Bringin’ it Backwards: Interview with K.Flay

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We had the pleasure of interviewing K.Flay over Zoom video!

Alt-rock’s artful enigma K.Flay (the stage name of Kristine Flaherty) hurls fistfulls of theoretical paint at the modern music landscape by announcing her forthcoming EP ‘Inside Voices’, dropping June 11th via BMG. The GRAMMY-nominated musical changeling throws caution to the wind on the forthcoming collection, instead choosing to scream a primal roar of self-confidence across five tracks of fresh, biting self-expression.

Kicking off this next phase in her already varied & exciting discography is the first single “Four Letter Words” – birthed from a very real moment in her life (cue the first line “I drank a liter of tequila in my bedroom, it’s taking every ounce of power not to text you”), the song kicks off with a chugging guitar before erupting into a cathartic sonic explosion that evolves the manic loneliness felt post-breakup into finding the strength to confidentially say “FUCK YOU” to the one that didn’t doesn’t deserve you.

In a fitting visual accompaniment, the artist rages out in her bedroom while two cartoon characters, IV (representing the ‘id’) and OV (representing the ‘superego’) wreak havoc on her psyche.

It’s a shape-shifter of a song that perfectly encapsulates the forthcoming EP’s sonic variety and expression. Throughout the collection, K.Flay offers up a smorgasbord of colorful alternative art-pop — unexpected, exhilarating, and truly one-of-kind, be it via “Dating My Dad” that features Barker on drums and examines how we repeat the same tired behaviors of those who raised us, or via the snarling “TGIF” that asks the listener to rethink society’s tendency to “tune out” the bullshit going on in the world and boasts a heaven-sent solo from Tom Morello. The EP also features the clever and irreverent rap closer “My Name Isn’t Katherine” (a comical reference to her issue with constantly being misnamed), and “Good Girl”, a co-writing collaboration with Dan Reynolds and an infectious punk-tinged singalong about reaching your breaking point when it comes to politeness and finding the courage to not give a fuck anymore.

The Chicago-born K.Flay’s near-undefinable amalgamation of dark-electro soundscapes, art-pop sensibilities, spitfire rhymes, industrial rock backbone and versatile chameleon-like vocals has led the songwriter/artist/multi-instrumentalist to two GRAMMY nominations (Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for ‘Every Where Is Some Where’, and Best Rock Song for “Blood in the Cut”), tours alongside Grouplove, Imagine Dragons & Thirty Seconds To Mars, and festival spots at ACL Fest, Bonnaroo, Coachella, Treefort, and Riot Fest. She most recently dropped the three-song cover collection ‘Don’t Judge A Song By Its Cover’ that included off-the-wall remakes of songs by Limp Bizkit, The Offspring & Green Day, and appeared on songs by Arkelles and Jax Anderson.

We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com.

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