like Kreidler, Zauner is half Korean. “I found so many parts of myself reflected in that book, even though my mom is still living,” she said.
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In “Carry Me to Bed,” Kreidler explores her fears about what happens when we don’t record our ancestors’ stories. “What if I forget / Everything you gave me,” she sings. “Will the story end and / Will it be forgotten?”
“Crawl Inside,” based on a short story by Jhumpa Lahiri, is one of the darker songs on the album, full of grief, longing and loss. By using the books she’s reading as source material, Kreidler said she can tap into emotions outside of herself.
When she and Anderson write together, Kreidler tends to think ideas through while Anderson often starts with improvisation.“He’ll come up with a hook or a guitar part and then he’ll sort of expand on that, whereas I have an easier time writing if I have written lyrics, and then I assign melody and music to it,” she said.
The title track, “Infinite Love,” acts as a kind of twangy mission statement. “We are romantic partners and creative partners, and all of that feels really sort of endless, as long as we keep committing ourselves to making things together,” Kreidler said.
The dual relationship – a creative partnership and a marriage – requires balance. “It’s hard to kind of draw a line, especially for me,” she said. “I will talk about the band any hour of the day, whereas Michael has some stronger boundaries. He’ll be like, ‘Okay, we’re not talking about this anymore, we can look at it tomorrow.’”
The album follows Kiss the Tiger’s reputation for feel-good classic rock, banging anthems and nuanced divergences. Standouts include the heartful “Every Little Piece of Me” and “See More,” which shows the band leaning into playful experimentation.
The band’s line-up for “Infinite Love” includes Kreidler on lead vocals, Anderson on rhythm guitar, Alex Sandberg on lead guitar, Paul DeLong on bass, and new keyboardist Isabella Dawis. Drummer Alyse Emanuel, also new to the band, plays on seven of the album’s tunes with Richard Medek playing on the other three.
Guest musicians help round out the sound, including saxophonist Sue Orfield who delivers a standout solo on “See More.” “In the past, we were like, it’d be cool if there was saxophone on this, but then we didn’t end up hiring someone to come in,” Kreidler said. “This time, we brought in sax as well as violin and cello to add additional layers. It felt good to just be like let’s make these songs sound exactly how we want them to sound, and not try to cut corners… It totally paid off.”
You can catch Kiss the Tiger performing their new material on Thursday, September 11, at 8 p.m. at Icehouse, 2528 Nicollet Ave., Minneapolis. $18 in advance, $25 at the door. Find more information here.
For fans looking for more local music to start the weekend, the Parkway Theater hosts the fifth annual “Do Re #MeToo” concert on Friday, September 12, featuring an all-star lineup of Twin Cities performers, including saxophonist Orfield, delivering “kick-ass, in-your-face covers of the most sexist songs that we all know and love/hate.” All proceeds benefit the reproductive rights organization Abortion Access Front. Friday, September 12, 8 p.m., Parkway Theater, 4814 Chicago Ave., Minneapolis. $50 in advance, $60 at the door. Find more information here.
