On an instrument so often dominated by male heroes, King has commanded the attention of guitarists and music fans alike. Now, with her forthcoming album ...Until We Felt Red (Velour, 2006), she enters new territory by adding vocals to her hugely innovative guitar work.
Kaki was nice enough to allow me a quick phone interview as she sped through Brooklyn to Manhattan on her way to a commercial audition.
Kim Ruehl: So where in the world are you?
KK: Oh I’m in Brooklyn right now. I’m actually in a car … in a cab … on the way to Manhattan. I’m going to audition for a cervical cancer commercial.
KR: Wow
[laughter]
Are you going to be playing guitar for this? Or are you acting?
KK: No I’ll just stand up there with a big smile and talk about cervical cancer [laughs]
KR: Wow how’d you land that?
KK: A friend of mine … I don’t know it’s just an audition and it’s very strange [laughs]
KR: Alright so let’s talk about your new record and how you came up with the title […Until We Felt Red]
KK: Well it’s really all the types of music that I would have been playing if I hadn’t been doing the instrumental guitar thing for the past three or four years. And as for the title, …Until We Felt Red, it’s really more about the dot dot dot until we felt red. Like whatever happened before that led us to feel red. And, you know, what does red mean? It can mean so many different things. There’s that implied sexuality, there’s a political implication – whether it’s conservative or communist – there’s shamefulness … so it’s really an open title. The title could mean so much.
KR: What made you decide to start singing?
KK: Well once I freed myself from the solo guitar thing, which is such a discipline … once I opened up to the songs and not really thought about whether I was going to sing or what I was going to do, and just let it flow, sometimes the song would wanna have a little vocal part in there. So I would just sing it.
KR: Were you afraid that people who had become fans of your instrumental work wouldn’t be so pleased with the vocal stuff?
KK: Well some people on principle won’t listen. I knew some weren’t gonna be down. But I love my fans. And the people I’ve gotten to play for are just people that have been psyched about the music. They’re really down with all types of music. You know I really wasn’t thinking outside of my own little world, [and I could] because I didn’t do it under the umbrella of a record label at the time. So there were no voices saying it had to be a certain way. It was just me making music.
KR: You know when I interviewed Janis Ian she named you as one of her favorite newer guitarists.
KK: Aww wow, that’s so sweet.
KR: Yeah. So do you have anyone you look up to, any of your heros, that you want to work with or that you’ve been able to work with now that you have a little more notoriety?
KK: Oh man I don’t know ... well John McEntire is a great hero of mine, as a musician and a producer, and I’d always wanted to work with him. And I guess just the fact that it was so easy to get him on the project made me realize I could reach out to those kinds of people. But in my mind, I’m still a solo artist so I don’t know if I’d be collaborating with other people. I’m kind of a dictator when it comes to my songs. So I don’t know that I’d be collaborating with other songwriters, except maybe to be on someone else’s record.
KR: So is your tour over now? Or are you just on a break for the moment?
KK: No I’ve been working with a band, and we have a residency here in New York every Wednesday that we do, which is good. So we’re playing out every week. We’re gonna be launching another tour in the fall.
KR: Where’s your residency?
KK: At the Living Room.
KR: Oh yeah – that’s a great space I know that room well.
KK: Yeah.
KR: So is there anything else you want my readers to know?
KK: Um no. I don’t know. You can see part of my b*** on the new record … on the cover art for the new record. So everyone should actually buy it.
KR: You can see your b***? Was that intentional?
KK: Oh yeah! Yeah it was fun. I don’t know, sex sells. So they should all buy the new record. [laughs]
