New York, NY (Top40 Charts) As her North American headlining tour approaches, and the launch of her brand new, first of its kind microcast show "What Am I Doing Here" is set to debut next week, two-time GRAMMY Award-nominated singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer K.Flay releases her highly-anticipated third full-length album, SOLUTIONS today on Night Street/Interscope Records. Sticking to a powerful, passionate, and positive mission statement on her latest full-length, SOLUTIONS translates the simple pleasures into ten genre-bending bangers, and was catalyzed by a three-year whirlwind of multiple sold-out tours around the world and prolific output.
When faced with a daily maelstrom of concerns, complaints, and calamities in the news, in conversation, and in social media, a smile can signal true rebellion. Eschewing self-centered woe and melancholy-for-the-sake-of-melancholy, happiness has become the boldest and ballsiest of moves. She explains: "When I got home from tour, I was in a dark place," she admits. "Eventually, I made a decision to focus on the things that actually make me happy: walking around my neighborhood, drawing in notebooks with markers, talking to my mom on the phone. I thought, 'What did I do as a kid to be happy?' As a child, you don't have access to alcohol, drugs, sex, caffeine. I looked back, when I had fun just by making music. I remembered the first time I wrote a song, burned a CD, and played it in my car. It's the closest thing I've ever had to a religious experience. I reconnected with that spirit and stopped taking shit so seriously."
In other news, K.Flay will be launching the first of its kind music-focused "microcast" (a shorter form podcast) expressly designed and produced for smart speakers (Alexa and Google Home) around the world next week. Debuting on July 17, "What Am I Doing Here" is hosted and curated by K.Flay and features conversation, jokes, musical interludes and special guests including Sam (X-Ambassadors), Bishop Briggs, Michael (Fitz and the Tantrums) and many more friends and family. Equipped with a mobile studio including high quality microphones for her iPhone, apps for recording phone calls and more, "What Am I Doing Here" is recorded 100% live. Whether she decides to record in a supermarket, on the tour bus, or on the phone with her mom or kindergarten age niece, the idea is to transport the listener into her world versus the standard studio recordings.
Last month, K.Flay performed at LOVELOUD Festival in Utah, following her and her partner Miya Folick's moving feature in GQ Magazine, detailing their coming out to friends and family and their relationship together.
This fall, she is also confirmed to perform at Austin City Limits as well as embarking on THE SOLUTIONS TOUR, which kicks off on
September 3 in Phoenix, AZ. Following a 19-city run in North America, she'll venture abroad for the UK and European leg of the tour, performing in London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Berlin, Stockholm, Prague, Munich, Frankfurt and more. For tickets and more information, go to: www.kflay.com/tour
In the Summer of 2018, she re-teamed with frequent collaborators Tommy English [Ariana Grande, Kacey Musgraves, Thirty Seconds to Mars] and JT Daly [Mutemath], as well as Joel
Little [Lorde, Taylor swift, Khalid] and CJ Baran. Recording in Los Angeles and Nashville, she widened the scope of her signature style, incorporating a variety of analog synths along with live bass and guitar, bobbing and weaving between pop, rock, hip-hop, and electronic moods.
"The title SOLUTIONS came to me really early in the process," she goes on. "The solution to almost every problem is usually really simple. For me, it's so basic: staying connected to the people I love, taking care of myself the way I'd want my friends to take care of themselves, and doing things I know are going to make me happy - not what social media or strangers or society tells me. So many of my past records were about problems. Right now I'm in a place where I'm looking for some light. Balance is important. Life doesn't have to be chaotic in order to be meaningful."
The first single from SOLUTIONS is "Bad Vibes," which slips clever quips such as "You're the sequel that sucks" between a siren swell of synths, thick percussion, and an unshakable and undeniable chant, "You give me bad vibes…" Propelled by resounding piano and nimble rhymes, "
Good News" leaps over glitchy beats and into a reminder that we can be "our own best friend." Something of a spiritual successor to her Grammy-nominated "Blood in the Cut." The frosty and fiery anthem "
Ice Cream" serves up "a breakup song that isn't too heavy." On the other end of the spectrum, the uber-personal "
Sister" delivers a heartfelt message of sisterhood as she claims, "I wanna be your sister till the end." "My sister and brother aren't biologically related to me, and I always wanted them to be my 'real siblings'," she goes on. "It was important for me to dedicate this song to them. On a larger level, I believe sisterhood should be available to everybody, regardless of gender. Sisterhood is about creating your own family." Also featured on her latest album is the Dan Reynolds co-penned "This Baby Don't Cry," which The New York Times called "post-punk," and praising K.Flay for " methodically [tossing] aside feminine stereotypes." Most recently, Los Angeles based artist released Not In California."Produced by Tommy English, K.Flay delivers her trademark grit and spitfire lyricism in yet another thundering foot stomper. Speaking about the song, she reveals: "We're not in Kansas anymore.' I think we all know that sensation. Of being in a place that resembles the world you know, but feels different somehow. and the difference is unsettling and disorienting and scary. These days I've been feeling a bit like Dorothy. I see the plastic islands and the melting glaciers and the 24-hour news cycle where people shout because loud seems to win and I think to myself. 'We're Not in California anymore.'
SOLUTIONS is out everywhere now.
CANADIAN TOUR DATES
9/9 - Vancouver, BC - The Commodore
9/22 - Toronto, ON - Phoenix
