Quick-fire Questions: 10 minutes with Kat Von D
Kat Von D has done more with one lifetime than most could do with a million. If you saw a résumé about a Mexican-born German-American who shook up the tattoo industry, starred in hit TV shows, wrote best-selling books, created a beauty empire, and bustled into a buzzing synth pop career, you’d think some sort of admin error had combined multiple candidates. Only Arnold Schwarzenegger has lived a life that varied.
It is this notion of being a multifaceted and driven creative that makes Kat Von D’s art stand out. There is an unfiltered effusiveness to her output. With that notion of earnest honesty in mind, she has returned to her first love: music. By venturing back into her earliest inspiration, the all-in-black phenom has found an outlet to address, with thrilling vivacity, the chaotic nature of fame, modern family life, and sobriety.
“My Side Of The Mountain is a love letter for all of the hopeless romantics, the outsiders, and lonely hearts trying to find their place in this cold and divisive world,“ she says of her new record. “When I was a kid, I read the 1959 novel My Side Of The Mountain and related so deeply to the little boy who ran away from home only to find comfort in isolation, self-reflection, and self-reliance in the wilderness.“
The book was written by Jean Craighead George and featured the tale of a boy with only a falcon for a company trying to live freely in the Catskill Mountains of New York State. This journey of courage, adventure and companionship is typified by the line: “Let’s face it, Thoreau; you can’t live in America today and be quietly different. If you are going to be different, you are going to stand out, and people are going to hear about you.“
Kat Von D’s album follows a similar thesis of identity, escapism, and isolation, and it will firmly be heard about. As she concludes: ”There’s a comfort in dreaming of escapism, sure. But this album isn’t about that. It’s about confronting the shit we don’t want to face, accepting the things we can’t control, and fighting for the things that matter. This album is about my side of the argument. My side of the bed. My side of the line drawn in the sand. My side of the mountain. And I hope it makes others who feel the same, a little less alone in this world.”
So, to get to know a little more about her side of things, we decided to snatch a few minutes of her hectic life to hurl a handful of quick-fire questions her way. After all, what better way is there to get to know someone in a matter of minutes than to get their quick snaps on The Beatles, favourite books, and ghostly (dis)beliefs.
Quick-fire Questions with Kat Von D:
1. What song would you want played at your funeral?
“Orthodox funeral chants”.
2. Have you ever cried at a concert?
“Too many times to count! But I cry easily at anything that pulls on heartstrings. The last time I teared up at a concert was watching Bjork sing the outro to ‘Pagan Poetry'”.
3. You’ve been asked to create a soundtrack for the forthcoming movie adaptation of a book. Which book would you like it to be?
“The Picture of Dorian Grey“.
4. What album have you probably listened to the most in your life?
“Disintegration by The Cure”.
5. Have you ever had a weird celebrity encounter?
“Oh man. You’d have to be more specific. Everyone is weird here in Hollywood”.
6. Do you believe in ghosts?
“I’ve never experienced ‘ghosts’, but have stable-minded friends who have said they have, and I kind of believe them? But I also have been living in old Victorian houses that are said to be haunted and feel like most of the time, noises and even things you see can be explained away by something other than the paranormal.
“I do believe in demons, though. Not the cartoonified versions you see in movies, but in people’s ability to lose themselves in possessions”.
7. If you had to get a lyric tattooed, what would it say?
“I just finished blacking out my entire body getting rid of any trace of old song lyrics I had tattooed! Now that I have this ‘clean slate’ I can’t think of a lyric I’d ever want”.
8. What is one passion you have that nobody knows about?
“I secretly want to be a homesteader”.
9. What’s one weird food combination you think everyone should try?
“Watermelon with a dash of salt”.
10. What’s your go-to comfort movie?
“Immortal Beloved — Gary Oldman plays Beethoven, and I think in ways it shaped the way I wanted to find love”.
11. What is one classic album that you can’t get on board with?
“This question feels like it would be easy to piss a lot of people off with my answer(s)”.
12. You have an hour entirely free to yourself with nothing to do; how do you spend the time?
“My brain is glitching right now trying to imagine what a free hour even means”.
13. What is your most controversial culture opinion?
“Flip flops on aeroplanes should be banned”.
14. What song instantly transports you back to a moment in life without fail?
“‘Into My Arms’ by Nick Cave will always take me back to the day I married my husband”.
15. Are The Beatles overrated?
“No comment”.
