Nashville-based pop singer, KINGS, has a new single out now (dropped June 25). “thank me later” is a spunky, upbeat single, with impressive hints of R&B and soaring vocals. KINGS is definitely not shy in these lyrics, writing a song with wordcraft reminiscent of Alanis Morissette’s, but with vocals similar to Ariana Grande’s. To chat about the story behind the song and the creation process, KINGS sat down with American Songwriter for a Q&A.
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American Songwriter: Can you share with us the story behind the lyrics? What inspired you to write this song?
KINGS: I had a thing with a boy for about 2 months late 2020. We hung out constantly and were best friends, but I never knew exactly where we stood with each other. A couple months in, I had to go on a work trip to LA for 3 weeks and when I got back there was another girl. Shortly after, he totally cut me out of his life and started dating this new girl. I honestly had no problem with her, she was really cool actually, it was just really hard to see my best friend move on from what we had. Later on, I found out that he had feelings for me the entire time we were friends and talked to literally everyone about how he felt except me. I heard that this new girl was a major rebound, and even though I was confused I knew I needed to write about this part in my life.
AS: What does the title and repeating chorus of the song “thank me later” mean? What does that lyric refer to?
KINGS: The chorus in “thank me later” is describing all the reasons why this boy’s built up feelings for me and poured out to her, set up their relationship. It’s a lot easier to get over someone when you can turn directly to someone else who will reciprocate those feelings. With that said, I decided to dedicate this song to his new girl, basically telling her she can thank me later for her relationship with him.
AS: Did you start with the lyrics or the music for this single?
KINGS: As I was telling my co-writers a little story time of a boy situation I was going through, my producer started with the beginnings of a track. From there we worked on the verse lyrics and formed a melody for the verse as well. When we got to the chorus, we went back and forth between so many options for the hook like “you can thank me later”. Because we were writing this over zoom, I told my co writers “okay give me 5”, I muted myself and when I got back on I had the hook for that part of the chorus. We all couldn’t stop singing it. I was so happy that the puzzle pieces of this song perfectly fell into place. I knew right after I heard the first draft of the demo that I wanted to drop it.
AS: Who are your musical inspirations?
KINGS: Three of my inspirations are Ry X, Dermot Kennedy and Ariana Grande. They all have extremely different sounds, but I love pulling inspiration from many styles of music.
AS: What’s coming next from you?
KINGS: I have so many songs in the works right now that I want to release. I can’t wait to share everything that’s been on my mind, especially this past year, with the world. I am also super pumped about dropping merch soon.
You can listen to “thank me later” here now.
