Anyone who follows my blog OR my Facebook page OR follows me on Twitter knows that I’m ride or die for 21-year-old hardware store clerk-turned moody electro-pop priestess, Kiiara. Now, FINALLY after months of teasing, we have her debut EP out and ready for consumption. That’s right, out of nowhere Kiiara announced on Saturday (via Twitter), the release of her debut EP, ‘Low Kii Savage‘ on March 22nd. Subsequent Tweets on Sunday revealed the Monday (March 21st) premiere of the singer’s latest track, “Hang Up Tha Phone,” on Zane Lowe‘s Beats 1 radio show, as well as the video premiere of “GOLD” (SEE BELOW). Things over in Kamp Kiiara APPEAR to be kicking into overdrive now and I couldn’t be more ready. Check out her string of Twitter announcements below.
ep coming 3/22 #lowkiisavage pic.twitter.com/Gg6TWqWe5X
— kiiara (@KIIARA) March 19, 2016
gold video coming 3/21 #lilkiikii pic.twitter.com/8q86yYbM5K
— kiiara (@KIIARA) March 20, 2016
listen to @zanelowe on @Beats1 tmrrw morning . ??. hang up tha phone
— kiiara (@KIIARA) March 21, 2016
Ever since she blew up the internet with her glitchy glitter-riddled debut “GOLD,” I’ve been following her every move as she proceeded to drop SMASH after SMASH after SMASH—first came “Gold“(later featured in an Apple Watch advert), THEN there was “Tennessee,” followed by a slow burner called “Feels,” which was then followed by “Intention.” Then, just 2 months ago Kiiara unveiled another little synth-scorcher; a mini-banger by the name of “Say Anymore” (which currently appears in a video promoting a new collaboration between Kendall Jenner and Calvin Klein).
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Now, as much as I loved getting all those little Kiiara teasers, as a music fan (including the most recent teaser, a FLAWLESS remix by Jai Wolf – ABOVE), it’s easy to get impatient. While you don’t want the artist to rush that creative process, you still want the instant gratification of having a collection of songs by that artist at your fingertips. Sure, there’s something to be said for taking it slow and getting it just right, especially an artist with as much potential as Kiiara. Hype can be a good thing, for sure, but it can also completely derail an artist’s pop trajectory if certain expectations aren’t met—both with fans and label bosses. Luckily, for Kiiara, expectations are continually being exceeded, with each subsequent release matching or exceeding the quality of the benchmark—”Gold.”
Speaking of—let’s discuss “Hang Up Tha Phone,” the very last of ‘Low Kii Savage‘ tracks to make its way online, by way of Zane Lowe‘s Beats 1 radio show. Zane was one of Kiiara‘s first mainstream supporters, in fact it was on his program that I first heard and fell in love with “Gold.” While Zane’s taste in music widely varies, I consider him to be one of the most influential musical tastemakers out there. In fact, after listening to him for years on Radio 1, I came on as a paying Apple Music subscriber solely for access to his show on Beats 1 (something I still pay for, DESPITE also paying for Spotify Premium). When Zane Lowe co-signs on someone—chances are they are, going to be—or at least SHOULD be—the next big thing. “Hang Up Tha Phone” is yet another fine-tuned Felix Snow-production, following in the same vein as previous synth stunners—”Gold,” “Feels” and “Say Anymore.” In fact, of the EP’s six tracks, Snow’s responsible for producing four of them fully, and co-producing “Feels” along with Brenton Duvall (“Intention,” was produced by Casper & B). While “Hang Up Tha Phone” doesn’t stray too far from the pack, sonically speaking, it certainly stands out on its own with Kiiara‘s wispy vocals darting in and out, over and under Snow’s complexly beautiful future-pop soundscape of electronic blips and pulses.
In addition to premiering a new track (“Hang Up Tha Phone“) Kiiara ALSO dropped her very first music video for the song “Gold,” premiering on The Fader late Monday afternoon. Decked out in a badass silver-studded leather jacket and loose pants adorned with—what looks like rose petals—Kiiara spends a majority of the video just SERVING fierceness. Whether she’s slapping a hot man with a face tattoo across the face, or sitting in a LUXE throne, surrounded by a gorgeous gang of gold-adorned models—one thing is clear and that is Kiiara is QUEEN. Atlantic Records spared no expense with this visual and I’m not complaining. Check out the video for “Gold” below.
Support for the raven-haired songbird has also been MASSIVE, both among critics and online fans who discovered her music organically. When I started following Kiiara on Twitter, she was well under 1,000 followers—now she has over 13,000 and that number is growing by the day. Even more impressive, many of those followers discovered her music before anything was available for purchase. Remember, “Gold” was only added to iTunes at the end of October last year after premiering on SoundCloud in June. Its pretty amazing to see how far Kiiara has come without much in the way of traditional promotion. “Gold” even went on to chart in Australia, peaking at No. 5 on the ARIA Singles Chart (it’s currently still in the Top 20). Pretty spectacular if you ask me. Now, let’s hope Atlantic lines up some live dates for Kiiara because I’m antsy to see her on stage. Kiiara‘s debut EP, Low Kii Savage is out now (iTunes / Spotify) via Atlantic Records.
*UPDATE* Following the release of her debut EP, Kiiara announced her first string of live dates, opening on select dates for UK electronic duo AlunaGeorge on their forthcoming headlining tour. In addition, Kiiara will be making her festival debut July 29th at this year’s MASSIVE 25th Anniversary Lollapalooza celebration in Chicago. The festival announced its lineup on Thursday, March 24th which includes headlining performances from Radiohead and LCD Soundsystem (among others). For a full list of Kiiara‘s upcoming tour dates, check out the poster above. low-koi excited to see her do her thing on a stage in front of people!