Kat Fechner, or more known under her mammalian moniker; Lazer Kitten! She is an SLC, Utah resident who is clawing her way to the upper echelon tiers of local artists. Her housey and upbeat tunes are solidifying her spots in shows some people drool over. Now cough-up your hairballs, she’s here for feasting, you’re the prey!
Please welcome Lazer Kitten to the storm!
Q1: Welcome to our ever-growing storm! We are elated to have you! What can you tell us about the origin story behind the Lazer Kitten craze?
A1: Thank you for having me, I’m excited to be part of this! Lazer Kitten started out as my senior college graduation project. I was in school for music production and sound engineering, and they wanted me to figure out a way to best represent my music. When I was getting close to graduation I decided I wanted it to be more than just my graduation project and just ran with it because I was really liking the music I was making and everyone in my life really liked what I was doing. The name itself is a play on my name Kat and who doesn’t love kittens and lasers.
Q2: You’re a Utah resident. What is your favorite part about living in the Beehive State? In terms of music and beyond.
A2: That it’s absolutely beautiful here. I live in downtown SLC and from my desk where I do all my music I have the most gorgeous view of downtown with the mountains in the background. At night when all the lights start coming on it’s absolutely breathtaking and hard not to be inspired. I also absolutely love Utah’s underground music community and I love getting to be a part of it. I have worked with so many of the smaller companies here outside of being a musician and DJ. I host a lot of my own events, I do a lot of stagehand help, run doors for a few events, and have helped with running lights. There was always so much happening in Utah and I feel so blessed that I have gotten to be part of so many absolutely amazing shows.
Q3: Your tune, ‘Time’ dropped on August 14th, can you walk us through the creative process behind the deep-house track?
A3: It started out kind of how I start all my tracks. I lay down a kick drum and then find some percussion loops I like. Then I write out my bass line. I feel like when I have a good rhythm and bass line it makes writing the melodies a lot easier. After I had the song laid out I really felt like it needed some lyrics to really glue everything together. This is one of the rare occasions I didn’t try to write my own lyrics or record my own voice. I actually found the samples on Splice and felt they matched the song so perfectly for what I was feeling with it. I also wanted to try some new vocal processing techniques and see if I could create something close to how ZHU does vocals. I’m really thrilled with how it all came together. I sent it to a lot of people and some really big artists for feedback and got a lot of really great and positive responses.
Q4: Where does your love of house music come from?
A4: My love for house music started out really young and it started out with French House. My parents put me into dance lessons when I was around 4 or 5 years old and when Daft Punk’s album Discovery came out my dance teacher was OBSESSED to say the least. For two or 3 years that’s the only album we did warm ups too. But I really need to give credit to Miss Kittin and Deadmau5. I bought Miss Kittin’s album Bat Box randomly on iTunes and then it recommended Deadmau5 Random Title and I bought that album as well. That’s when I really started learning what Electronic music was and started actively looking for it and listening to it. Although I have to give a special shout out to Eiffel 65 because that was one of the first CDs I ever bought and I listened to that album on repeat for years.
Q5: Your remixes span across the spectrum of heavy-hitting house titans, such as Felix Cartal, Borgeous, Brohug, and Kaskade. What is your favorite part about remixing tracks? What about the least favorite?
A5: I really enjoy creating remixes, I think it’s a lot of fun to take a song I really enjoy and make it my own. I love songs that have lyrics and I can sing along too so that’s usually the first thing I look for with songs I want to remix. I don’t know if I really have a least favorite thing about making remixes. Maybe the deadline if I’m doing it for a contest, but I overall feel like they are great practice and have really helped me improve my own personal productions, staying on task, and even help me break out of writer’s block.
Q6: Given the current state of the world, how are you making do with your time in this worldwide pandemic?
A6: The only thing that has really changed with me for the pandemic is hosting and DJing at events and going out every night. Now I spend a mass majority of my time working on my music, my label Occult Cats Records, and working on mixing and mastering other artists’ music. Because of the restrictions and lack of shows I have started hosting events/shows on Twitch through my record label. Every Friday night we have been doing an event called Hexed House Party and have been trying to get the artist from the label and artists just wanting to play some music on the show. With Occult Cats we have always wanted it to be a supportive community for anyone who wants to play or make house music and were not even set to just house music.
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Q7: Walk us through a day-in-the-life of Lazer Kitten. Sun up to sun down!
A7: First things first is a cup of tea or coffee. Then I boot up my computer and go through all the label submissions I get. After that I spend some time making sure all my social media pages are up to date and go through my emails while I dig for new music. I try my best to find at least one new song a day for my sets, it’s also a great way to get inspiration. After that I try to spend a few hours working on music or graphic design depending on what I need to get done. Somewhere in all the chaos I eat lunch. Then go back to working on projects until evening time. Make myself some dinner, catch a twitch music stream or two, maybe play some video games. However sometimes I will be up until 2 or 3 in the morning still working on music. I really feel like one of the lucky ones getting to dedicate my life to my passion.
Q8: What has been your favorite moment in your career thus far?
A8: I have had so many it’s hard to pick just one moment. Definitely a major moment in my life was getting to play Get Freaky in 2019. Get Freaky was the first massive rave I went to and Halloween is my favorite holiday. That show really made me want to be a DJ and it was this whole full getting to play that show. It’s funny because I look at the pictures from that night and every single one of them I have the biggest smile on my face because I was just so happy.
Q9: If you could sell-out any festival and or venue in the world, where is it? And, who did you have on your lineup?
A9: I have always wanted to play at burning man. I feel like its just the home for super creative soul, and its been a dream of mine to be an artist out there even before I ever made music.
If I were to pick a line up I wanted to be on it would be Blossom, Kittrix, Nostalgix, Miss Kittin, Kah-lo, Nora En Pure, Kendoll, Vnssa, Eli & Fur, and Black Caviar. I feel like that would be such a wild and fun house show. Hopefully one day I make that happen!
Q10: The world needs more light on the ones who are killing it daily. Who do you see that needs more recognition? Give them a shoutout!
A10: Well I of course want to give a big shoutout to all the artists on my label. No Nice Things, Subcreation, RoboRob, Hayden Neumister, Stoobz, The Lion’s Sight, Funky M, Celeri, & ikeLoud. They definitely all are very deserving of more recognition!
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