Please note: This article will be interrupted by special Radio broadcasts courtesy of Radio Caroline Volume 1, Mental Groove Records.

[Radio Caroline broadcast]
“I was born in 1973 in Grenoble my young parents were at the end real music lovers, they never really took my dj hobby seriously and uhh so did I, until I found out I was earning my life with it. Now my dad has a picture of me on his desk, my mum goes to listen to Laurent Garnier in some clubs in Spain and I’m lucky. This is Radio Caroline, this is my life, this is my radio. (Sic)” [/ Radio Caroline broadcast]

The ever so familiar voice speaks calmly down the airwaves, a warm tone in her voice, the Miss Kittin cheekiness set aside, no comical comments about Frank Sinatra or VIP areas, just a down to earth soothing French accent. This is Caroline Herve, this is Miss Kittin.

Caroline broke into the dance music scene like most party people around the world – through the music in the clubs and eventually, through the lure of the rave. “I went to a rave party in 90/91, I met some people and then we went to a second one, a third one a fourth one… We did that for two years non-stop on the road, and then I had a boyfriend who started to dj and I tried at his place and that’s it.” The rest they say is history! Miss Kittin’s lively sense of risqué adventure and controversial take on life and lyrics is the very ingredient that seems to be entwined in everything she does, from production, to live shows, always concentrating on the importance of dancefloor fun and frivolity. Miss Kittin is the girl right there on the floor next to you, she is the one shakin’ it along with you. What are her fondest memories of those early rave years? “I prefer not to tell because there may be young readers, you know? Hahahaha.”

[Radio Caroline broadcast]
“I will never stop dancing… I need to freak out… how can you be a dj if you don’t shake your ass in the middle of the crowd?(Sic)” [/ Radio Caroline broadcast]

The rave is also where Caroline met musical partner in crime Michael Amato a.k.a. The Hacker. “Oh we went to our first rave together! So it’s been like more than 10 years now.” In 1997 Miss Kittin & The Hacker released their first EP ‘Champagne’ on DJ Hell’s Gigolo imprint. Caroline explains how everyday life experiences are her biggest influences, she does not mention specific artists having a huge influence on her musical career, but she sees certain moments and stages in her own life and those around her as focal points for inspiration. “My influences are moments of my life, and some stages of other people’s lives, it’s (creativity) a very spontaneous and present time feeling”

[Radio Caroline broadcast]
“Every record is a soundtrack of my life, a place, a friend, an emotion before the flavour, a journey, a day, a colour, a noise, anything without words.(Sic)” [/ Radio Caroline broadcast]

With Miss Kittin now residing in Berlin and the Hacker remaining in their hometown in France, the collaboration of the two in the studio sounds like it may prove to be a difficult task, but for this duo it seems they have the recipe for success down pat. “Well if you could see the studio, it’s really, really minimal oldschool… I think the Hacker just brought a Macintosh. But for all these years we have worked with an Atari. There is no use of samples, my voice is recorded live. We record as if it were a live performance… Actually he has a loop ready, that he has worked on before I go to the studio and he then comes to me and says ‘Hey I have this idea on the side I did like six months ago and I did this loop and I think you could sing on it’. So I listen to it, and then I say ‘yeah lets change this sound, lets do this and that, lets make a break here…’ I mean it’s a total 50/50 collaboration and then when we find a sound we like it takes five or ten minutes and I write the lyrics and when the loop is running, I say to him ‘I’m ready’, and then we do a trial. If it works we press record, and that’s it.

This impulsive collaboration sees Miss Kittin and The Hacker making two or three tracks all in a busy day’s work in the studio. “Its very spontaneous. We have to be, because I don’t live in the same town as him… So yeah we have to be prolific,” she says laughing quietly. “Its just because we are lazy because we want things to be fast, but if the track is not perfect we don’t rework and rework on it, we leave it the way it is, which is just laziness. Maybe that is our secret? We have this special unique chemistry that we are able to make a track in one hour and that’s it.”

