[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 


--------------------------------------------

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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[S07E06] March 2026 - Keri Latimer / óFukami




In the March 2026 edition of the Theremin 30 podcast, host Rick Reid plays music from the USA, Scotland, France, and Canada. Rick's guest is Keri Latimer of Leaf Rapids and óFukami.

FEATURED MUSIC*

  • "Galaxina" - Armen Ra (West Hollywood, California, USA)
  • "Autumn: Fall of the Last Leaf" - Guillaume Subra (Edinburgh, Scotland)
  • "Les Mains Électriques"- Charlotte Dubois (Lille, France)
  • "K155" - óFukami  (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada)

*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 


--------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT

Please note: This transcript was created with the help of speech-to-text AI.  It may contain some errors.

00:00:05 David Brower 

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

00:00:18 Rick Reid 

Hey there, welcome to the 57th edition of the Theremin 30 podcast. It's March 2026, and the show got started way back in April of 2019. So if you're a new listener, you have some catching up to do. This time around, we'll catch up with some thereminists from the USA, Scotland, and France. And my special guest is Keri Latimer. She's probably best known for guitar, vocals, and theremin playing in the alt-folk band Leaf Rapids. But she's got a new electronic album out this month as well. We featured the first single in the February 2026 episode, and you'll get to hear a bit more later in the show. To get started, I've got a groovy new track called Galaxina. It's the first single from the forthcoming Armen Ra album that is being financed with a crowdfunding campaign. And after that, the Edinburgh-based thereminist Guillaume Subra plays his new composition in a classical style. I'll tell you more about both recordings on the other side. 

00:08:45 Rick Reid 

We started the show with Galaxina, a new single by Armen Ra. It's from his 7th album set for release later this spring. Last year, Armin reached out to his fans through a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the cost of the recording. More than 100 fans have answered the call so far. If you like what you hear and want to show your support, follow the GoFundMe link in this month's show notes. After that, I played Autumn: Fall of the Last Leaf. It's a new original composition by Scotland-based thereminist Guillaume Subra. This is his first appearance as a solo artist on this show. Back in the September 2024 episode, he was one of two dozen thereminists who performed on a track called Teenage Message 2, which was recorded at the inaugural International Theremin Camp in Denmark, an event that Guillaume helped organize. The second edition of the International Theremin Camp returns to the Copenhagen area June 22nd through the 26th. There's a good chance that it's sold out by now, but there's a link on our events calendar if you want to check on availability. 

00:09:54 Rick Reid 

And speaking of the calendar, here are some upcoming highlights. Monday, March 9th is the 115th anniversary of Clara Rockmore's birth. Dorit Chrysler presents a theremin demo and workshop near Austin, Texas on March 19. Stephen Ham Theremin Man has a show on March 20 in Vancouver, Canada. On March 22, thereminists from around Amsterdam will gather for a there-meeting, a combination social gathering and concert. And the All-Japan Theremin Festival is set for March 28. With the pop-up theremin museum and performances by nearly 20 artists, including Machikado Machiko, the Tokyo Theremin Orchestra, and Yoko Onishi. For details about these events and more, click on the Calendar tab at theremin30.com. 

00:10:52 Rick Reid 

Up next, I want to play a song by Charlotte Dubois that I should have had in the podcast last summer, but I just didn't have a place for it at the time. The French title of this song is Le Mains Electriques. In English, it's called Electric Hands. 

00:14:00 Rick Reid 

Charlotte Dubois plays the Moog Claravox Theremin, the Arturia MicroFreak keyboard, and the Arturia MiniLab virtual synth plugin. She made a fascinating music video for this track, and I've added it to the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. 

00:14:31 Rick Reid 

In past episodes, I've played contemporary folk music from the Winnipeg, Canada-based band Leaf Rapids. Now the vocalist and thereminist of that band, Carrie Latimer, has a solo project that takes off in an entirely different direction under the artist's name oFukami. I played the first single from the album in my previous episode, and I got to visit with Keri a couple of weeks ago. 

00:14:54 Rick Reid 

Keri Latimer, welcome to the Theremin 30 podcast. 

00:14:57 Keri Latimer 

Thank you very much. I really enjoy your show. 

