ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A year ago, I might have described King Princess as a hugely popular singer-songwriter. But now she's become a lot more. In May, she made her TV debut playing an emotionally blocked piano prodigy on Season 2 of "Nine Perfect Strangers."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "NINE PERFECT STRANGERS")
MAISIE RICHARDSON-SELLERS: (As Wolfie) I was worried about you.
KING PRINCESS: (As Tina) Yeah, I was having a nightmare. I was having a very on-the-nose nightmare.
SHAPIRO: She's about to play Hugh Jackman's daughter in a movie called "Song Sung Blue." They did this duet at Radio City Music Hall a few months ago.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HUGH JACKMAN: Come on, KP.
HUGH JACKMAN AND KING PRINCESS: (Singing) Babe, I got you, babe.
SHAPIRO: And now King Princess is out with a new solo album called "Girl Violence." The New Yorker called it, quote, "her best yet, which cements her status not only as a virtuosic provocateur, but as a generational talent." Which generation? She's 26. Here's the lead single "RIP KP."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RIP KP")
KING PRINCESS: (Singing) If you want it on the floor, you can have it like that. Up against the door, you can have it like that. If you get a little bored, I can change it like...
SHAPIRO: King Princess is the stage name of Mikaela Straus, who is with us now. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
MIKAELA STRAUS: What a beautiful intro (laughter).
SHAPIRO: Thank you. Well, you've had quite a year. It's not over yet. At this moment, when you look back on the mountains you've climbed, how are you feeling?
STRAUS: I'm feeling good. This has been such an amazing and bizarre year. I spent six months in Germany filming that show. I made the record kind of before and after that experience. And I signed to an indie label, Section1 and Partisan.
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
STRAUS: So I feel like there's just been a lot of movement and change but all good stuff.
SHAPIRO: Well, there's been a ton of movement beyond what you just mentioned. I mean, good stuff, but also, like, you relocated from LA to New York. You ended a four-year relationship with the woman you had been with. You, as you say, left your record label and resigned. How did all of that dramatic change shape the music that's on this album?
STRAUS: For me, I think my last record was written in this state of, like, immobility and sadness. And I kind of - you know, I've become a bit of, like, a ho for sadness.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
STRAUS: And I think...
SHAPIRO: It can be addictive.
STRAUS: It's - well, especially as queer people, I feel like we're obsessed with being miserable. So I kind of had this internal monologue going the whole time of, like, my therapist being like, do you want to stay sad, or do you want to do something about it? And I started to kind of, piece by piece, dislodge these points of sadness, these thorns, you know, and just started to pull them out.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ORIGIN")
KING PRINCESS: (Singing) And in the weeds, you reach for me. And in the weeds, I've found my peace
SHAPIRO: I think about the track "Origin," where you say, it's been a little rough for a minute. I've had to face fire, fight fear and spend a lot of time in the mirror. And then you eventually get to, I'm starting to feel myself again. Like, take us...
STRAUS: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: ...To that moment. Where did that come from? What was that about?
STRAUS: Well, that song was interesting because I wanted to start kind of the first chapter of the record with this idea that, like - the feeling of walking to the studio, right? Like, I'm walking from my house to my dad's house, listening to the symphony of New York and thinking about what I want to write this record about. And that song, to me, feels like that process, you know, with headphones on, walking down the street, like, what am I going to write about today?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ORIGIN")
KING PRINCESS: (Singing) And I'm cool, I'm weirder. Yeah, I'm hot, I'm deeper. I'm starting to feel myself again, now I'm a sleeper.
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
STRAUS: You know, how am I going to elevate the emotional call here?
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
STRAUS: And that song feels like a declaration of where I'm at, where I want to be, and what I hope this record will give me by writing it.
SHAPIRO: Yeah. Walking to your dad's place, as you say - you recorded this album at the studio that your dad has run in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, since the '90s.
STRAUS: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: Where do you think that DNA comes through here?
STRAUS: Making a record at that studio feels like the ultimate homecoming because that studio is my DNA. You know, the equipment in that studio is - were my toys as a child.
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
STRAUS: So I really - I don't know. I get a little woo-woo about equipment and studios and rooms and the way they sound. And one of the things I love about that studio is that it feels really alive. It feels like a person. It feels personified. She's an important character in the record, I think.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SERENA")
KING PRINCESS: (Singing) If I could make it easy for you, if I could make it easy, I would. If I could make you feel that you're good.
SHAPIRO: OK, well, if you want to get woo-woo, I'm thinking about, like, the hero's quest, where you go far afield and then you finally come home and you, like, reclaim the thing that is your inheritance, your family legacy. I mean, it almost feels mythic.
STRAUS: Well, thank you, because I am obsessed with Gilgameshian (ph) journeys.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
STRAUS: I'm, like, really on my Gilgamesh [expletive] right now.
SHAPIRO: Cool.
STRAUS: Like, I - there was, like, a period of a week while I was making the record where I watched, in one week, "The Revenant," and then "Children Of Men"...
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
STRAUS: ...And then "The Road." And I was like, oh...
SHAPIRO: You've got a slightly lower body count than some of those. I mean, I assume. I don't know.
STRAUS: I was like - I kind of was like, am I - I feel like that man. I feel like that man trying to get from point A to point B, except instead of being that man and my obstacle being actual travel, it's emotional travel through being a lesbian. Like, I was like, if that protagonist was a lesbian having to conquer the evilness of women, that's me.
SHAPIRO: OK, so take us to the spot on the album where it's like the triumphant homecoming. Like, you are back in your father's studio, the site of your childhood experiences, and now you're in control of all the machines in it.
STRAUS: I think the song "Jaime" would be one of the songs I would say is the most triumphant.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JAIME")
KING PRINCESS: (Singing) Jaime, the clothes that you gave me don't fit me. But you squeeze until I could crack, uh-huh, and I took it all on the back, uh-huh.
SHAPIRO: You talking about this kind of triumphant return reminds me of something you told The New York Times five years ago. They wrote, if King Princess becomes a superstar, it will be because Mikaela Straus willed it. And then you're quoted as saying, it's going to be an I-told-you-so moment. I'm going to be like, what were you all waiting for?
So is this that moment when you get to say, I told you so?
STRAUS: No, we're not there yet.
(LAUGHTER)
STRAUS: We're not there yet. It will be. It will be an I-told-you-so moment, but I would be lying if I said it was right now. I think that this is a...
SHAPIRO: And so what's in your sights? Like, what's the...
STRAUS: I think that this record is the closest I felt to the way I felt making the EP in my, you know, like, leaving my...
SHAPIRO: You mean your very first breakout...
STRAUS: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: ...Hit, "1950."
STRAUS: Yeah. Yeah, and all those songs on "Make My Bed," I feel like I wrote those songs because I needed to write those songs, right? Like, I was in my dorm room. I was heartbroken. I was going from school to the studio, and it was like therapy. This record feels the closest to that that I've had in a extremely long time, and I think that that's a really good sign.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CRY CRY CRY")
KING PRINCESS: (Singing) Ooh, you're going to cry, cry, cry when you hear this.
SHAPIRO: Mikaela Straus, who performs as King Princess - her new album is "Girl Violence." Thank you so much.
STRAUS: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CRY CRY CRY")
KING PRINCESS: (Singing) You're going to cry, cry, cry when you hear this. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
