Comprising of veteran L.A. based drummer, Rachael Rine, front woman Jenna Syde, guitarist Ariel Bellvalaire, bassist Terrii Kiing and rhythm guitarist Hisako Ozawa, Paradise Kitty is one helluva rock band you have to hear to experience what it’s like to listen to a Guns N’ Roses all female band. With Axl Rose and all the other G N’ R members endorsing their music, you know you are doing something right.

These five badass girls are the new goddess infused jungle. The girls were in Mumbai in June for gigs in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

Verus Ferreira had the chance to catch up with all the kittens of Los Angeles based all-female Guns N’ Roses cover band who were born and bred on Guns N’ Roses 1987 debut, ‘Appetite for Destruction’. 

So tell us how did the band form?

Rachael: So basically this was a few years ago, when a mutual friend of mine and Jenna approached us and asked us if we wanted to do a Guns N’ Roses tribute. At that time there was a rumor that the Guns N’Roses reunion was going to happen although it wasn’t announced. I thought about it and I said to myself we must do it as I knew the reunion was going to be really huge. So then we just decided and went ahead. One of the issues was auditioning of girls for the band. We got an amazing response and so Jenna and I just kept moving on from there.

Rachael: So we have Hisako Ozawa who has been with us for the last seven years or so, actually right from the beginning and we found her through a common musician friend at that time. We also have Ariel who has been with us for five years now. Terrii Kiing our bassist has been with us for a few years. She was with another band called Cockpit which she left and decided to hitch on with Paradise Kitty.

What made you form an all female Guns N’ Roses tribute band?

Rachael: I don’t know any guys who might want to be in a band which is called Paradise Kitty. Well, maybe they might have been a few guys, but actually we just wanted to be all together and like all girls and have some fun and have a sober party kind of thing.

Is it tricky playing in an all female lineup to a rock band as great as Guns N’ Roses?

Rachael: Well I mean when you are learning music or learning any people’s songs or even written some music of your own, there are some tricky parts that you need to look up and learn, it’s no trickier than any other band or any music that you may be covering. Being in a band always has tricky parts, so you know, so whether you’re a guy or a girl or they or them, I think you just need to practice the songs. Practise it and you’ll get it right.

What would you like to say to people who may have not heard of you, but are fans of Guns N’ Roses?

Rachael: All I can say to them would be ‘Do you like Guns N’ Roses? If they say yes, then I’d ask them if they like five beautiful women, normally it would be a yes. Would you like to hear five beautiful women wear all Guns N’ Roses, and then they say yes. And even if they say I don’t really listen to Guns N’ Roses, they always say yes, so like they can find beautiful women. (Laughs) So that’s a win.

What are each of your musical background like?

Ariel: Well I originally come from Connecticut. I grew up playing pop music and later I stumbled upon rock music. And I was like O My god I have to do this.

Rachael: I grew up in a small town of New Mexico. It was so small like it was almost 45 minutes to the grocery store. I grew up in the middle of nowhere. So I moved over to Los Angeles to play music and that was a really big step for me and very shocking moments for me too. But it’s just when something calls you and you can’t say no and you do it and you find, it’s like when the wind calls you, and you spread your wings and you soar on it, that’s all you can do.

Jenna: I grew up in LA and by the time I was 15 years old I was playing on the Sunset Strip professionally. I grew up with a musical background. My parents are musicians, my uncles are musicians, and my first recording professionally in a studio was when I was just 13 year old. I knew the LA streets better than I knew the rural, I mean the suburban home where I actually came from. I spent a lot of time hustling and playing with local bands.

Have you had any band lineup changes over the years?

Rachael: In India this has been the main lineup as of now, it’s always Jenna and I. but some of the girls have been working and also play for other projects that they take up and so they are not always available to concert tour dates and so sometimes we hire other girls to play in the band. This isn’t an original project, we didn’t write these songs together, we’re covering music and so sometimes when Ariel is unavailable, we’ll get someone else like Courtney Cox from the Iron Maidens to play with us instead. These are our first phone calls, but if these aren’t available then we look somewhere else, as we don’t like to say no to a gig.

How did the name Paradise Kitty come about?

Rachael: When we got this project we needed a name for it quickly, so we just needed something fun and Paradise Kitty came up and it just stuck. It was a moment of desperation for us to find a name and we had names like Huns and Roses

Some people even call it Nuns N’ Roses.

Rachael: Well I don’t think we fit that description. (laughs)

Have you had the approval from the band themselves or their management?

