A hoodie put K.Flay’s politics front and centre

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      Prior to the release of her 2017 album Every Where Is Some Where, even K.Flay’s most ardent fans were only marginally aware of her political bent. Sure, the multigenre musician, born Kristine Flaherty, first started making hip-hop in college after a discussion about the misogyny in mainstream rap, but the records released over her 13-year career have focused more on the struggles of negotiating relationships and the aftermath of partying than interrogating the U.S. Bill of Rights.

      That all changed last year.

      It was a hoodie that thrust K.Flay’s political ideology into the public eye. Turning up on Conan with “Immigrants welcome” emblazoned across her chest, the artist revealed the first of her activist statements.

      “We were performing ‘Blood in the Cut’ immediately after Trump’s initial Muslim ban was unveiled,” she tells the Straight, on the line from Santa Ana, California. “People’s lives were literally being torn apart. I’d had this sweatshirt made in the Make America Great Again colour, that stupid Trump red, and wanted to wear it so I could say something. That really small gesture opened up a lot of doors to get involved with efforts that were politically progressive.

      “I did a tour where I just wore versions of it as a T-shirt on-stage every night,” she continues. “We started selling it in the online store to give the proceeds to a refugee organization. Then Spotify hit me up, and I got involved with the ‘I’m with the banned’ project.”

      Connecting musicians on Trump’s no-admittance list with high-flying American artists, Spotify’s venture paired Flaherty with Iranian producer Kasra V. Together, the pair created a new song, “Justify You”, a track that mixes the singer’s breathy, twangy vocals with a bouncy breakbeat backing. The collaboration was an important statement, but it was the circumstances around the recording that made the biggest impact, in Flaherty’s eyes.

      “When I was telling another American about this experience, I mentioned that we were in the studio in Toronto,” she recalls. “They said, ‘Why did you go to there?’ And I told her that Kasra couldn’t come to the States—that was literally the point. I think having to physically go somewhere else was pretty powerful, and a small illustration of how the travel ban wasn’t just an idea—it’s real life.”

      The past year brought changes not just for America, but for Flaherty herself. Signing to Night Street Records in late 2016, a label founded by Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds, the singer dropped her first album on the imprint last spring. Despite having vowed never to sign to another major after an ill-fated pairing with RCA at the beginning of her career, Flaherty has found a supportive home that has pushed her to new markets.

      “I’ve never been married, nor have I been divorced, and nor have I been remarried—but this union does feel quite like a second marriage,” she says. “I think I entered into that situation with RCA when I was really young in terms of my musical career. I didn’t have a sense of self. I’ve come to discover that when labels and big institutions come across someone who doesn’t have a very firm sense of direction, everyone becomes incapacitated. In those early days I was looking for some guidance, and record labels in this day and age aren’t set up for that. That’s totally fine—I just didn’t understand that.

      “The situation for me at this label is unique, because I’m kind of insulated because of Dan, so there’s a layer of protection for me [from the imprint’s parent, Interscope],” she says. “I think I have now, with experience, the wherewithal and self-knowledge to understand what I need and don’t need. I don’t need someone to tell me what genre my music should be, or which producers to work with, or how to dress. But I do need someone to help me break into alternative radio. Night Street is able to do that.”

      The result of that union has led to two Grammy nominations for the artist—best rock song for “Blood in the Cut”, and best-engineered album for Every Where Is Some Where—both of which represent a sound that primarily teams Flaherty’s gritty vocals with atmospheric, reverbed guitars, instead of her signature postgenre mashup of styles.

      “I celebrated the news with some Egg McMuffins, and that was it,” she says with a laugh. “It’s obviously really cool and a great honour, but it was really a nice acknowledgment because a lot of people involved with me have been collaborators for a long time. They’ve put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into this record. It’s for them, too.”

      K.Flay plays the Commodore Ballroom on Sunday (January 21).

      K.Flay, "The President Has A Sex Tape"

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