K. Flay Concerts Tickets

About K. Flay

K. Flay, aka Kristine Meredith Flaherty was born in Wilmette, Illinois, on June 30, 1985. She attended New Trier High School and was a self-confessed tomboy as a kid, eschewing all things feminine. Her love of music was inherited from her father – a talented guitarist with a wide musical vocabulary. Flaherty's father passed away when she was 14 years old, and many of her subsequent songs have been recorded in tribute to him.

Career

2003-2013: Self-released material and RCA Records

After graduating high school, in 2003, Flaherty enrolled at Stamford University. While at Stamford, she began her music career on a bet – frustrated with the "simplistic, misogynistic and formulaic" rap hits she heard on the radio, she boasted that she could do better. When a friend called her bluff, she wrote and recorded the parody "Blingity Blang Blang". Surprised at both how much she enjoyed recording the track and how naturally it came to her, she continued to explore music and rap, and in 2005 released her debut mixtape, Suburban Rap Queen. She also began performing locally, building up a small fanbase in the area.

Flaherty moved to San Francisco in 2009, after leaving Stamford with a double major in psychology and sociology. Moving towards a more electro and indie oriented feel, she released her second mixtape, Mashed Potatoes, that year, as well as a collaborative EP with MC Lars called Single and Famous.

She released her self-titled, self-released EP in 2010, but it was 2011's mixtape I Stopped Caring in '96 that proved to be a turning point for Flaherty, prompting her to pursue a career in music.

The following year, she was signed to RCA Records. She began working with The Prodigy's Liam Howlett on tracks for an EP called Eyes Shut, which was released in 2012, and in 2013 she followed with another EP: What If It Is. However, her relationship with the label did not run smoothly and, despite leaving behind over 60 sings that she had written whilst with the label, she chose to part ways with RCA that year, citing creative differences.

2014-2015: Life as a Dog

Raising funds via PledgeMusic, Flaherty self-released her debut album, Life as a Dog, in 2014. The album reached number 14 on the Billboard Rap Albums chart, number 2 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart and also charted on the Billboard 200. She spent the rest of 2014 and much of 2015 touring, both as a headline act and as a support act for AWOLNATION, Third Eye Blind and Dashboard Confessional.

2015 saw a collaboration with Louis the Child on the song "It's Strange", which was lauded by Taylor Swift on her "Songs That Will Make Life Awesome" list, which led to further exposure for Flaherty. The song was also featured on the FIFA 16 soundtrack, and it peaked at number 38 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart.

2016-2018: Crush Me and Every Where Is Some Where

Spring 2016 brought the release of the single "FML", and that August she signed to Night Street Records, a division of Interscope. Later that month, she released the EP Crush, which contains the song "Blood in the Cut" that appeared on the soundtrack for xXx: Return of Xander Cage, BoJack Horseman and in a 2017 NFL promo commercial drive, and received a nomination for Best Rock Song at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards.

Her second major-label studio album, Every Where Is Some Where,was released in April 2017 and was was nominated for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. The album was preceded by the single "High Enough".

That September, she released a compilation book of notes received from fans titled Crush Me.

2019-present: Solutions

In March 2019, Flaherty released a video for "Bad Vibes", the lead single from her upcoming album Solutions. Solutions was released in July 2019.