One thing that a Miss Kittin tune never fails to incorporate is a quirky set of lyrics and verses. Some would say that the lyrics can be somewhat controversial or provocative but Caroline stresses the idea that she tries to sing about things that are a little different, that stand out from the generic sickly lyrics about love and matters of the heart, which are very often found in 80’s tinged electro. Miss Kittin fans would be familiar with the macabre lyrics of Rippin Kittin, the way that serious topics like death are sung in satirical tones are the very reasons why we find ourselves singing along without even realising the topic that we are singing about. “I don’t really think much about what I am saying, which is sometimes a problem, because with Rippin Kittin I don’t think its so cool to talk about death or things like that. When I did it, I thought yeah its funny and its more interesting than ‘I just can’t get you out of my head’ or whatever you know? Its just a little bit more different than the pop music than you hear on the radio, and that’s why I wanted to actually make lyrics and sing on techno music because I thought yeah maybe we can sing some funny and different stuff…. And I also didn’t want to talk about Rowboats or Sad Love or all this 80 sounding stuff you know?” She says with a chuckle.

It is unfair of the media or the listeners to take Miss Kittin lyrics as autobiographical, she merely explains that all she does is take a look around in her life, at her friends, at what’s on T.V and she simply turns interesting events or situations into lyrics. “I have a very exciting life and very unusual friends and I just look around me and I’m like ‘oh yeah my friend just started a job as a stripper, why not write a song about it because its so funny?’ “The stripper in Switzerland”... I don’t think there is something naughty or dark about it, it’s just like a funny look at things around me. I think people really take it so much more serious than I do, but that is their problem. When you do music it goes out of the studio and it’s not your music any more. I don’t want people to turn this into a big therapy with me.”

When Miss Kittin and the Hacker perform live, Miss Kittin has been known to dress in a nurses outfit or cat suit, will the Australian fans be entertained by this extra pleasure of sound, vocal and sight? “I have a leather costume designed by a friend of mine in Berlin, maybe I will wear it, this is also very spontaneous. If I see that it works because I see its more like a show then I will wear it, if I see its more like a little underground party, really relaxed, I won’t wear my costume because its inappropriate. I will bring my costume with me but I am not sure that I am going to wear it, this is something we see when we get to the location and when we see the crowd and the atmosphere, then the Hacker and me, we are like ‘shall I wear it’ or I directly say ‘no costume tonight’.

Miss Kittin’s humbleness and affability is a breathe of fresh air in a scene where electro and electro clash has been too often associated with glam and fashion snobbery. “Its really so hard for me and the Hacker to realise that some things we did in five minutes are popular so far away. I am really excited because I only hear good, good stuff about Australia, all my friends are like ‘Oh you are so lucky you will love it, people are so friendly, you eat so good and its wonderful’. So I am ready! I just need to know how the weather is so I can pack my suitcase.” With a tour that takes her and the Hacker from Canberra, to Melbourne, to Brisbane, to Sydney and then onto Perth, she was advised to pack for a good time and for all seasons.

[Radio Caroline broadcast]
“Travelling is a lovely thing, the loneliness with unknown people in unknown places, beware to keep your energy for socialising, smiling, shaking hands, telling your story, the truth or the untruth. But sometimes you will meet an angel around the corner, an angel you will never meet again. When I am back, that’s what I remember. (Sic)” [/Radio Caroline broadcast]

Catch Miss Kittin on the following dates in your city:
Friday, 19.09.03 – Canberra, LIVE with the Hacker & Microworld @ FANG (Babylon Nightclub)
Saturday, 20.09.03 – Melbourne, DJ set and LIVE with the Hacker @ War of the Worlds
Thursday, 25.09.03 – Brisbane, LIVE with the Hacker @ Family
Saturday, 27.09.03 – Sydney, LIVE with the Hacker @ Good Vibrations
Sunday, 28.09.03 – Perth, LIVE with the Hacker @ Ambar