Events

[INDIE] Kristine Meredith Flaherty never planned on getting into music. As a native from Wilmette, Illinois, she had grown up with a dad who shredded on guitar. In an effort to share his talent with her, he showed her some basic chords, but that’s where her musical journey seemingly ended. It wasn’t until college when she found herself in a conversation about music with someone and was challenged by them to write and record a song—that’s when she became K.Flay. Since then she’s developed her own eclectic style, a fusion of hip-hop, indie, and alternative, and has attracted all different fans of various music genres. Last month she announced the release date for her sophomore record, Every Where is Some Where, which will drop on April 7. So far she’s released the explosive single “Blood In The Cut,” and most recently, the hard-hitting “Black Wave.” K.Flay’s headlining tour will be making a stop in Buffalo on Thursday, March 2 at 7pm at the Waiting Room. This week she took some time out to speak with The Public about what feeds her creative spirit and what it was like making her EP, Crush Me and her forthcoming full-length release.

Your style of music seems to effectively combine many genres. I was wondering what your favorite music genres are?
I listen to the gamut. I’ve actually been really into Black Sabbath, lately, which I’ve realized I’ve discovered about 35 years too late. I really try to keep an open mind and always have, but historically, as a young kid I grew up listening to a lot of like folk, classic rock, a lot of the stuff my parents were into, which is still stuff that I love. I think about Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, and people like that. In fact, my parents just went and saw Judy Collins play, and they were like ‘her voice is just as good now,’ and she’s like 70 something. So I grew up on that, and then as a teenager and when I was in college I was super into hip-hop and rap. That was for me really the genesis of my own music and was really inspiring because there’s so much lyrical content and wordplay. I feel like in that world, everything is a puzzle, and there’s like an infinite number of ways to solve it. That was really compelling and interesting to hear. Especially as I got into like a lot of underground indie rap, a lot of U.K. rap. Then as I was finishing college, I started getting into a lot of 90s alt-girl rock, which was cool because I was about to go through my first big heartbreak. I think over time there’s been elements I’ve taken from all these different genres and kind of inflected in my own. I do feel like the thread across everything for me always, regardless of what genre it is, is that connection to a lyrical perspective. Any time I feel that as a listener then I’m really drawn in.

I read that Marilynne Robinson’s novels and Kid Cudi’s early records partly inspired you to create ‘Crush Me.’
For me, I read a lot of books and I find that all forms of writing are inspirational for all forms of writing. I love Marilynne Robinson. I was kind of revisiting a few of her books around the time that I was writing the EP and what drew me to her in the first place was she’s very careful with prose and not excessively florid. I tend to like authors who pick the fewest number of words to express the greatest possible thought or sentiment. She does it in a really austere, kind of beautiful way. I think for songwriting just because you don’t have a ton of words, that’s a really good reminder to try to make the most of this time and space that I have. How do I distill a feeling or an observation into the smallest part, but make something that still resonates and feels new? So that was a big thing. And I’m a huge Kid Cudi fan. I was going back and listening to his first and second record and just remembering the things that I loved, like the storytelling and the intimacy. I think he’s an artist with whom a lot of people feel an intimate and emotional connection and those artists are always inspirational to me. It just reminded me of the reason of why I was such a fan too. I think it’s always good to be reminded of that when you’re making stuff.

What was it like recording in the Tennessee countryside?
It kind of came about in a really natural way. So JT Daly, who’s the producer that I worked on much of the EP and album with, we were just kind of beginning our relationship and looking for a place to work. A buddy of ours, who’s also a musician, had built this beautiful studio out in the countryside. It’s next to a cemetery. There’s nothing around. There’s not even a bathroom in the studio. The live room is great and it’s set up so well. But it’s cool too because it’s not fully soundproof and you hear bugs and random shit in the background. We went there and it was kind of this magical place. I think when you’re doing creative things there are just these places that are productive, inspiring, and conducive to creativity and openness. I think immediately both JT and I felt like this space was that. 

Your single “Blood in the Cut” has become a huge hit. Did you expect the song to get as much attention as it did?
No, I wrote that song in my mom’s basement. Literally, over Christmas. I was visiting. Yeah, no joke, and actually speaking of creative spaces, my mom and stepdad live in Oakland and their basement has historically been this really creative space for me. I’ve written tons of songs down there. Even though it’s like 10 feet from my parents bedroom, the minute I walk down there I feel free to make stuff. I wrote that extremely quickly. I probably wrote the rough version of that song in like 30 minutes and basically forgot about it. The song had very humble beginnings and came from a real place, so I think for me and for anyone, you never know if anyone is going to notice or like what you do or connect with it. But it does feel good, regardless for me, that everything I’m making and putting out, all of it has really humble and honest beginnings.