[S08E01] April 2026 - The Hissy Kits


In the April 2026 episode of the Theremin 30 podcast, host Rick Reid plays theremin music from Spain, Finland, Italy, New Zealand, and the USA. Rick's guests are the Milwaukee jazz duo, The Hissy Kits.

FEATURED MUSIC*

*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances. 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

INTERVIEW GUEST

CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS

MEDIA & NEWS LINKS

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST

CONTACT

CREDITS 

Copyright 2026 Rick Reid 


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TRANSCRIPT
(auto-generated, may contain errors)


0:04 David Brower

This is theremin 3030 minutes of Theremin music, news, events and interviews, with a new episode about every 30 days. Now here's your host, Rick Reid.

0:22 Rick Reid

Welcome to the April twenty 26th edition of the Theremin 30 podcast. This episode is actually the 7th anniversary show and the first episode of Season 8. I started this podcast back in April of 2019, so if you're a new listener, be sure to catch up with some of the great music and interviews over the past seven years. And I'm actually on vacation right now in Panama, so I'm recording myself outside among the palm trees and by the swimming pool at my hotel in Panama City. So that's why you may hear some background noise. In this episode, I'll be interviewing the Hissy Kits, a Milwaukee based music duo who sort of take that theremin playing cat meme to its extreme. I've also got new and new ish theremin music from around the world. So let's get started, shall we? Because I'm lounging in the tropics right now, the first song I'll spin up is some tropical lounge music from the Madrid based band L'Exotighost. This song only has a theremin line in the very first few seconds, but I like it so much I want you to hear the whole thing. After that I've got new cinematic music from Kepa Lehtinen. I'll give you more details about both of these tracks on the other side.

7:23 Rick Reid

We took a trip to the tropics with the Spanish band Lexotic Ghost to start the show.
That track is called. Hanalei Dawn, featuring thereminist Javier Diaz Ena, he also wrote the song. It's from their most recent album, Hawaii On Your Mind, which came out in limited release last October but is now more widely available. You can order the album on vinyl from Band Camp. Click on the band's name in this episode's show notes at theremin30.com.
After that, I played moody new music from Finnish thereminist and composer Kepa Lehtinen with that track called Poison Garden Part 1. It's available for streaming now on Spotify, or you can watch the music video on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. It's time now for the Theremin 30 calendar of Theremin events. Carolina Eyck will hold a series of online Theremin workshops beginning April 23rd. On April 25th and 26th, Karen Cecilia brings her Doorway to Perception show to London, England. On May 7th About Aphrodite plays a show in Dortmund, Germany to benefit Iranian war victims. And on May 11th, the Human Toys take their Theremin infused punk to the stage for the first of a series of shows in Paris. For details about these events and more, click on the Calendar tab at theremin30.com. Up next, I have a pair of tracks from Italy and New Zealand. First up is a track called Hands by Timeless Sonic Factory.
After that, it's a soundscape from Norman Freund, inspired by the recent Artemis 2 space mission called Return.

15:43 Rick Reid

I started that set with hands by Timeless Sonic Factory from Rome, Italy.
You can see a fascinating AI video for that track on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist.
Then you heard Return, the final part of a three movement soundscape from Christchurch, New Zealand recording artist Norman Freund. Click on his name in this episode's show notes to listen to the full composition on Band Camp. My special guests for this episode are The Hissy Kits, a rather mysterious duo based in Milwaukee, WI, USA. They're sort of like Daft Punk if you swap the helmets for cat faced masks and the electronic pulses for old fashioned American jazz. Honestly, I don't know exactly who they are, but I do know they can really captivate an audience with both their talent and their sense of humor. I caught up with the Hissy Kits earlier this month to learn about their joyful music and the current state of their nine lives.Whiskie and Scotch, thank you so much for being on the Theremin 30 podcast.

Whiskie

We're happy to be here. Thanks for asking us.

Scotch 

We're looking forward to it.

16:57 Rick Reid

Now, for the benefit of our audience who can't see you, please introduce yourselves and so they can match up the voices with the names.

Whiskie

All right, well we're the Hissy Kits. My name is Whiskie and it's spelled WHISKIE and that is short for my whiskers and I am a black and white tuxedo cat.

17:19 Scotch

I am Scotch and that stands for butterscotch, which is my coloration and I am the quieter cat.
Yes.

Whiskie

And some might think that our names Whiskie and Scotch are because we are the resident cats of the supper club in Wisconsin. But it's really very feline expressionistic, which is our genre, by the way. We specialize in the genre of feline expressionism.

17:58 Rick Reid

Big picture here, what are the hissy kits?

Whiskie

Well, we are a musical and performance art duo. We specialize in piano which is the instrument Scotch plays and theremin. It started as strictly piano and theremin, much like Clara Rock More and her sister Nadia. And along the way we added vocals, which is usually Scotch singing in English or French or Italian. And then I add feline expressionistic meows and cat sounds, and we've become sort of a thing in Milwaukee.

18:43 Rick Reid

Scotch, How did the the group come together? How did you come up with this idea?

Scotch

I better let whiskey take that.