Rachael: When we started this band, we didn’t want to do this band unless Guns N’ Roses wasn’t ok with it. This is their music, it’s not ours, this is their art, this is their lives, their careers, so that’s kind of why we did a show earlier just to test the waters, and so after the first show, Axl (Rose) was tweeting about us. He knew we were going to do it and he was on the fence at first. He was like, I don’t sound like a girl, how are they going to do this. He watched the video of our very first show and he gave us the seal of approval. Slash has been a big fan and has been a big supporter of us, infact all the band members have been very supportive of it, so it’s great.

Jenna: When Axl (Rose) tweeted about us, we knew we had done something right.

Rachael: It was then decided to go really into the band and build the project.  We just did two rehearsals one was auditions and then we did all of ‘Appetite for Destruction’ in order, front to back for our first show. That was a lot, with girls who we had never met before. Talk about jumping in the deep end and swimming.

Would you ever record something like a Guns N’ Roses album from front to back of your cover songs?

Rachael: We would love it, we’ve even talked about it, it’s just that we’ve been too busy to pursue it. We’ve had honest discussions on it, so It might happen, its only that we’ve been on the road for so long and its not been addressed as yet. Like coming to India was a big undertaking for all of us and so it wasn’t like if we were invited and just jumping on an airplane and coming to here. There was a lot of work from our end, work to be done and it took a lot of time. We’ve been working since months tirelessly to make this tour happen. It’s been 100s of hours from our end to be here right now. So once we’re back, maybe we’ll just get working on all the pending work to be done and maybe the album too.

What’s the craziest thing that has happened to you on a concert tour?

Jenna: There’s nothing that crazy that has happened to us, it’s more the things that are crazy that we happen to make. Well you could say hotel cold cuts fights, throwing pieces of lunch meat at people at Texas. But you know what the big thing is, of going and watching Myles Kennedy and Slash play and afterwards having Slash having stopped his autograph line and wanting to meet us. He was excited to meet us actually. That’s kind of wow, that’s kind of amazing don’t you think?

Ariel: I think for me my favorite one was when we were in Vegas and we actually went and saw Guns N’ Roses play. We were on the balcony with all the rock stars watching Guns N’ Roses and then hearing them play all the songs we play. Like we were their guests.

 What are your favorite Guns N’ Roses songs?

Jenna: My favorite Guns N’ Roses song is ‘November Rain’, it has an amazing video, but my favorite to play on stage is ‘You Could Be Mine’.

Have you met any or all of the band mates of Guns N’ Roses right from their first lineup?

Rachael: I used to work for their record label, so like when I was a receptionist in a recording studio and Axl (Rose) was working on the album ‘Chinese Democracy’, I used to see him. I’ve bumped into Slash on Sunset Street in a nightclub, grabbing his guitar and jamming. You’ve crossed paths with them, from Steven Adler, to all those on ‘Appetite for Destruction’ album. So we’ve met them so many times.

What about the very elusive Izzy Stradlin?

Rachael: I have never met Izzy, though I saw him play once.

So coming to your visit to India, is this your first visit to the country?

Rachael: It is, we’re so excited to be here. When we were asked to do a gig in India, we thought, oh my gosh, we can be in India. We were super thrilled, to empower women to play music and that this can be a career for women. We have had the best time here.

Ariel: It’s so great to be here in India. It’s my first time and we’re all so excited to be able to empower women and use it as a career.

Have you heard of the Indian music?

Rachael: I’m not too familiar with it except when they play something in my Zumba class. But then being here and being submerged into the culture it’s been great and something that I’m going to take home.

Jenna: I’ve always been in awe of your rhythmns. You know you don’t have four four. To use everything is four four, 1, 2, 3, 4, it’s really hard for us to think outside of that box. For you guys that box does not exist in traditional Indian music. It’s a whole different culture. You know that just the amount of effort that goes into your traditional music, to even learning the tabla, it could take a lifetime. It really blows me away and its really moving.

Ariel: I love Bollywood music and though I am not familiar with the artists, I love the rhythms that Jenna was talking about. Its mind-blowing, incredible.  

So what memories are you going to take away from India?

Rachael: I think that’s a very loaded question, because we have absorbed so much here and met so many amazing people, and done so many things and we’re only half way into the trip. I know for me personally, I’m going to go home and process and digest this whole thing, and what we went through because it’s been so amazing being here.

Rachael:My first memory will be the food, I’m vegetarian, but I love spicy food and it’s never too spicy for me.

Ariel: So for me, we’ve only had one show so far, and so seeing all these incredible people coming to the stage and singing louder than us, was one of the coolest moments I’ve had.

Rachael: We were not sure what to expect here, whether people would know say ‘Sweet Child (O Mine)’, But they were singing so loud every word to every song, every verse, they knew it. They were singing so loud I couldn’t even hear my singer singing. I only hope and pray that we can come back and do it again. That is my best memory of my trip.

We do hope to see you again in Mumbai. All the very best.

Rachael: Thank you so much.

Interviewed by Verus Ferreira