K. Flay

“I love playing in Chicago. It's the memory lane hometown, which is really nice.”

“I think a part of me thought that I might be interested in academia because I really do love school. I mean that on all levels - I like educational environments; I like being part of that community of learning and exploration. And I like to talk.”

“What I've discovered and try to integrate into my show is when you're up there, and you are loud and more visible, you're setting a tone for how people can behave and how they can feel comfortable behaving.”

“My sound is, at its core, a mix of things. Definitely an imperfect mix, but one that incorporates elements of the music I love - a bit of indie rock, super rhythmic rapping, and lots of synths.”

“A lot of people don't even listen to albums start to finish, but I do - for sure.”

“I was always very academically focused when I was growing up, and music was something for which I really had no preconceptions or expectations for myself or really any rules. It kind of represented, at least for me, a divergent path of creativity and self-discovery.”

“Mainly, I hope to inspire honesty. We live in a space where so much can be manipulated, and so much is expected to be manipulated - curated, contrived, edited. I think that's a real detriment to self expression and happiness in a lot of ways. In my mind, honesty and vulnerability is the way forward.”

“Even successful musicians have had periods where people say they suck and no one likes them, even after they've had periods of great success. So I think it's like you just gotta do you and try to stay motivated. Until, you know, you decide to stay home and make spaghetti all day.”

“I think, on the rap side of life, I've always been inspired by and respected Missy Elliott for a long time. She's funny and created an image for herself that was non-sexualized but was really interesting and really cool and really kind of avant-garde in a lot of ways.”

“My default is e-40 because there's no one else in the world who raps like him. I've always loved e-40.”

“I feel like, for me, different environments are very important to me creatively. I think it's my norm to be on the move.”

“I don't put a ton of time into my on-stage style, largely because I'm dumb about clothes. But I have friends who are very smart about clothes, and they teach me things. For the show, I'm mainly concerned with feeling comfortable, being able to jump around and get wild.”

“I know that in my own mind, I struggle with a desire to be both entirely absent and entirely present in any given moment.”

“Hip-hop is rich in musical allusion. It takes something that already existed, respects it, and reuses it.”

“I'm a big advocate of revisions, of living with something for a month and then realizing what needs changing, what was lazy, what could be better.”

“I studied psychology and sociology. I think my assumption was that I would go to graduate school, and I don't know what I was going to do after that.”

“A college degree is not essential, but if you're already in college, and if it's at all possible, you should definitely try to finish. In college, you have a very supportive community right there, and it can give you opportunities to try out new things.”

“I think, initially, working on your own is really great because it allows you to just be really free and not worry about how things are perceived or if people are going to think you're an idiot. And once that becomes ingrained, at least for me, I think I'll feel really comfortable to work with other people and still feel that same freedom.”

“Feeling anxious or depressed sometimes is part of what it means to be a person, and it might even be essential to success.”

“I liked that music was a window into a world with a lot of unpredictability and chaos; it was almost diametrically opposed to my very regimented day-to-day living.”