"Although I didn't write this song, it spoke to me in a way that made me feel as if it was my own story,” Brandon said. “I found myself playing it over and over again in my bedroom, remembering situations that I've been through.”
Check out the video for yourself below.
What inspired Lilac Everything?
Once I started writing Lilac Everything, it kept falling out of me and the album was written in a pretty short amount of time. I was inspired by a more classic style of songwriting. One night, in Melbourne, I decided I would fly to Mexico. I was pretty lonely and sad at the time so I started writing the song "Mexico" and then booked my flights in the same hour. It was very impulsive, but one of the best decisions I’ve made. The song starts, “If I could paint a picture of myself tonight it would be the deepest shade of blue, half my face lit by the moon oh, so I’m going to book a flight to Mexico, ‘cause I just felt so lost I might as well be there you know’”... and then I was kind of like, ok I’ll do it, and it was great. I ended up writing most of the songs for the album. If you listen to "Mexico," you can tell I wrote half of it when I was sad in Melbourne and the other half when I was having a great time in Mexico.
Tell us about the creative process behind recording "Mexico."
The song was written fully on piano and was more ballady than it is now. In the studio, Tobias and I played around with the structure and we fell into that drop that happens halfway. It was so much fun. It all kind of happened with all of us in the room — Tobias, myself and the band. Because it was all recorded live, you can really feel the joy that we felt in the studio when we were making it. There was so much joy in making this track. It means a lot to me because the first verses are dark and heavy and talking about letting go of heartbreak and suffering and then all of a sudden there’s a release and it’s light and colorful and full of joy.
What is the meaning behind the title Lilac Everything?
When I’m not feeling like writing I paint. Around the time I made the album I’d been learning a lot about how to paint shadows. A good friend of mine who’s a painter told me that you can paint shadows by using different shades of purple or lilac. Then it was crazy, I just started seeing lilac everywhere, in all the shadows on the cement, roads and everything. Because shadows were a theme in the album - “Shadowman” — I thought it would be fitting.
How does "Mexico" play into the larger picture of your full album?
I think "Mexico" is a good introduction to the album. It starts off as what could end up being a nice ‘song song’ and then explodes into something different, colorful and full of tiny colorful surprises. It has that light and shade element that I think the rest of the album has. I feel like I wrote the album from a dark place and then somehow managed to attract so much light and ultimately it’s that mixture that really satisfied me in expressing myself in it.
What has working with Tobias Jesso Jr. brought to this single/album?
I first heard Tobias’ song on triple j in Australia. I was so inspired by his album Goon because he was writing classic sounding songs, and I hadn’t felt there was a place for that style of songwriting in our world anymore. It was so real and raw and every part of me was inspired. It gave me permission to write the songs I wanted to write. When I met Tobias and showed him my songs I think we both had lots of the same feelings and instincts around songwriting so it made sense that he were to produce my album and I was ultimately just so grateful that he wanted to do it. The whole process of making the album was magical.
How will you spend your time after the release of Lilac Everything?
Well I have a farm in Australia and it’s very hard to leave, but I will play some shows and give all I can to this album because I really believe in it. After that, I want to get some baby lamb and cows and start an artist retreat/songwriting camp in Australia - which is going to be so much fun. I’ve been living in LA and Australia - going to and fro – and I’m enjoying writing songs for other people and trying to get into that world. Writing songs for other people is very exciting to me at the moment.
What inspired you to start rapping?
My father was a rapper. But he didn’t really take it serious. He did it just to do it. So I was always listening to music growing up.
Where did the name Kidd Kenn come from?
I always had the name “Kid." It wasn’t a nickname or anything, it was just always what I called myself. “Ken” came from the idea of Nicki Minaj’s “Barbie." But I couldn’t be Barbie cause I’m a boy, so I was like I’ll be Ken.
What was your experience with coming out?
Okay, so I knew this boy, right. At the time, he was 17, so it was like a year or two ago. We took a picture together, we don’t date or nothing, but I guess it looked like we were dating so I was like fuck it, I’m just gonna post it. So it was up on Instagram for no longer than 10 minutes, and then it just kinda went off like that.
Do you think being gay and growing up in Chicago helped you or hurt you in your process to becoming an established artist?
I think it helped me a little bit. But nothing is forced. I’m gonna do whatever makes me comfortable, because I want to and because I like it.
In a recent interview, you said, “Everyone is talking about the same shit." How would you define your message as unique from that?
Be who you wanna be. Cause everyone else is trying to be somebody else. Create your own path, don’t follow anyone else’s.
Is that your motto? Where did you find such a strong sense of self?
My grandma. Her name was Linda, she passed. She taught me how to be myself and just not to care about what other motherfuckers think.
Could you tell me a bit about some of the popular remixes you’ve done so far and how you tweak them to make it your own?
So I did "Gummo" around the time it was poppin’. With "Slide," I was playing around in school with all the girls, cause I get all the girls in school, and the boys was singing the song and me and the girls started singing, “It’s a faggot party," cause I’m the only gay one out of the group. So my friend begged me to make it into a song.
So do your friends have a lot of influence on the kind of music you like to produce?
Yeah, it depends. My music comes from what the kids like. So whatever the kids like, that’s what I’m gonna follow to stay up.
How was prom?
It was fun! Actually, let me stop lying. The only fun part about prom was dressing up and taking pictures. We went to the actual prom event and it wasn’t fun. The food was so bad.
What did they serve?
First, we had salad. Then they brought us chicken and it wasn’t all that. The skin on the chicken fell off easy. I was like nuh uh. So afterwards, I went to McDonald's.
