King Princess is set to release third album ‘Girl Violence’ on 12th September, and has shared a new track, ‘Girls’, following previous singles ‘RIP KP’ and ‘Cry Cry Cry’.
‘Girls’ addresses the pull of a toxic relationship, pairing raspy vocals with moody organ and 50s-style backing harmonies before breaking into a distorted guitar coda. King Princess puts it simply: “Girls. Bring me to my knees.”
Announced earlier this summer with a performance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and discussed in a recent New Yorker interview, ‘Girl Violence’ was made with Jacob Portrait (Lil Yachty, Alex G, Unknown Mortal Orchestra) and Aire Atlantica (SZA’s ‘Low’). The record charts Mikaela Straus stepping away from the major-label system, navigating a breakup, leaving Los Angeles, and returning to New York City, where she grew up.
“Girl violence is very sneaky,” Straus says. “It’s not physical, it’s deeply emotional, spiritual, and spooky. Women are both amazing and sinister—including myself—and it’s my curiosity to understand all the love, loss, and changes that come out of my love for women. Why are we so inclined to cause and receive chaos? If you’ve experienced even an iota of it, then you’ll have a story to tell. And these are mine.”
“I was not loving life, I didn’t feel grounded at all. I realized my feet were dangling for years,” she says of her end-stage time in LA. “Once I was back in the arms of the city I love, I started to feel easier and lighter about hard decisions that were actually in my best interest.”
“It’s about recognizing that we have an abundance of love in our life,” she says. “I don’t think I will ever lose the ability to stop loving or creating big loves. You can have crazy fallouts and breakups, but you aren’t incapable of loving, if anything, I think it makes you more capable.”
To mark the album’s arrival, King Princess will partner with selected tattoo shops run by women and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community across the US, Canada, Europe, LATAM, and Australia for a global flash event on Saturday, 13th September. Each shop will create custom flash sheets inspired by the album’s visuals; those getting tattooed will be entered into a raffle for prizes including signed vinyl and prints, ‘Girl Violence’ merchandise, and guest list spots for upcoming shows. King Princess, section1/Partisan, and participating shops will donate to local LGBTQ+ charities.
King Princess will tour North America through October and November before UK and European dates in December, including Brixton Electric in London on 9th December. Tickets are on sale now.
The tracklisting for ‘Girl Violence’ reads:
‘Girl Violence’
‘Jaime’
‘Origin Story’
‘I Feel Pretty’
‘Cry Cry Cry’
‘Get Your Heart Broken’
‘Girls’
‘Covers’
‘Say What You Will’
‘RIP KP’
‘Alone Again’
‘Slow Down and Shut Up’
‘Serena’
The dates read:
OCTOBER
3 Austin City Limits, Austin, TX, USA
10 Austin City Limits, Austin, TX, USA
25 Marathon Music Works, Nashville, TN, USA
26 Buckhead Theatre, Atlanta, GA, USA
28 The National, Richmond, VA, USA
29 Brooklyn Paramount, Brooklyn, NY, USA
31 9:30 Club (late show), Washington, DC, USA
NOVEMBER
1 Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2 House of Blues, Boston, MA, USA
4 HISTORY, Toronto, Canada
5 Royal Oak Music Theatre, Royal Oak, MI, USA
7 The Salt Shed, Chicago, IL, USA
8 Uptown Theater, Minneapolis, MN, USA
10 The Pageant, St. Louis, MO, USA
11 The Truman, Kansas City, MO, USA
13 Ogden Theatre, Denver, CO, USA
14 The Depot, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
16 Showbox SoDo, Seattle, WA, USA
17 Roseland Theater, Portland, OR, USA
19 The Regency Ballroom, San Francisco, CA, USA
21 House of Blues, Anaheim, CA, USA
22 The Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA, USA
DECEMBER
3 Vicar Street, Dublin, Ireland
5 Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow, UK
6 Beckett, Leeds, UK
7 New Century Hall, Manchester, UK
9 Brixton Electric, London, UK
13 La Madeleine, Brussels, Belgium
14 Le Trianon, Paris, France
16 Melkweg Max, Amsterdam, Netherlands
17 Astra, Berlin, Germany
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