K.Flay (born Kristine Meredith Flaherty) was faced with several obstacles during the making of her fifth studio album, MONO. The musician introduces her new behind-the-scenes mini-doc on the making of her latest LP, MONO, in an open letter to American Songwriter below.
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As seen in the film, K.Flay is a person grappling with the impulse to shut down and the need to never do so. Here, the Grammy-nominated hit-maker understands and elucidates the complexities of doubt and power as well as all the temptations and trials in between. For more on the artist and her new album, read our interview with her HERE.
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K.Flay on MONO:
This is a story I haven’t really told before. At least not like this. In many ways, my fifth studio record, MONO, is the culmination of the major narrative strands in my life—the loss of my biological father, my queerness, my fraught relationship with alcohol, the struggle to find my place in the music industry, and of course, my sudden deafness. When I woke up last August, unable to hear out of my right ear, I was unknowingly about to undergo one of the greatest tests of my ability to face pain, to accept changes I hadn’t chosen, to rise above my own discomfort, and engage with music (and the world) in a totally new way.
I started making this record as a person with two working ears. I finished it with only one.
This is also the first record for which, from start to finish, I was sober.
MONO is about navigating loss, about looking your aloneness in the eye and deciding not to drink or vape or have sex or watch a television show, but to stand there and accept it, to understand its power.
There is only one person on this earth with your mind, your creativity, your perspective. You’re a first and last pressing. A 1 of 1.
And 1 is a scary number.
But life is scary. And funny. And sad. And beautiful.
I hope this record [and this mini-doc premiere] is a reminder of that, and how we are all experiencing our aloneness together.
Photo by Danielle Ernst / Courtesy Stunt Company Media Inc.
