Tyson Meade - Solo Career and Life After The Kittens

Solo Career and Life After The Kittens

Meade has produced two full-length solo albums: Motorcycle Childhood and Kitchens and Bathrooms. He also recently collaborated with Derek Brown of The Flaming Lips and Jesse Tabish of Other Lives on a project called “Winter Boys.”

Meade now resides in Shanghai, the Peoples Republic of China, where he teaches English. Although Meade still adores the aura of glam rock and looks back fondly on his days with Defenestration and Chainsaw Kittens, he admitted burning out as a performer. When he put aside his rock persona and shifted into more of a storyteller with a guitar, he said he fell in love with being onstage again. To this end, Meade now returns to America annually and treats his fans to the occasional concert at Chouse in Norman. Meade is currently set to work on a third solo album, wherein Meade will record at high schools and universities in China with students. Meade describes the project: “In many ways this is diplomatic and, at the very least, a cultural exchange; in some small way. I would like people to know that Chinese people are awesome. This has become very important to me because when I talk about my love for the Chinese people I sometimes get the most heartbreaking responses from people who just do not know how much the Chinese LOVE us! I was in Shanghai and other areas of China for five years and the one thing that I learned is that the Chinese LOVE America and Americans!”

Often credited as the Godfather of alternative rock music, Meade has this to say about that moniker:

“I hate to try to credit myself for something that I may or may not have created. At the time, I was fed up with everything going on in music. If you were alive in the 80’s you know to what music and bands I am referring. The music that was happening was in no way speaking to me. Furthermore, life in general seemed so restricted. When I started writing music, I was not satisfied with the two choices that were given to me as an 18 year old. The first choice was go to college in order to work your life away at an office. The other choice was to be a townie and work at a machine shop or restaurant in my hometown. I wanted something different that did not entail a new couch, a new car, a new dining room set. Fortunately, I met a like-minded soul in my hometown and we innocently and haphazardly went about putting together a band. This whole process was a head banging one; that is, a banging my head against the wall one. I soon learned, no clubs would book a band that played original songs. Clubs only booked cover bands at that time in the early and mid-80s. So, we played house parties and VFW halls. If we made 20 bucks we were happy, not 20 bucks apiece but altogether. There were a few other bands that were not hardcore punk doing the same thing but not very many. And, I wrote songs about my life and my inner-struggles and all of that sort of stuff that you have going on when you are in your late teens and early 20s. We rammed 50s guitar licks into 60s power pop colliding into 70s glam and punk and more glam and then pureed it in a blender and we had our sound. Soon after, a hoard of other bands did the same and called it grunge or alternative rock. It then became a big business. I never made any money; I have been paid in fan letters, which is really what I set out to do. I set out to make some sort of change. And I feel as if I did. So, I guess I am one of the alterna-Forefathers. I am a starving alterna-Forefather.”