Q&A: Kit Major is Taking Up Space and Loving Every Minute of It
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photo Credit: Adrian Hernandez
WOMEN IN THE ROCK INDUSTRY NEVER ASKED FOR PERMISSION — they’re claiming space, turning up the volume and daring anyone to tell them to quiet down. LA rocker and self-proclaimed Kit Major is firmly part of that movement. With the announcement of her new EP Miss Ego, due out June 12, Major delivers a fearless, high-voltage statement about identity, femininity and what it means for women to fully inhabit their power.
Known for her signature blend of alt-pop soundscapes and grunge-punk bite, Major has drawn comparisons to Viagra Boys and Amyl and the Sniffers, but Miss Ego is less about lineage and more about liberation. The EP is a rock n’ roll spectacle and one hell of a good-time girl. It’s unapologetically messy, loud, self-aware and uncontained. At its heart, Miss Ego interrogates how much space women are allowed to take up in the rock scene, in relationships, and in the world at large — and what happens when they decide to take more.
Major kicks off the era with lead single “Not As Witty As I Used To Be,” a fiery, Ramones-esque anthem that wastes no time getting to the point. Short, sharp, and delightfully unhinged, the track barrels forward with snarling guitars and raw immediacy. The accompanying music video marks Major’s directorial and editing debut, full creative control included.
Miss Ego was born out of a moment of creative friction. Stuck between two songs built around the same idea, “there’s no room in bed for Miss Ego,” Major realized the phrase itself held the core of the project. What began as writer’s block turned into a conceptual breakthrough, one that cracked open deeper questions about self-limitation and permission.
“I really locked myself in, and I didn’t know I did until I was looking back at a time that I wasn’t boxed,” Major reflects to Luna.
Transitioning from a pop mindset into the harder-edged music she’s making now forced her to confront how much she had been shrinking herself, artistically and personally.
“It made me question how much room is there for me in my scene, in the space, in the world, in my relationships. How much space can I take up? I'm going to see how much space I can take up,” she says.
Miss Ego doesn’t offer neat answers. It revels in the asking. Major hopes the message resonates with women listening: don’t be afraid to take up space. “Take up all the pillows in the bed,” she says. “Do everything you can to be as loud as possible.”
Miss Ego mirrors Major’s live shows with platform boot kicks, sweat-soaked energy and all. It’s relentless from start to finish, packed with lyrics made to be screamed out car windows and shouted back from the crowd. In an era where women in rock are refusing to be minimized, Miss Ego stands as there’s more than enough room and Kit Major is taking it.
Photo Credit: Adrian Hernandez
LUNA: Welcome back and thank you for talking to Luna again. It's super exciting to have you back since the last time we talked in the fall before your Love.Sick.Major EP was released. I would love to catch up and see how life has been treating you and what have you been up to since the last time we talked.
KIT MAJOR: I have been pretty much in go, go, go mode of getting this EP out. I've been working on it in different capacities. In previous EPs, I've been spearheading a lot of directing, and especially for “Not As Witty,” I directed and edited the music video, which I haven't done before. It's been a wild time looking at my calendar, so I feel very much in my Capricorn element of having everything planned out. Also getting ready for doing shows again. We have our first February show at the end of the month in LA at El Cid, and from there, we'll be doing San Jose, and I haven't played there before, and then we'll be returning to Sacramento. Then some other fun things and shows are coming up in the future, so it's just been a lot of feeling like it's that upward roller coaster and we're going up and just seeing where it goes.
LUNA: You just released your latest single “Not As Witty As I Used To Be” which is a sneak peek into your upcoming EP. Can you walk us through the inspiration behind the track or the feeling that pushed this story to the surface?
KIT MAJOR: “Not As Witty As I Used To Be” was one of the last songs written for the EP. I decided to put that one out first as a single, because I felt like it was a good representation of where the music’s going. I've always had an old soul and appreciation for rock n’ roll, and it's continuing in the Kit Major universe of really wanting to keep that energy alive and well, and so I feel like it does a really good job of amplifying the loud energy at shows and having a video that matches the wild performance and theatrics that come with it.
“Not As Witty As I Used To Be” came out to me because I really wanted to write a love song, and I was just thinking about how I used to be less self judgmental and be more impulsive in how I would approach lyrics, and I started to be more aware of judging myself as the pen was hitting the paper. I think that's a big part of what Miss Ego means to me, and what this next coming EP and era is, which is really trying to challenge myself in how I'm pre-judging what I do, because I'm coming from a place of experience. When you're older, you're wiser, but you're not. It takes away the impulsiveness of being young, and I'm really trying to channel that mentality that cards may fall, the mentality that I had when I was 23 and performing with my laptop and running around LA with a wig. This is me honoring that part of me and that artistic side of me, even if that's different from how it was when I was 23.
LUNA: The “Not As Witty As I Used To Be” music video is your directorial debut and huge congratulations! How was your experience stepping behind the camera, and did it change how you approached your music visually?
KIT MAJOR: I think it made me realize it was a really interesting thing to see as an editor, because I didn't plan any of my moves. I really move impulsively. Sometimes it works because it's cool, and sometimes I don't really remember what I do until I watch a video back. And the crazy thing was, even though there wasn't choreography, I would do the same movement. When I was in front of all the clips as an editor, I had a lot of fun linking up the moments where I'm in a different outfit, but I'm hitting the exact same marks, just because that's the way that the song is being told through my body. Instead of being like, that's a fun move, cut and then do something else, I really consciously chose moments that were interconnected by and it was all by accident, but a really interesting self discovery.