00:15:00 Rick Reid 

Thank you. And we've had you on the show a few times. Your music anyway, a couple of your tracks with your alt folk band, Leaf Rapids. And also I think you were a guest on a kids album and I played a little bit of that outer space thing that you did. 

00:15:14 Keri Latimer 

Yeah, I'm pretty into outer space all the time. 

00:15:18 Rick Reid 

How were you introduced to the theremin? 

00:15:20 Keri Latimer 

I was introduced to the theremin a long time ago when my old band, Nathan, there was a song and there was a part of the song that we wanted that sound. And so we kind of went down a rabbit hole because we wanted that spacey when the UFOs come down in the old 50s movies. So we had to look it up. What was it? Who plays that? Nobody. Nobody around us anyway. We didn't even think we could get the instrument. So we kind of were going to ditch that idea. And then weirdly, my husband and I were in a music store here, Mother's Music, and found one in a corner covered in dust, half price. They just didn't know what to do with it. And it was so exciting. And so we were both going to learn it. And my husband just abandoned it after about 5 minutes. And I just became obsessed. And I don't know, it was a was a definite connection. I really, really love it. 

00:16:13 Rick Reid 

You have a new album called When the Future Tried to Take Me. Tell me about that. How'd that get going? 

00:16:20 Keri Latimer 

Well, I had been playing theremin for quite a while, and I have, as you said, a sort of roots Americana side to me. So that's my band, Leaf Rapids, and I've incorporated some theremin into that. But I also do some movie scoring and film work, and so I really like using the theremin just instrumentally because it already sounds like a voice with no language. And I've just been finding as I'm getting more experience on it, it's kind of becoming like a voice for me. Like I can control it as I control my voice. So it's kind of the only instrument I can even improvise on because I can directly play what I hear now, which is amazing for me. And so I've been exploring more projects with dance and just instrumental music. 

00:17:07 Rick Reid 

So this new album, you have a different artist name, oFukami. What does that mean? 

00:17:11 Keri Latimer 

oFukami is sort of a conglomeration of my two, the heritage that I have from my family. So my mom is Japanese and my great-grandmother's last name was Fukami. And then I have an Irish, Celtic, Scottish side. So I took the O from kind of like O'Sullivan or something like that. And because McFukami didn't roll off the tongues nicely. So I just tried to incorporate my two heritages. 

00:17:40 Rick Reid 

This new album is very experimental, electronic, sort of sci-fi. Is it telling a story from track to track or the album as a whole? 

00:17:49 Keri Latimer 

You know, I began it with a story in mind and then I kind of broke it up into chapters and then I was trying to emote each kind of chapter, but then as I was working on it, completely took on a life of its own. In fact, it was really interesting because I was fighting it at first, and then I just had to give in and let some of the voices kind of take over. Like there's a, I used some filters, humanoid for kind of robotic sounding, male, like masculine sounds, and then I used a lot of voice in this. but I wasn't using language. I was kind of making up words just so it could be pure emotion. But yeah, so it started with the story, but then it took on a life of its own. And now I don't know what the story is, but I think there is one in there somewhere. Maybe it's dependent on you. 

00:18:47 Rick Reid 

The theremin plays a role in the album, but it's not really the focus, I would say. What other instruments do you have in the mix? 

00:18:55 Keri Latimer 

I only have some, I was using a virtual ARP 2600. I would love to get a real one. I just love that sound. 

00:19:04 Rick Reid 

An Arturia plug-in that you use in a DAW or... 

00:19:07 Keri Latimer 

Yeah, that's exactly it. One thing I love about the virtual is that I can save the settings because I'm not completely savvy on the instrument. So I like that part. There actually is quite a lot of theremin layers, but it's not all the melody. You're right there. And then a lot of voice and then a little tiny bit of koto, but that's about it. The rest is just delay and effects. 

00:19:36 Rick Reid 

I've seen the album notes, I think you said makeshift Koto. 

00:19:41 Keri Latimer 

Yeah, I was part of a project with my cousin where we were kind of exploring when the Japanese internment in the Second World War. And so our family, you probably already know the story because it happened in the US as well, but there were internment camps and there was also an option if you wanted to keep your family together, you could go work basically slave labor on sugar beet farms in Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba and maybe Ontario too. So that's what our family chose to do. They basically had a few days to leave their house and they could take 100 pounds each of belongings to wherever they were going. A koto is quite a large instrument, so they couldn't bring a lot of their instruments. They had to leave everything. So I made a project for myself where I had to make a koto out of whatever I had in my house And so I used nylon fishing string and some old guitar strings and I made a, cut up an old shelf and I made my own koto. So I used that. 

