Alexandra Kay is sharing details about her deeply personal debut album, out this fall. The Illinois native has been quiet about her personal life on social media, including recent challenges, but says it will all come out in her forthcoming freshman record.
“I’m kind of going through it,” Kay acknowledges on St. Louis radio station 92.3 WIL. “I’m going through it a little bit in my personal life … I’ve had some major life changes over the last year. I’m putting out my first debut album in October, and it’s a first look into my life. I’ve given a lot of my personal life to the public over the past eight years, almost ten years that I’ve been on social media. I share and I overshare. I let everybody in, and so everybody has been asking a lot of questions, a lot of comments of, ‘Why have you not explained all these changes that everyone is noticing?'”
While Kay understands that her fans have questions, especially considering how open and forthright she has been in her personal life, the singer-songwriter vows the answers will come, just in her music.
“I’m in a healing process,” Kay explains. “I wrote through it over the last year, and that’s the album everybody’s going to get in October. And so, I’m really excited to let everybody in on how I’ve been going through the last year, and what’s been going on, and how I’ve grown through it.”
For Kay, she is much more comfortable talking about the highs and lows of her personal life in her music, as opposed to making any kind of formal announcement.
“I don’t plan on talking about it in interviews, or doing anything like that, or making some huge video where I explain everything,” the “I Hate Airplanes” singer shares. “I just wrote through it, and still treated it as a project, and looked at it in full, and recognized, ‘If somebody else was going through what I’m going through, how can I help? What would they need to be hearing right now? What do I need to be hearing right now?’ And those are the songs that we wrote. I wrote it with some of my best friends in Nashville. I’m really excited.”
Kay still can’t believe how much her life and career has changed in the past year. The rising star was invited to serve as the opening act on Tim McGraw‘s McGraw Tour 2022, catapulting a career that was already climbing to an entirely new level.
“It’s been a really cool year,” Kay reflects. “Coming right off of Tim, we just decided we were going to start headlining. The only way to build yourself as a headlining act, especially as an independent artist, is to just go do it. Start in the 200 [capacity] rooms. Start in the really, really grungy, nasty, 150, 200-[capacity rooms], and then go back to that market. Put on a great show while you’re there, and then go back to that market, and that’s what we did.”
Kay started headlining in the smaller venues, including on the second leg of her just-wrapped Backroad Therapy Tour, working her way up to 1000-seat rooms, and growing even more.
“When we’re selling them out, it’s wild,” Kay says. “It’s a testament to my entire small team, my band, being absolutely incredible, and everybody being willing to live in a sweaty, nasty van and then get upgraded to a bus, and then a nicer bus, and really just eat it until we can reap the benefits.”
@alexandrakaymusicI call this one “coconut cake protein coffee” 😃 ☕️♬ original sound – Alexandra Kay
Kay’s hectic schedule leaves very little free time, between performing, filming videos, doing her social media content (including her popular Coffee Covers), finishing up her album and more. While her grueling schedule would leave anyone exhausted, Kay is soaking up every minute, even on the hard days.
“This is all I’ve ever wanted to do,” Kay maintains. “So on tired days, I just keep gratitude at the forefront, and I can get through it with that, and a couple of Red Bulls, and coffee.”
Kay will embark on her Dive Bar Dreamer Tour next month, kicking off on July 19 in Wichita, Kansas. The tour will wrap up on August 8 in Athens, Georgia. Find all of Kay’s music and upcoming shows at AlexandraKayOfficial.com.