LUNA: The Miss Ego EP was born from a concept about “there’s no room in bed for Miss Ego.” Can you talk more about how that idea shaped the themes of the EP and the sound you wanted to create?
KIT MAJOR: That line came to me because it was a place of thinking, how big am I able to let myself be? I think, as an artist and a woman in rock and transitioning from the mentality I had as when I was writing pop music versus the music I'm writing now, I gave myself more permission, and it could have been because of the genre I was in, or this the age I was at, but I really locked myself in, and I didn't know I did until I was looking back at a time that I wasn't boxed and so it made me question how much room is there for me in my scene, in the space, in the world, in my relationships? How much space can I take up? It's a playful take on experimenting. I'm going to see how much space I can take up, and I'm going to be a star.
LUNA: Miss Ego explores identity and femininity in spaces where women are often underrepresented or expected to take up less space. In what ways do you feel Miss Ego pushes against expectations in the rock scene, and what kind of conversations do you hope it sparks about women in music?
KIT MAJOR: I think playing around with the idea that punk can be colorful, I think there's a rebellious aspect to being open about color and femininity and bringing that back into the forefront. When you're wearing black, you're safe. For me as a woman because I've got curves, when I wear color, I can be a little bit more self conscious versus when I'm wearing black. That’s the reason why in the video, I'm wearing a blue dress. I really wanted this world of punk and rock n’ roll to be colorful and hopeful and bring back a little bit of wonder in a time where things can feel bleak and it's easy to go for making a statement, to wear black and to do it the traditional way. I look up to a lot of punk rockers in the 60s and 70s and 80s, and a lot of their wardrobe is colorful — like vintage Vivienne Westwood and really colorful, playful aesthetics.
I really want to start opening that discussion again of having color and femininity be more accepted into the scene. I had a show that I played last year for my tour, and I was really, really excited about the bands that I was playing with. Then when I got the description of what the show was, it said my name was under ‘pop’ and though I do have one song that's at the top of my Spotify page that is pop, but the rest were pretty up to date for the rock releases. This was before I was writing Miss Ego, but I took a look at that, and I was like, wow, I feel like you just saw me and put ‘pop.’ I love pop music, but I'm not writing that. I want to be able to wear a skirt, be hot as fuck, and be a punk rocker, and just because I may not have the characteristics, like I have a golden retriever personality in a way, where it's like, but there's just things that make me feel like I don't belong in a scene. I'm tired of overcompensating for that.
LUNA: Do you have a personal favorite song on Miss Ego — one that feels closest to your heart or most revealing of who Kit Major is right now?
KIT MAJOR: What's really cool about this EP is that each song on there is different from each other, and that's on purpose. I would say that there are certain songs there on the EP that are sounds that I finally reached a little vibe change in the production that matches more how I feel on the inside. Every song I think has a very cool universe of their own. So when you ask me that question, I think some that come to mind is “Punk Rock Boyfriend,” a song that I've been playing live at shows for a while. I've re-recorded that one like four times because I really wanted it to have the same energy as it did live.
I'm excited for “Punk Rock Boyfriend” to finally be out in the world, because it's one of my favorites to do at shows. I think it does a good job of showing what the Kit Major shows are like. Then there's a song called “Step On My Neck,” which is more sultry and it's got a lot of distortion on it. And to me, that feels so slinky and a side of Kit Major that I love to channel a lot. There's a song called “Messing With Me,” and that one is very Beatles-esque, in my opinion, and does a good homage to a rock n’ roll song of what would a Kit Major rock n’ roll song be like if I was in the room with The Beatles? There's just a lot of different fun elements, but I love “Not As Witty,” because it's got a very big arena punk feel to it, and that's one of my favorite energies. I'll buy a ticket to show just to get that feeling.
LUNA: Looking back, what’s something you’ve learned about yourself through the making of Miss Ego that surprised you?
KIT MAJOR: Although I'm very hard on myself and I feel like my self esteem changes at the drop of a hat, at the end of the day, I love my imperfections. I like the takes that sound a little off. I like pictures that aren't too retouched. I like when I'm making weird faces at shows and it's captured. It's something that I don't really know why, but it's almost like there's a part of me that wants perfection, but when I see it, I hate it. When I see parts of me that are a little bit more dirty and wild, I feel like I've really grown to love that side of me more. I think that's been adapted in my writing and the way I dress and the way I play my shows.
LUNA: You’ve said Miss Ego mirrors a Kit Major live show — high-energy, platform boots and all. What do you want your audience to feel when they hear these songs live versus on record?
KIT MAJOR: That's my main goal. I hope that there's a line or a moment in a song that they like off the record, that when they hear it live, it makes them feel something. It makes them feel excited, makes them feel seen, makes them feel like dancing. I really, truly hope that.
LUNA: How do you hope listeners — especially your femme audience — can connect with or find power in this new era of music from you? What emotions or messages do you want to leave with them?
KIT MAJOR: Taking that mentality of not being afraid to take up space. Take up all the pillows in the bed, do everything you can to be as loud as possible.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?
KIT MAJOR: I'm feeling really excited and hopeful. I am really passionate about the music that I've been writing, and I'm excited for it to come out. Looking ahead, there's even more music. Once this EP is released, there's a part two of Miss Ego, and got some some tour dates coming out, so that will be really fun to announce later on.