Whiskie

Scotch goes along with the ideas that come to whiskey. It started with the theremin we played. I have played theremin for a long time and as you know, sometimes it's difficult to get respect for the theremin. It is. And one thing that I have heard is that it can sound like a cat.
Well, it can. It can sound like a lot of things and it started when just for fun we played a version of Take Me Out to the ball game and on the Take Me Out we would make the me Out sound very feline. But I only did that for just a little bit because the exciting thing was is that finally for the first time out of years of my enthusiasm for theremin and trying to explain to people what theremin is about, nothing sparked the interest of audiences like the Hissy Kits did. So as long time educators I could stand up and give a lecture about the theremin, but the Hissy Kits had a sense of fun to it. To where if they want to come with the saying that we say is, they come to jeer and stay to cheer. So it sparks this excitement in our audiences about the theremin.

Rick Reid

Now I've been listening to your album on Band Camp and a lot of the songs are covers of classic jazz tunes. What drew you to that genre?

20:20 Whiskie

Scotch is a very prolific singer and has worked with big bands and and different jazz musicians and the phrase. We like a lot of cat puns. So the idea of "Scat, cat!" and in our performances, sometimes something that the audiences like is Scotch will be singing a song and then she'll holler out scat cat. And then I come in with my meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow meow. You know, and I, I do it sort of jazz style. So then we started thinking, you know, we've got some really Great American tunes. When people think of American songs, I think they think typically patriotic songs or folk songs. But we have a huge body of jazz songs that other countries admire America for, and why don't we introduce them to younger people? And why don't we throw some theremin in from time to time? But really, let's introduce people to these Great American songs. So that's where we got the title.
Scat Cat, Feline Expressionism, The songs of the Great American Shorthair's.

Rick Reid

One challenge of working with the thereminist is they tend to get the spotlight. How do you deal with that?

Scotch

Fine with me, it really is. I like being a support system to Whiskey, but it's it's her instrument that's playing that melody and I just am along for the ride. I love hearing the soaring melodies that she plays, and I also love it when she's doing something faster that you wouldn't expect a theremin to be able to do. Like like sweet Georgia Brown. It moves a lot all over the place fast, and I wouldn't have thought she could do that yet that doesn't seem to faze her at all.
So she's got the long, beautiful melodies that are soaring and then also the faster stuff that that goes all over the. Up and down all over the staff, and she's right there with that too, so it's kind of fun to keep up.

Rick Reid

You do have some original songs. Who's the songwriter in the duo?

Both of us. Both of us, we just collaborate on everything and it again, it falls together amazingly easily.

22:44 Whiskie

So for instance, I'll tell you one of our newest ones is the Hissy Kits theme Tuna, and that came about when we went into the studio to actually record Tales of Two Kitties. While we were in the studio, we knew that we had an upcoming interview with Wisconsin Public Radio and we thought, oh, we should come up with a a theme tune. So right there in the studio, we already had this melody that we've been batting around for, oh, a year or so that. That just an instrument. It was just an instrumental, that instrument that that we like. Really went anywhere? Yeah, and, and so while Scotch was putting down the piano tracks for a different song, I went, I grabbed a pen and I started writing the lyrics out. You know, who's that sneaking round the corner? Then it was my turn to go out and do something.
I don't know, add meals or theremin, who knows? Then I passed the pen to Scotch and Scotch went and we literally wrote it in between doing other tracks for other songs and we.
Then yeah, put it on and there it was.There it was.
 
24:26 Rick Reid

I understand that you auditioned for a TV show recently. I know that you might have to keep some secrets, but tell me in general what that experience was like.

Whiskie

Well, if anybody's considering it, we highly recommend it because it was an experience that cannot be replicated in any.

24:46 Scotch

Yeah, yeah, it's a singular thing.

Whiskie

We wanted to see if they'd let the cats in, and we went. I can tell you what we did.
We went and we auditioned for America's Got Talent. We cannot talk about results or our performance.

Rick Reid

You've been in the studio creating a new album for America's 250th anniversary.

25:07 Whiskie

We recorded a version of the national anthem. We recorded a version of America the Beautiful. We did I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy. 

Scotch

We did You're a grand old flag with Theremin doing the public domain.

Whiskie

We did all the public domain ones and our audio engineer is hopefully mixing and mastering them this week. We've got Matt Thompson on drums, he's the drummer for King Diamond and Scotch is on keys. I'm on Theremin. Scotch also sings. And Eric Delegard, he is our audio engineer and he he plays bass for us, so.

Rick Reid

Well thank you so much for being on the show, I really enjoyed visiting with both of you and good luck with your 9 lives I guess. Thank you, thank you. It's Been fun.

Rick Reid

You can stream and purchase the Hissy Kids album Scat Cat on their band Camp page. To get there, click on their artist name in this episode's show notes. Now let's finish the show with a track from that album. Here is their cover of the classic tune Saint Louis Blues.

29:27 Rick Reid

Thanks so much to L'Exotighost, Kepa Lehtinen, Timeless Sonic Factory, Norman Freund, and my special guests The Hissy Kits. And as always, a big thank you goes to the listeners who support this podcast with small one time or monthly donations.Till next time, I'm your host, Rick Reid. I'll see you somewhere in the ether.

David Brower

You've been listening to the theremin 30 podcast. Visit theremin 30 on the web at theremin30.com.
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