Who did you bring?
Somebody actually took me to prom. A lot of people asked me, but I didn’t know if I was gonna go forreal. I told her yes and I didn't want to let her down, so I was like I'm gonna go and make sure you have a nice prom. I wore a suit, I looked like a little boy. Half my head was red, half was black, and it matched her dress.
What’s your favorite social media app?
I go between Facebook and Instagram. I like Snapchat too. I was at my friend’s house one day and I was finna make a Snapchat video and as soon as I start, this boy texted me like “Yo” with the half smile emoji. So I’m like his ass is texting me and he told me he liked girls, what is he doing texting me? I posted the video of me reacting on Facebook and it got 700,000 views. After that, I started taking rapping seriously. I rapped over "Slide" in the car and it went viral. Then everything started buzzing - Instagram, Facebook, everything.
On social media you mentioned that your goal was “to be the first openly gay rapper to hit mainstream.” How do you plan to achieve that?
Out rapping everybody.
Anyone in particular that you’re coming for?
I think it’s just me. It’s just everybody, and I see an open lane where I can just go straight to the top and that’s what I’m doing - going straight to the top.
What’s your next step in taking over the world?
I got a new project coming out.
Do you know the name yet?
Yes. It’s called Childish. It’s all about me being childish and doing stuff a kid would do, but in a mature way.
“It’s a cricket,” Longstreth explains earnestly.
“Oh,” I say. “A cricket?”
“Yeah, a cricket,” he says a little more loudly.
“Hm,” I nod.
But before I can convince myself that a cricket is some strange Bjorkian Ableton plug-in, Longstreth explains, “She recorded this movie on her iPhone of a Japanese cricket chirping and sent it to me. It just worked with the song.”
Lamp Lit Prose comes 18 months after the Dirty Projectors’ seventh, self-titled album — their first release since Longstreth and long-time band member Amber Coffman’s public break and her subsequent departure on a solo career. That record was concept-driven, meditative, and read so widely by the media as a “breakup album” that it seemed as if iTunes would have to change the record’s genre tag from “Alternative” to “Breakup.” After that album was put out in the world, Longstreth was ready to move on. “I was never gonna tour on the self-titled album because it would be depressing. It would be difficult.. The self-titled record has an arc to it. It starts out pretty salty and emotionally devastated, but bends towards forgiveness, redemption. I thought performing it night after night…” Longstreth looks down at his drink. “I was just ready to be done with it.”
The bar we’re at is projecting old Buffy episodes on the wall, and we’re constantly taking breaks from our conversation to comment on Buffy’s outfits and exploits. As I’m asking Longstreth what genre he thinks the record might fit into, Buffy sparks a match off of one demon’s ear and lights his monster friend on fire. “Lighting a match off a demon’s ear,” Longstreth says, turning back to me. “That’s the genre.”
Which, honestly, makes sense. Lamp Lit Prose is full of flashing indie music bops — the kind that propelled Dirty Projectors into a higher stratosphere of fame when they released “Stillness is the Move” nearly a decade ago. “It’s sort of an anti-breakup album,” I think out loud, and Longstreth agrees. It’s what you write after you’ve been holed up in your Netflix dungeon for a month crying and eating sour straws, then finally decide to go out in the sunlight. There’s no definable narrative, no arching conceptual framework; instead, we’re offered wildly upbeat tracks that Longstreth describes as “extroverted and uplifting.” Recorded with the help of collaborators like Syd, HAIM, Empress Of, and, of course, Bjork’s iMessages, Lamp Lit Prose is easily consumed, (sometimes overly) airy, but filled with the weighty, poetic lyrics that Longstreth has become well-known for.
The most engaging aspect of Lamp Lit Prose isn’t the features or twisting melodies or even cricket mp3s, but the layered vulnerability of Longstreth’s voice. Having written for Solange on A Seat at the Table, Kanye on "FourFiveSeconds," Joanna Newsom, Bombino, and Grizzly Bear, Longstreth can pinpoint what another musician’s project needs to perfectly come to life (Bjork has lauded him for his “almost psychic ability to write for other voices”). However, Longstreth admits to me that he is sometimes “reluctant to write music that would belong in [his] own voice,” that he feels he has a “blind spot for what that is or would be.” And you can hear that on Lamp Lit Prose — not in the sense that his vocals are half-formed or somehow incomplete, but that when he delivers a note, it is with careful, incendiary precision.
On standout track, “That’s a Lifestyle,” Longstreth sings, “And the monster eats its young / till they’re gone, gone, gone / Till it's satisfied and done / It wants blood, blood, blood.” When I ask Longstreth where he drew inspiration for the lyrics, I expect him to bring up Godzilla or Beowulf, but instead, he explains that the song is about “the reality of life in America and systemic violence, and legislated oppression.”
I push him — “Do you think all of the tracks are political?”
“I mean, yeah,” he says. “Art inevitably interacts with politics and culture. Of course, all this stuff was around before Trump. But he’s put a really disgusting face to it. By and large these songs are just about connecting with the stuff you believe in. The stuff that gives me positivity and heartens me. Gives me hope.”
In the background, Buffy rams a stake through a vampire’s heart and laughs. She’s kept the monsters at bay — at least until the next episode — and suddenly the photographer has to whisk Longstreth away for their shoot. Lamp Lit Prose is starkly bright music for a morally vacuous moment in society. It can’t defeat any Trumpian bloodsuckers, but it might cheer you up a bit as you sit on the subway, glowering at the old dude across from you who’s wearing a blood-red MAGA cap.
Lamp Lit Prose is out July 13 via Domino Records.
