Melisa Young, aka Kid Sister, calls herself a nerd and I believe her. She called it a night relatively early after her show at Public Assembly in Williamsburg, loves talking about her family and won’t do a recording session unless she is alone and can concentrate. Plus, she, like my mother, uses the word, “snarkiest.” But don’t get her wrong, the girl knows how to have a good time. She can juke with the best of them, has been known to get tattoos on the fly with Paul Wall and always has a smile on.

You’ve collaborated with a handful of people, any favorites?

Kid Sister: I always work remotely, even with my friends. I very rarely go into sessions, its not really my style. I like quiet, isolation. Everything needs to be just perfect and if there are other people around I can’t be like, “Stop breathing, that’s so annoying,” so I prefer to work alone. Most of my features have been people hearing something they like and then getting on them.

You’ve mentioned that you have a close family. Is this very different from how you grew up?

Kid Sister: Oh my god, yes, totally. My family is really excited. The other day my grandfather and grandmother brought this DVD to watch. They wanted me to see that they made a DVD of my performances and they brought it to Easter brunch! It was so cute. They had headphones and everything. Everyone is really proud and happy for me.

I heard you have a new tattoo?

Kid Sister: Yeah, I got a tattoo with Paul Wall. He was like, “Okay Melisa, anything you need in Texas, you just let me know. All of Texas.” I was like,”It’s a big state.” So I hit him up and asked “Alright you told me anything I need right? How about tattoos and BBQ?” He was like (whispers), “I got you girl, I might wanna get a tattoo also.” I said, “We should totally all get tattoos together like spring break! Lets get wasted and get tattoos!” So that’s what we did.

So, lets talk about what a certain music webzine said about you…

Kid Sister: Oh you wanna talk about what Tom Breihan said about me?

Yeah, about how the biggest music site around built you up for years then trashed your album in the review…

Kid Sister: It’s not the biggest music site around, it’s the snarkiest. And it wasn’t Pitchfork, it was Tom Breihan. Look, you can’t please everybody. Everybody at Pitchfork has supported me for years and I don’t think that’s changed. I just feel like that particular journalist doesn’t like what I do and you can’t please everybody. At first I was like, “Geeze, how could they say that about me?” But I think when everyone looks at different publications they know what they are getting. You buy a magazine cause you know what you’re getting and that sort of consistency is what makes publications identifiable. When you click on Pitchfork, you know what you’re getting.

Well, Kid Sis, we here at Chinashop like your style.  And with those rap skills, a fun lovin’ persona and a ‘to hell with it’ attitude towards your detractors, there is little doubt that your next album will get the club bumping and fans screaming just like they do for “Ultraviolet.”

Words and photos by Courtney Dudley