{"id":366376,"date":"2024-07-26T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2024-07-26T07:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/?p=366376"},"modified":"2025-01-29T14:01:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T14:01:26","slug":"kehlani-gender-norms-crash-album-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/music\/kehlani-gender-norms-crash-album-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI don’t want to be a superstar\u201d: Kehlani hates being famous \u2013 but loves fucking with gender norms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singer-songwriter Kehlani talks finding gender euphoria on and off the stage, defiantly speaking her mind and her full-throttle new album, CRASH<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

WORDS BY ZOYA RAZA-SHEIKH<\/strong><\/p>\n

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There\u2019s a collision on the cover art of <\/span>CRASH<\/span><\/em>: a shattering of expectations, as Kehlani \u2013 donning black and gold six-inch thin strap heels and a glittering spiky silver two-piece \u2013 poses atop a totalled blood red car. Her return is striking, two years after her third studio album, <\/span>Blue Water<\/span><\/i>. Gone are moments of moss-covered beach rocks, the pools of salty seawater and the murky, earthy gradients of the ocean view. The tranquillity of the past has ebbed away and, instead, an explosion of emotion has come careening in. Her thighs are wrapped in aluminium-coloured car-like shrapnel which fans out at her feet in flame-shaped cutouts. Yet, her jet-black hair, now shorter and with blonde highlights, is perfectly fixed. <\/span>CRASH<\/span><\/em> is a metaphor and real-life visual of Kehlani\u2019s private world: a transformative intimate space of glamour, deconstruction and self-reckoning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the surface, the musician\u2019s fourth studio album hits like a sideswipe. It\u2019s flashy and immense as you find yourself flailing through bouts of experimentation, steering between syrupy notes on \u2018GrooveTheory\u2019 to revelling in the sultry excess of \u2018Sucia\u2019 (which features Jill Scott & Young Miko). It\u2019s forceful and uncompromising, in no small part thanks to the atmosphere of freedom garnered from days surfing and reconnecting with close family. It was the puzzle pieces of her life she, selectively, wanted to share. More often than not, the singer-songwriter shies away from the public \u2013 quipping that she \u201chates being famous\u201d and the celebrity shtick of LA over Zoom \u2013 but <\/span>CRASH<\/span><\/em> is the opposite. It\u2019s red hot, freewheeling and souped-up on queer desire. She reaffirms how we see her: sometimes an aspirational sharp suit-wearing Gladys Bentley, sometimes a gender-fluid internet meme of \u201cFominic Dyke\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The arrival of a new record is a reintroduction, and Kehlani\u2019s was intentional. She ditches the easily affixed R&B label and seeks out the thrumming hum of Las Vegas, the folksy twang of country and even steps into psych-rock just for the feel of it. She shelves the idea of a self-titled release and, instead, wades deep into a time when her life flipped upside down after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. \u201c<\/span>The switch was realising that <\/span>CRASH<\/span><\/em> was this internal tale of my experience. I’m bipolar and only found that out recently and started my journey with my psychiatrist,\u201d she says. \u201cThere were so many moments where it was clearly like \u2018this is a high, this is a low\u2019 and it was my mental journey and the album playing tag with each other, revealing things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As for now, the musician has dropped tour dates and she\u2019s ready to share her outwardly queerest album with the masses. She\u2019s standing for what feels right, rather than what people expect from her \u2013 and that\u2019s the spirit of <\/span>CRASH<\/span><\/em>. It\u2019s about feeling the full-throttle rush and walking away, hair strewn with broken glass, knowing you\u2019ve come out the other side. Here, for her <\/span>GAY TIMES<\/span><\/i>\u2019 cover story, Kehlani opens up about her Saturn Return-influenced album, becoming an outspoken voice for the LGBTQIA+ community and why she loves messing around with gender norms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kehlani, congrats on the album release. How are you doing?<\/b><\/h3>\n

I’m good. I just announced my tour so I’m excited. I have this funny habit of not making myself too aware of the actual details of things so that I can be shocked when they happen. <\/span>I saw the capacity for some of the venues today which was really cool because I can’t believe I’m playing these shows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You started working on <\/b>CRASH<\/b><\/em> last July in what you\u2019ve described as the \u201cperfect surfy summer\u201d. How did the atmosphere and freedom of that time set you up, creatively, for this album?<\/b><\/h3>\n

