Melissa Young never knew that her days of sneaking into clubs and singing with friends in the pool would lead to indie “It” girl status.
Her momentum now, after only a couple of years performing under the moniker Kid Sister, has taken the Markham-bred, Catholic-school-raised party starter across the country and practically around the world. She’s not only got Kanye West rapping on her buzzed-about single “Pro Nails,” but she uses his turntablist, DJ A-Trak, for her own shows. She plays the South By Southwest Music Conferences and Festivals in Austin, Texas, on Friday and Saturday.
Recently signed to Downtown Records, home to breakout acts such as Gnarls Barkley, Kid Sister takes her inspiration from Chicago’s house music scene, which she was introduced to in her tweens.
“I snuck into clubs when I was like 12,” she says of using a fake ID to get into places such as Jubilation, a Harvey club that showcased house acts in the ’90s.
“South Side and south suburb kids know about Jubilation. That’s where I first heard ‘booty house,’ which is now known as ‘juke,’ ” she fondly recalls, tapping her two-tone, black-and-white nails on a table just before a recent L.A. gig. At about the same time she was doing her underage clubgoing, she formed a singing group, called Pastel Black, with a few friends from her Tinley Park school.
Still, despite her stage name, Young, 27, doesn’t kid when it comes to her music.
“It was my intention to do music that was the best it could be. If I make a song, even if it’s a stupid song about nails, or a silly song about butts, or whatever I’m writing about, it better be the best song you’ve ever heard,” she says.
So-called indie labels took notice early on. First there was the development deal with Vice Records, then Columbia Records followed, and finally Universal Records. She turned them all down.
It was the combined attentions of A-Trak (Alain Macklovitch, who’s also her boyfriend), his brother David (who along with A-Trak already had some success running Canadian label Audio Research), and her brother Josh (who’s had good success as J2k, part of Chicago club staple Flosstradamus) that led Kid Sister to take the grass-roots route. In addition to her Downtown deal, she’s the driving force behind start-up label Fool’s Gold, co-founded by DJ A-Trak and DJ Catchdubs.
Despite her below-the-radar leanings, the masses are listening. MTV has taken interest in her, and her schedule is crammed with concerts and photo shoots. She recently was in Chicago, before a stint of gigs in Australia, filming a video for her latest song, “Beeper.”
But it’s her song “Pro Nails,” with it’s infectious refrain: “Got her toes done up, wit her finger nails matchin’,” and its accompanying video that has people wondering, “Who is this girl with the cover-girl good looks?” She said the song had its genesis at her 8th-grade graduation.
“I ended up looking like Celia Cruz, the nails were really, really red and really, really long,” she says. The working title for it was “Toes and Nails,” but “I didn’t want to put the word ‘toes’ in the title of any songs, that’s gross.”
Her debut album, to be released on the Fool’s Gold label, a record company Catchdubs says was first started simply to put out Kid Sister, is called “Koko B. Ware,” a reference to the parrot-toting wrestler from the ’90s.
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Chicago to Austin
Kid Sister isn’t the only local act showcasing tunes at Austin’s South By Southwest Music Conferences and Festivals this week. Here are the others, according to the SXSW Web site.
– Anathallo
– The Audition
– Bible of the Devil
– Bound Stems
– Nick Butcher
– Cap D
– Catfish Haven
– The Chandeliers
– The Cool Kids
– Dead to Fall
– Dreamend
– Flosstradamus
– The Hood Internet
– The Hush Sound
– Icy Demons
– Joan of Arc
– Kidz in the Hall
– Le Concorde
– Mahjongg
– Make Believe
– Mannequin Men
– Maps & Atlases
– Walter Meego
– Trevor Menear
– Mittens on Strings
– Naked Raygun
– Pit er Pat
– The Redwalls
– Circles
– Suffrajet
– Sybris
– Tub Ring
– Waco Brothers
– Andre Williams
– Yakuza
