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I've always had a complicated relationship with sleep. Even as a little kid, I never wanted to go to bed - it always seemed unfair in some way.
K. Flay -
When I was growing up, I wasn't in bands, and had really no intention of ever doing music. I went out to California for college, and kind of on a whim started making music really as a joke, and over the course of the next five years started playing a lot of shows, and music became this really integral part of my identity.
K. Flay
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My songs are a mix of my own weird raised-by-wolves perspective and civilization.
K. Flay -
When I first started making music, I was all about wordplay and how fast I could rap, but over the years, I've really gained an appreciation for melody. What's cool is that when you're singing, you have to be concise, and when you're rapping, you have the opportunity to be really detailed with your lyrics.
K. Flay -
I'm intrigued by people who are super adept at manipulating their own image. We all do it to a certain extent.
K. Flay -
There's only so many variations on the basics of human relationships. To me, it's all about the detail and how you tell the story. How you say, 'I love you.'
K. Flay -
I think, initially, working on your own is really great because it allows you to just be really free and not worry about how things are perceived or if people are going to think you're an idiot. And once that becomes ingrained, at least for me, I think I'll feel really comfortable to work with other people and still feel that same freedom.
K. Flay -
I'm a big advocate of revisions, of living with something for a month and then realizing what needs changing, what was lazy, what could be better.
K. Flay
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I studied psychology and sociology. I think my assumption was that I would go to graduate school, and I don't know what I was going to do after that.
K. Flay -
I think the key for any kind of artist - and this transcends music - is a certain degree of authenticity and sincerity.
K. Flay -
I liked that music was a window into a world with a lot of unpredictability and chaos; it was almost diametrically opposed to my very regimented day-to-day living.
K. Flay -
'Life as a Dog' is when I really started to feel comfortable, like I had the due north on my compass.
K. Flay -
My dad was a serious alcoholic, and ultimately, that's why he died. When you're a child of someone who struggled with things like that, you look for the common thread. Is there a pattern? Is there an inheritance of pathology in some way? That haunts me.
K. Flay -
Remixes are so much fun. For me, it's like this great release of energy. I like producing stuff for myself, but I also enjoy making music that wouldn't really suit my own vibe.
K. Flay
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My dad played guitar, and he taught me enough to play some Beatles' songs. But primarily, I was a bookworm. I loved reading and still do. My whole family does. It was part of the family culture. Accomplished literacy was a value.
K. Flay -
What I've discovered and try to integrate into my show is when you're up there, and you are loud and more visible, you're setting a tone for how people can behave and how they can feel comfortable behaving.
K. Flay -
I'm having this disbelief and dissatisfaction with an establishment that feels like it's moving backward, and I think there's a similar feeling with everyone of my age and in the world of music and artistic stuff. Art is an important way those feelings get expressed and help people process their feelings and opinions.
K. Flay -
I'm letting inspiration move me, in whatever direction it may, without concern if this sounds too rap or too indie, or there's too many words in it.
K. Flay -
I feel like, for me, different environments are very important to me creatively. I think it's my norm to be on the move.
K. Flay -
The one thing that I've always kind of had, ever since I was a kid, was that I lack a certain degree of self-consciousness, which is alternately good and bad.
K. Flay
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Mainly, I hope to inspire honesty. We live in a space where so much can be manipulated, and so much is expected to be manipulated - curated, contrived, edited. I think that's a real detriment to self expression and happiness in a lot of ways. In my mind, honesty and vulnerability is the way forward.
K. Flay -
Hip-hop is rich in musical allusion. It takes something that already existed, respects it, and reuses it.
K. Flay -
I don't put a ton of time into my on-stage style, largely because I'm dumb about clothes. But I have friends who are very smart about clothes, and they teach me things. For the show, I'm mainly concerned with feeling comfortable, being able to jump around and get wild.
K. Flay -
My default is e-40 because there's no one else in the world who raps like him. I've always loved e-40.
K. Flay