00:20:45 Rick Reid 

Has that experience of your family, has that influenced your musical choices along the way? 

00:20:50 Keri Latimer 

Yeah, it has a lot. I'm still feeling sort of separate from my Japanese heritage and it's kind of cool that you brought that up because I am now working with some Butoh dancers. I don't know if you're familiar with that form of dance, but it originated out of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It's not pretty dance, it's more, I guess it's more performance and the dancers shave their heads and they're coated in white so they kind of look a little bit apocalyptic. And they're nude most of the time, or a lot of how it started they were. But anyway, I've started working, I'm going to be working with a company, Kokoro Dance in Vancouver, where we're going to be collaborating this summer, and I'm starting to work with a Butoh dancer in Winnipeg. So it's, yeah, I'm sort of going to lead this into a more dance direction, I think, and maybe even do some of my own if I can not be chicken. 

00:21:52 Rick Reid 

The album, I believe, was, I don't know if it's funded the right word by a couple of arts grants, including one having to do with your Japanese heritage. 

00:22:02 Keri Latimer 

The Japanese Canadian Legacy Society got some funding for, yeah, artists of all genres and like music and art and or visual and mental health things. They just, they started, yeah, they had a big grant application and I was lucky enough to receive some funding. 

00:22:25 Rick Reid 

I was a little puzzled at first by the titles of the songs on your new album. It took me a minute. I'm a little older than you, I think. And so you young folks, you call it leet speak or something like that. 

00:22:37 Keri Latimer 

I don't know. 

00:22:38 Rick Reid 

Substitute. 

00:22:39 Keri Latimer 

I don't even know. I'm not of that either. I just, I was trying to figure out how to do it without any language, but it's sort of hard. I wanted to thank people and have some English in there, but I'm actually starting to work on a language that I can use in the future that isn't based on any language. It's going to be more vowels and emotive sounds. 

00:23:02 Rick Reid 

Kind of your version of Klingon or something like that. 

00:23:04 Keri Latimer 

Yeah, exactly. Yep. 

00:23:07 Rick Reid 

Yeah, for the listeners who don't know what I'm talking about, the song titles are spelled with numbers substituting for some of the letters. And it took me a while to figure out how to say them, but eventually I figured it out. Now you have another project besides the new album. You're going on kind of a mini tour in the month of March. 

00:23:27 Keri Latimer 

Yeah, my folk side is going to be a troubadour in Ontario for the next couple weeks and a half. And I'm going on tour with my friend Anna Lou, and we're going to sing. It's A Home Routes tour, which is a tour set up kind of really grassroots, and we play in people's living rooms for 30 to 50 people, and they host us and they let us stay there and they feed us, and Home Routes sets up the whole tour too with a couple of hours of driving each day, so it's a really nice, I feel really grateful to be part of this because I can just go sing some songs in people's living rooms. 

00:24:02 Rick Reid 

Sing, play theremin and play guitar. 

00:24:05 Keri Latimer 

Yeah, exactly. 

00:24:06 Rick Reid 

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit with me. It's great to finally talk to you after featuring your music on the show a few times. 

00:24:12 Keri Latimer 

Yeah, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me and I love also that you keep doing this show. It's so great. There aren't a lot of theremin shows, I wouldn't say, or you might be the only one. 

00:24:23 Rick Reid 

Yeah, I think I may be, yes. 

00:24:27 Rick Reid 

Keri Latimer's new album, When the Future Tried to Take Me, comes out on March 25th. You can pre-order a CD, vinyl, or download through her website. Look for the link in this month's show notes. Let's finish the show now with another track from the album. This is Keri Latimer as oFukami and a track called either K155 or Kiss. 

00:29:22 Rick Reid 

Thanks so much to Armen Ra, Guillaume Subra, Charlotte Dubois, and Keri Latimer for sharing their music. Also, thanks to Keri for being my interview guest. Please support these artists by purchasing their music and attending their performances whenever possible. And as always, a big thanks 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. 

00:29:49 David Brower 

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


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