Georgi Kay is a multi-faceted artist, bringing her love for all things weird and wonderful and spinning them into one-of-a-kind entrancing experiences. So after her resurrection of 2018 track Lone Wolf, we couldn’t help but grab a chat with her.
Sometimes when I reflect back on my musical career thus far, I am both surprised in one breath, yet equally as expectant in the other.
I heard that you take inspiration from the weird and wonderful, how do you channel this into your songwriting?
Ever since I can remember I’ve been fascinated by the sci-fi and horror worlds. Whether it be in the form of books, comics, graphic novels, video games, art, film or TV – I’ve always found myself somewhat at home and in my element when surrounded by them. All of what I create is heavily influenced and inspired by these two genres, and I enjoy stitching them together in what I like to think are new and uniquely different ways. I treat each song I write as a living, breathing organism.
An entity constructed and sculpted by both organic and synthetic musical elements that ultimately create this hybrid creature that plays on both the light and dark corners of the mind, heart and soul. That dichotomy of mechanical meets acoustic and euphoria meets darkness combination is perhaps what could be considered weird yet wonderful about my work and my ethos.
You’re a British-Australian artist, but which island do you have more of a connection to? I also saw you travel a lot; any countries bring out your creativity more than others?
I was born in the UK but spent the majority of my life having grown up in Australia. So technically I’m far more Australian than British. However, when I was 19, I moved back to London to work with a record label I had signed with at the time. During my 3 years living back in my original home country, I stumbled across the dark and blissfully deep worlds of garage, tech house, psy-trance and deep house. These genres inspired me on a massive scale, and still to this day have a heavy influence and play a huge role in the backbone of my music and soundscape palette. So, I’d say it’d have to be an even 50/50 as to where my connection lies!
In terms of travelling elsewhere, I was fortunate enough as a kid to have parents who believed travelling and immersing yourself in other cultures and experiences was one of the best ways to grow and evolve as an individual. A fantastic means of broadening your mind and your heart. We travelled to many incredible and beautiful countries, all special and unique in their own ways – but I’d have to say Japan left the biggest mark on me. I can’t wait to go back.
I can see on social media you’re very fashionable and love a good suit, what draws you to that kind of style?
Oh man. When I was a kid I used to listen to this British band called ‘The Horrors’. I thought those guys were the fucking coolest dudes in the world. At the time they were chest-deep in their manic heavy goth rock era, and they wore the skinniest suits with the pointiest winklepickers and the craziest of hair. I wanted to be just like them. Keith Richards was another one too. His pirate-rock vibe back in his young days was awesome. Johnny Depp as well. I was mainly influenced by men’s fashion that had either an elegantly dishevelled aesthetic or a heavily ambiguous tone. The love for suits, boots, dress shirts, animal prints, headscarfs and sterling silver jewellery never dissipated – if anything, it evolved over time and soon became what is now my style and staple look. Ambiguity has always been a present and solid core of both how I perceive myself and how present myself to others. It’s also a big part of my songwriting and soundscape. I like being that unassuming yet equally as transparent and straightforward phantom that glides seamlessly through life.
At only 25 you have won many awards and have even been nominated for a Grammy, how does it feel to gain this accreditation for your work?
It’s surreal. Sometimes when I reflect back on my musical career thus far, I am both surprised in one breath, yet equally as expectant in the other. I am extremely proud of how far I’ve come, and both thankful and grateful of each and every opportunity that has revealed itself to me thanks to the recognition these awards have given me.
They fuel my fire and continue to feed my hunger and drive to strive higher and evolve/progress further.
I recently was told I am to receive an award for reaching 1 billion streams for the latest remix of ‘In My Mind’. The original of which Feenixpawl, Ivan Gough, Axwell (of Swedish House Mafia) and myself released back in 2012. To think our song keeps breathing and evolving over the years is just beyond words. The latest remix by Dynaro was released last year and was even bigger than the original (which scored me my ARIA award, APRA awards and Grammy nomination in the first place). It’s just mad to see it still has so much life and relevance, even 8 years on and especially in this fast-moving and everchanging industry of electronic dance music. So yeah…1 billion streams. Crazy!
What was so special and personal about ‘Lone Wolf’ that you wanted to resurrect it in your own style?
‘Lone Wolf’ was the top fan favourite off my debut album ‘Where I Go To Disappear’, which I released in November, 2018. It’s an absolute crowd favourite and it also holds a very special and intimate place in my heart. All of the songs I wrote for that album do, but this one feels like a perfect representation of my soul in song form. So I wanted to pay my respects to it, and also give back to my fans (who are so incredibly supportive, loving and patient). I figured the idea of ‘reimagining’ the top fan favourites off the ‘WIGTD’ album and releasing them in their new yet familiar forms would be a cool way of tipping the hat to my prior work, yet also hinting to the notion of what’s to come from my sophomore album to follow.
My Brooklyn-based friend CD Player was the perfect match to help bring these ‘reimaginings’ to life. He is an insane producer and manipulator of soundscapes. He creates these worlds from thin air and adds these evocative and deeply profound soul-searching elements, layers and textures to his work. He’s a dreamweaver. We’re very similar in that respect. I’m not going to spill the beans on the remaining songs we are working on releasing to follow up ‘Lone Wolf (Reimagined)’, but I can tell you that there will be 3 others.
Your Lone Wolf album cover is your first with colour, what makes this a colourful track to you? Is this a new blossoming of Georgi?
It’s the first colour cover I’ve released since 2016 – back when I released my ‘Origins’ EP.
After that initial release I decided to go with black and white as that not only seemed to fit my light vs dark aesthetic but also just seemed to be where the natural ebb and flow of my evolution was guiding me. ‘WIGTD’ was all about the emphasis on the balance of light and dark, good and evil, wrong and right, etc. Whereas now I feel drawn to delve deeper into both my Self and my musical worlds I create. I want to explore the textures and colours of depth. Even though ‘Lone Wolf (Reimagined)’ – along with the other remaining 3 reimaginings yet to be released – are from that stark black and white era, they are hinting to a more intricately built and multi-dimensional, multi-layered body of work and direction.
The cover art for ‘Lone Wolf (Reimagined)’ is actually a drawing of one of my tattoos. Each reimagined song will be a different array of colours along with a different tattoo of mine that best represents the song it is paired with. All drawings were sketched up by my friend Weston Imhoff, who is an extremely talented tattoo artist based in San Francisco. The idea of releasing each reimagined fan favourite along with pairing it to its tattoo counterpart essentially is intended to act as a sort of easter egg for my loyal fans. It’s something they will notice and smile at, which is my way of saying “thank you for your love and support.” I don’t know what’s next. I’m letting go of planning and just enjoying the ride I’m on. The new songs are writing themselves as and when they so wish and the vision is slowly yet steadily becoming clearer and clearer. I know it will be colourful, and I know it will be deeply profound and soulful, but as to what direction it’s heading in musically I haven’t a clue.
It all circles back to ambiguity – just how I like it.
Go check out Georgi Kay on Spotify and Apple Music!
