Kristeen Young’s steely, indefatigable identity is as resistant to categorization as her music, which has been described as “eclectic,” “operatic-punk,” and “intergalactic” without ever quite capturing it. Her songwriting was born out of trauma, after all, a way to escape what she describes as a “nightmarish” upbringing in adoptive and foster homes. It makes sense that her sound would capture the peripatetic nature of youth, that merging of deep pain and ecstatic discovery.
…The longtime David Bowie collaborator has always had a clear and distinct voice, but when Bowie passed away during the making of her eighth studio album, there was an inevitable shift, a stall — life happening all at once.
Although Bowie’s passing played a significant…
…role in delaying the album release (the co-producer of Witch’s Tit is legendary Bowie collaborator Tony Visconti), Kristeen was also forced to deal with her bass player leaving, being diagnosed with Lyme Disease herself, and all the “ripple effects” that followed.
Throughout all of this, however, Young’s goal remained coherent: bring life back to rock music. “I wasn’t interested in the formulaic, small box of a territory that rock lives in now,” she says. “Rock is dying, but I felt like I knew the reason (mundanity, blandness, and predictability) and had the cure.” The new album reaches across a multitude of sounds ranging from indie pop, R&B, and her ‘art-rock’ signature, as well as her steadfast viewpoint, which she says “tends to be dissonant and angular.”
As for how this album rollout feels different than previous ones in her career, Kristeen only had one thing to say: “Firstly, it doesn’t feel like a ‘career’—I see no evidence of one.” Album-making, for her, is a singular experience, something that at its best forces an artist to unravel struggle and connect with his or her truth rather than with any sort of dual collaborators. “It’s just me,” Young says. “Alone. Making stuff.” — officemagazine.net