K. Flay writes genre-bending pop/rap songs from the heart — and listeners tend to respect her honesty.
Words like “perfection” are used to describe Dreamers, from Flay’s 2016 EP Crush Me. After listening to the tune that starts “Nobody showed you how to live? Me neither,” an individual posted: “It’s like knowing a person that you have never met …”
Flay, an L.A.-based singer, who opens for Mother Mother at Bo’s Bar and Grill in Red Deer on Saturday, March 18, admits she digs deep for her lyrics “and I think people can tell when somebody really means it.”
If there are more Internet raves than rudeness about her music, she said it’s because it’s harder to publicly shame someone “when somebody is being true to themselves …”
Flay, born Kristine Flaherty, never knew she wanted to be a performer before entering Stanford University to study psychology and sociology. She’d never written poetry, or done any creative writing while growing up in the suburbs of Chicago.
But Flay always liked music, drawing inspiration from artists, such as Karen O from The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Missy Elliott.
Unimpressed by the tone and quality some lesser rap music, she once stated she could do better — then went ahead and proved it. Through the process, she came to realize the colossal impact music was having on her life. “It had colonized my heart, or something like that …”
Does she think still hip-hop is misogynistic? “I think the world is deeply misogynistic,” responds Flay, who was a tomboy while growing up, and objects to the “defacto” sexualization of women, among other things.
With two albums and several EPs under her belt, her career has been picking up speed, “going down paths that are in some ways unexpected,” added the singer, who was briefly with RCA and is now with the Night Street Records.
Most recently, she’s been making waves with the atmospheric video for her release Blood in the Cut that starts with a girl walking away from a car wreck, then gets more intense and supernatural. Although Flay feels like “there’s a meaning in life, beyond just the physical,” she’s occasionally overcome by more basic questions.
“Sometimes I totally think, f—-k, am I doing the right thing?” She asked a lawyer friend this and he responded with, “‘Dude, I ask myself the very same thing all the time’ — so I guess as humans we are all searching for a lot of answers that allude us.”
Flay is excited to be performing for the first time in Red Deer, saying there isn’t a huge difference between her U.S. fans and Canadian ones. “The major difference is it’s quite cold here — I mean the latitude, not the people!”
For ticket information, please contact the venue.
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com