Consciousness of Decisions and Their Solutions with K. Flay

As artists grow in their craft, their music changes. Sometimes it is an ever so slight evolution; sometimes the change crosses genre lines. Other times, that evolution brings about a pearl of wisdom that builds on experience. That last piece is what seems to have happened with K. Flay.

She says it wasn’t intentional but the finished product, Solutions, brought it all home for her.

“I had just gotten off tour. I had been on the road for, like, three years,” she said. “I was pretty worn down in a lot of ways; physically and psychologically.”

It was at that point that she started to write, putting together her thoughts.

“The best thing any of us can do it to write, or paint, or sing,” she said. “I knew I needed to inject some cautious optimism into life. Pessimism has become old hat. I decided that it was time to make a change.”

Those kinds of changes are the very spirit that bring out the best in people, Kristine, K. Flay’s given name, hinted too.

“I believe that we find ourselves when we do the riskiest thing possible. That’s what I was doing with the conscious decision to make that change,” she said. “I wanted to see myself and the world through a different lens.

“Simultaneously, I was coming home to the apartment of a person that had been on tour for three years,” she laughed. “I was putting my home life back together as well. After three years, it looked the home of a squatter. I was also just getting into a relationship and coming to terms with what it meant to be fully involved with; fully in love.”

The approach developed into an album that showcases just who K. Flay is and what it means to make a conscious decision to be a positive force in the world, as she said.

K. Flay will showcase Solutions at the Town Ballroom, in Buffalo, on September 21. K. Flay has taken a special interest in the visuals on this tour to “take it to the next level.”

“I have worked very hard with the crew to create a great stage production,” she said. “I am really proud of this show.”

Not only will fans get big visuals, but they will get a night of audio and emotional peaks and valleys, according to Kristine.

“We have all agreed to take three hours out of our lives to break from the daily chaos and prevailing norms to express ourselves,” she said. “It’s my job to create that environment for everyone.”

That expression can be seen in the video trilogy K. Flay has put out for Solutions. The first part, “Bad Vibes,” gives us a glimpse of our protagonist incarcerated. The story goes through a bit of a rough spot, finally leading to an escape.

“In many ways, we are masters of our own misery, and that song really draws that out,” she said. “We live in complacency, and we allow people to enter into our environment. In many ways, we live in a prison of our own mind, and we need to make those conscious decisions to break free and escape.”

As our protagonist does just that, she reunites with her sister, fittingly to the song, “Sister.” The song talks about the deep bonds between siblings, both blood and of relationship, and delves deeper into the psyche of the concept of freeing ourselves from the prison of our own minds.

“I had this idea that I wanted to pursue with this record,” K. Flay said. “The goal was to be able to create a visual experience with motifs and narratives that strung across the project.

“Living in a dystopian world, not really too different from our own, we see the characters living just a couple degrees off-kilter,” she said.

The final video, yet to be released at the time of this piece, is the prequel to the project.

As an artist that has described herself as one without genres, K. Flay has a fanbase that crosses those lines as well, not looking into the genre title but the message.

“I would like to think they are listening because I have a storytelling voice and I am consistent across all elements to bring something to everyone,” she said. “I have always been an honest songwriter and that really has remained a constant.”

Starting into the music foray in college, the journey from Kristine Flaherty to K. Flay and taking the world by storm with a bit of “Blood in the Cut” was something that was not expected.

“It is so hard to even go back into my mind at that time,” she said of the days at Stanford. “Music was actually my first hobby. It was seriously the first one I had to really have fun! Everything else had to do with competitiveness.”

She said reading was even that way for her.

“I love to read. I have always taken notes on books as I read them,” she said. “It truly was all about the competitive side of life.” Some would say that kind of thing would be a burnout point but, while an ongoing endeavor, relaxation and recharging are high on the priorities for Kristine.

“I would have to say that, across time and space, the thing that has always kept me focused, relaxed, and at ease are my family and my relationships,” she said. “I am always talking on the phone and face timing with people that are close to me.

“As someone that does a lot of touring, I find that we live in a world that is increasingly isolated and connected at the same time,” she continued. “Most of my anguish and pain is en I am not in contact with anyone close to me.”

The therapy for that? It’s as simple as a walk.

“If your body is able to walk, the long walk is incredibly therapeutic,” she said. “I will walk six to eight miles.”