Alexandra Kay is opening up about the story behind her next album, Second Wind. The record will be out on October 24, the follow-up to her honest and vulnerable 2023 All I’ve Ever Known project.
“I started writing Second Wind, the album, last year,” Kay tells Country Swag. “What I really wanted to do, and what I kept at the forefront of my mind when it comes to this record is, I didn’t want the fans to listen to it and think it was so incredibly different from All I’ve Ever Known, the album. Because the truth is, that’s not how healing happens. You don’t go from feeling how I felt in All I’ve Ever Known, then jump to pure happiness and love again.”
All I’ve Ever Known chronicles Kay’s heartbreak over the end of her marriage to Indiana Touchette. Since then, she grieved that loss, dealt with her wounds, and found love again, with her band member, Rocko Beall.
“What’s really cool about this record is, you get these songs that happened during this transition period,” Kay says. “I’m really excited for fans to feel my healing through beginning track one all the way to track fourteen … I really take everyone on a ride on how to transition to trusting someone with my heart again, and really living in that.”
Alexandra Kay Signs With A Major Record Label
It certainly wasn’t for lack of talent that Kay didn’t sign with a record label until she was ready to release Second Wind. The Illinois native worked hard on her own, tapping into her fierce determination and unstoppable work ethic, before signing with BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville earlier this year.
“I made a very, very conscious decision,” Kay says. “And we took our time to decide what label we were going to go with. I knew it with every fiber in my being that BBR was my home.”
Alexandra Kay’s “Straight For The Heart” Single
Kay has already released “Straight For The Heart,” which also marks a career first for Kay. The song, written by Jimmy Robbins, Karley Scott Collins and Sasha Sloan, is one of two tracks on Second Wind that Kay did not write.
”’Straight For The Heart’ is actually my first outside cut by myself,” Kay says. “I actually heard this song while sitting in a pitch meeting for some songs. As soon as it played, I had to have that song. I love it. I love that it really describes how I felt with this kind of female intuition of knowing that things were going south and being strong enough to know that I didn’t have to get let down easy.”
“Even though I wasn’t a creator of it,” she adds, “I’m really excited to be a vessel for it, and take it out into the world.”
Kay predicts “Straight For The Heart” will be her first No. 1 single at country radio. She will kick off her headlining her Second Wind: The Tour on September 26 in Atlanta, Georgia, performing in 30 cities before wrapping up on November 15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Find all of Kay’s music and upcoming shows at AlexandraKayOfficial.com.
Photo Credit: Alysse Gafkjen