Kiss the Tiger frontwoman Meghan Kreidler’s dynamic stage presence is undeniable. Her animated performance at their recent xBk show had the audience singing and dancing along with glee.
Over the past ten years, the Twin Cities group has progressed from a small project between Kreidler and her now-husband Michael Anderson to a six-person spectacle. Their powerful rock sound has come into its own as well.
“From the beginning, we were kind of like, ‘We're a rock band, we're just gonna do rock and roll.’ And it's really grown into something more than that and bigger than that, but definitely with rock and roll at the core,” Kreidler said.
Nearly two years have passed since the last time Kiss the Tiger played xBk, and quite a bit has happened since. For one, the band grew from a five-member ensemble to six when Isabella Dawis joined on keys and vocals. For another, they were featured on “Studio 3 LIVE,” an Iowa PBS show that features performances and interviews with a variety of musical acts, in fall 2024. Performing on TV is a bit different than Kiss the Tiger’s usual gigs, but the band's energetic personality still carried through on-screen.
“There's something a little more raw maybe about just being in a venue and then something with TV that is a little more polished, maybe just because there's like a sort of finesse that that television requires,” Kreidler said.
Given her on-stage gusto, it’s no surprise that Kreidler’s background is in theatre (which is, incidentally, how she first met Dawis). As for the rest of the band members, various circumstances brought them all together. Kreidler recruited drummer Alyse Emanuel after they met through Do Re #MeToo, a traveling comedy show led by The Daily Show’s Lizz Winstead. Lead guitarist Alex Sandberg joined the band because Anderson knew him as a family friend and saw him play guitar while he was a teenager. And bassist Paul DeLong had been playing music with Anderson since they were both teenagers.
The core of Kiss the Tiger is Kreidler and Anderson, the principal songwriters who married last July. Their journey as songwriters has progressed over the past decade just as much as their relationship has.
“When we first started just even playing music together, I just was so self conscious because I had... never really played in a band, and there was a much different approach. So much more unknown and so much more mystery compared to what I was used to approaching art with, which was for me a theater background. You know the words, you know the script, you know the song that's being sung,” Kreidler said. Over the course of almost 10 years now of us being together and making music together, there’s just so much more trust and a lot more playfulness versus insecurity... which I think also really comes through in the music.
Kiss the Tiger has released three full-length albums and their currently-untitled fourth album will come out later this year. At midnight after their xBk show, the band released their first single from the new album, “Big Booty Scooty,” a track that stays true to Kiss the Tiger’s rock-and-roll sensibilities but marks a new era for their music.
“There's a lot of playfulness on this album and definitely a lot of characters,” Kreidler said. “And I think some of that is I've started to step into more of a songwriter role over the years that we've been a band... Michael really comes from that tradition of rock, and I come a little bit more from a theatrical storytelling background... I think once you hear it, it's still cohesive and still feels very true to who we are.”
The joy that the six members of Kiss the Tiger exude during their concerts is infectious, and there’s no way you could leave one of their shows without a big smile on your face. Ten years into their musical journey, all that these musicians want to do is keep creating fun music and sharing that cheer with their supporters.
“I think what Kiss the Tiger ultimately does is just bring people together so that they can be with each other and have a good time together. That's one of the most rewarding things about playing with this group, apart from, of course, making the music... People are so happy to be given the gift of these songs and just to have the chance to be with each other,” Dawis said.
The xBk crowd was certainly grateful to receive the gift of Kiss the Tiger’s songs the night of Mar. 20. We look forward to seeing what characters and stories the new album will hold!