That time allowed me to just have more fun. Life had gotten a little serious. When I first started the album, I had moved back to my hometown. I had decided to be a domestic family person and I was really just locked in that kind of life \u2013 I had lost all kinds of being whimsically creative. Being able to go from surfing to making music really popped the cherry of taking life less seriously, and everybody was having a lot of fun. I think you can hear the fun in the album.<\/span><\/p>\n

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What made you want to trade the serenity of surfing waves for the motif of a smashed-up car?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Things started shifting in this really fast-paced emotional space, it very quickly went from sweet and surfy to charged-up and energetic. That’s where my mental health was at the time, and we were making this album in a bunch of different places.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve regularly had a closeness with the R&B genre label. On this record, you deviate from that and experiment across sounds. You also worked with different producers and moved around while making the album (San Diego, LA, New York). How did these environments sonically leave an imprint on the album?<\/b><\/h3>\n

I was really blessed to have so many incredible collaborators. Everybody came together to push all of their own buttons and it didn’t feel like I had to force anyone to be excited and try things.<\/span><\/p>\n

We really were hanging out every day and breaking down this very Los Angeles studio version of making music. We just really cracked that code and were making songs in houses. We would wake up together, make music all day, hang out, go to a bar, come back and make more music, then sleep and do it again. It became this melting pot and everybody was just down to try whatever with each other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you have a specific music eureka moment in a location that really resonated with you?\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

We went to Vegas and I realised I hadn’t captured that desert part of Vegas, I hadn’t captured that sultry, sexy feeling and that’s how \u2018Sucia\u2019 came about. We were just sitting in the living room and I wanted to hear a snake rattle, and desert wind and needed a western guitar that sounded like I was stepping out and putting my boot in the saloon. We made the beat and the song that day. That was a good moment because we realised Vegas encapsulated all the worlds that we were talking about.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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As a musician, you\u2019ve experienced a lot of change in recent years. You\u2019re also someone who embraces astrology and has spoken about the impact of going through a Saturn Return. <\/b>What experiences have been the most formative in helping shape your art?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Saturn Return flips your life upside down. It really changes everything and it gives you the tools to continue afterwards. Making an album in the middle of it, I feel like there are no obvious themes [of Saturn Return] lyrically on there but, energetically and sonically, [the album] felt like the flip that my life has made. It felt like the mess, the chaos and the redemption I’ve been processing for the last two years.<\/span><\/p>\n

What led you to name the album <\/b>CRASH<\/b><\/em> rather than rolling out a self-titled project like many fans were expecting?<\/b><\/h3>\n

To be honest, it felt too chaotic to be my self-titled album. I feel like subtitled albums are a little more traditional. This wasn’t my moment to explain what makes me or to sonically do that. I was just trying some shit and I really wanted to pivot and not make the same album over and over again.<\/span><\/p>\n

CRASH<\/b><\/em> is your fourth album and it\u2019s been almost four years since you came out as lesbian. Do you feel like there\u2019s been an alignment there, between yourself, your life experiences and your music?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

I learned more and there was a more obvious throughline with how the album came out and with engaging with people about it afterwards. I felt like I was really trapped in my own little world when I was making this album. Then, I started to put out music during a genocide \u2013 I took the stances I take in the world, which started overtaking everything.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Your album rollout was intertwined with fundraising efforts to provide humanitarian aid<\/b> in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo, with merch for your single \u2018Next 2 U\u2019 raising $555,000. Were you concerned about how your political stance would be received while putting out an album?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

I wasn’t, I was more concerned with people thinking it was performative because that was not my intention. It was very clear for me to understand people know I’m dropping an album and I can’t stop it. I can’t [stop] putting it out right now. People are watching me for music videos and music.<\/span><\/p>\n

I knew what I was going to do. I want to have an initiative which is raising money with a Palestinian company and a Palestinian designer. I was going to have to draw massive attention to it and cause a fucking shit storm to get the initiative in order to raise the funds<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I knew what I was going to do. I want to have an initiative which is raising money with a Palestinian company and a Palestinian designer. I was going to have to draw massive attention to it and cause a fucking shit storm to get the initiative in order to raise the funds. I knew people would be like, what the fuck does this song have to do with Palestine? Saying \u2018you’re just putting on a kufiya and waving around flags \u2013 what the fuck does have to do anything?\u2019 I knew I was gonna have to just take that hit to the chin, but as long as we raised the money that we raised, that was all my concern.<\/span><\/p>\n