Born Kristine Flaherty, genre-hopping artist K.Flay grew up with rock ‘n’ roll in Chicago and landed with hip hop in the Bay Area. Her sound shows off her strong voice (both literal and figurative) and eclectic taste. Live she does everything from create beats to play the guitar, all as a one-woman show. K.Flay has just released a self-titled EP and is on tour right now. K.Flay herself answered all of our questions so you can better get to know her.
Kelly: Tell us the story of how you started…
K.Flay: I got started making music in college. A friend of mine produced house music and he introduced me to the basics of composition and recording. We made a couple of pretty sh*tty/hilarious tracks together, but I was immediately taken with the creative process. After that, I bought some midi controllers and started banging keys in my dorm room.
K: How would you describe your sound?
KF: Like if you french braided hip hop & indie rock. Which is a highly flawed simile.
K: Who are some of your sonic influences?
KF: I absolutely love a badass girl who can sing, so I’m a huge fan of Portishead, Metric, Liz Phair, Lauryn Hill, and Fiona Apple, to name a few. On the hip hop side, it’s A Tribe Called Quest, Outkast, Dizzee Rascal. Artists who are just the right amount of crazy. CRAZY GOOD.
K: What has been your biggest accomplishment as a band so far?
KF: Having the opportunity to go on tour with Passion Pit and 3OH!3 this fall. It’s a huge honor to share the stage with such talented bands.
K: What are your goals for the upcoming year?
KF: To continue making music, to tour as much as possible, and to install a reading light in the wall next to my bed.
K: What has been your favorite city/venue to play in?
KF: I live in San Francisco, so playing hometown shows is always amazing. My roommates are notorious for doing weird things in the audience, so I end up laughing a lot, which is good for my soul.
K: What’s on heavy rotation in the tour bus/ on your ipod?
KF: Lately I’ve been rocking out to a lot of Sir Lucious Left Foot by Big Boi. That album is so rad.
K: Who is your favorite new artist?
KF: J.Cole. His lyricism and cadence are incredible.
K: What would be your dream collaboration and why?
KF: I’d love to work on a track with Q-Tip. Not only is he a great storyteller, but there is this totally captivating quality to his voice as well. It would be amazing to watch how he conceptualizes a track.
K: Tell us your craziest/most embarrassing band story, and make it a good one.
KF: Ahhhhh the pressure!! Craziest story is probably when a belligerent homeless dude threw a brick through our van window in Cleveland at four in the morning. The weirdest thing was that we had given him money earlier that night, so I was like “buddy you should be throwing bricks at people who DIDN’T hook you up with a stack of twix bars.”
