Idols & Vices: Ask Me Anything!
Hosting a Q+A July 7.
The word is out… I made a new album!
Introducing!
IDOLS & VICES, VOL. 1
Now that you’re part of my newsletter you’re going to get all the updates and insights around this release! I can’t wait to share more with you about this very special project I’ve been working on for (believe it or not) the last four years.
Last week I released the first song “Right To The Head (Intro)” with a wild animation by Greg Sharp from Truba Animation. He’s a fellow Kiwi who made this insane video for the band Unknown Mortal Orchestra and he has put together 14 otherworldly visuals for every song on the record. I will be rolling out one song each week until the album drops in it’s entirety on September 25th.
You can watch the first animation below!
The full album is available for pre save here!
I can’t believe I’m already back into another album campaign. I’ll be sharing a lot more about how I got here in the upcoming live event (more on that below!) but in a nutshell — while I was writing my last record “A Reckoning” I encountered a creative problem that required a creative solution. I was writing so many songs during COVID (depression and a world pandemic will do that) yet not all of them were fitting into the same sound space. I wanted “A Reckoning” to feel very focused sonically and thematically. Some of the songs I was writing felt like they were leaning more heavily into my hip hop / R&B influence and they deserved their own moment - separate to “A Reckoning.”
While listening to all the songs one day, I had a brainwave: why don’t I just make another album at the same time?
The other album can include all the songs that don’t fit on "A Reckoning.” I’ll create a simultaneous world that will center around a whole different concept. When I get bored of “A Reckoning" and become disillusioned with it (this is inevitable after all) then, SNAP, I’ll just work on the other one for a bit!
As I started building “Idols & Vices, Vol. 1” it became clear that the record had some strong central themes that were very different to “A Reckoning.” It largely revolved around collaboration for example and my voice felt less confessional and more mysterious. This record gave me a chance to build an entirely new world where I could reinvent myself alongside some of my best friends. Even before the animations came to life, I knew this album would feel more psychedelic and surreal. Since “A Reckoning” was so vulnerable and revealing, I was able to put back on the armour and fanfare when I worked on this record. It was my little secret. While “A Reckoning” rolled out, I knew I had a whole new record right round the corner that no one knew about. It was a great way to stay playful.
Last week I revealed the tracklist for the album and the vibrant cast of characters featured across the songs:
Thematically, Idols & Vices explores the increasingly complex realm of our digital existence. The songs delve into concepts like identity reinvention, toxic celebrity worship and the eventual disillusionment that follows. The protagonist journeys through a dark online abyss full of demi gods and the pursuit of more, more, more at the expense of our sanity. The characters slowly come to awaken and remember their connection to true self and return back to a state of presence.
In the world of Idols & Vices, there are eyes that bind like tethers and idols that grow hungrier as you feed them, not full.
I first started exploring these themes in early Substack posts with posts like "To No Applause” and “An Experiment in Presence.” I spoke to the finger that points outward insisting that enlightenment exists out there, in the adoration of a crowd, in the lonely eyes of a performer on a pedestal — worshipped, cherished and devoured.
Celebrity has always fascinated me. It both intrigues me with its promise of influence and breaks my heart with the people it steals too soon.
Upcoming Event!
So now, for the important news! I am thrilled to announce that it’s time for the quarterly Zoom meet-up for my members subscribed at the Koru level (aka Founding Member.) Have you been thinking about upgrading to a paid membership? Maybe at the Koru tier? If so, now is the perfect time to do so.
On Saturday July 7, I will be hosting an “Ask Me Anything” specifically related to the new album, “Idols & Vices, Vol. 1.”
Anyone can post questions below in the comments section but if you want to hear the answer live at the event you’'ll have to be subscribed to The Koru (note: this is the tier above the standard paid subscription) so you can join and listen in!
If you feel like it could be life-giving and valuable for you to be part of The Koru, you can do that by going to “Manage Subscriptions” in your Settings then search for this Substack and click ‘Change’ and select “The Koru.”
Here’s instructions on how to do it or you can also click here to start that process.
I’m so appreciative to all of you!
The event will be taking place on :
Sunday July 7 at 6pm EST / 3pm PST and 8am AEST / 10am NZT (Monday July 7)
I cannot wait.
I’ll be sending out reminders leading up to the event but for now, get your Koru subscription set up, mark your calendars and don’t forget to post your questions below in the comments section!
I’ll be reading them all : )
Till next time,
Kia ora Kimbra! Every time you put out some new music, I can't help but go back and rinse your past albums! For some reason listening to "Stuff I Don't Need" I felt a lot of resonances sonically with some older tracks - sometimes just very short phrases, flickers of sounds or even just triggering a really specific but amorphous feeling. I don't want to project onto your work, but I was wondering if sometimes you pick up threads from previous work and explore them in different ways? Or how you understand your body of work, whether this changes over time? (also hi from a fellow ex-hillcrest high schooler tehehe)
Speaking as an illustrator myself, I have found the artwork for Idols & Vices to be absolutely enthralling. Paired with the music, the art itself seems to posses a much more potent connection to the viewer/listener. At least it did for me! From what I’ve seen so far, the amount of creativity on display has been incredible. It’s been a treat to behold, and I want to spend as much time as I can exploring it.
Visual art and music both have a way of changing over time despite not changing at all. You could look at one painting every day for a week and still see something new in it if you’re really looking for it. Music of course does the same, and we can hear new things in songs that we’ve heard a million times, or have a new feeling be evoked by that same song depending on our mindset when we listen to it. When those two things are paired together, they build off one another in such incredible ways.
I think my favorite medium for art is the graphic novel since illustrations are such a powerful vehicle for storytelling, but obviously they lack a soundtrack. When reading a graphic novel, I can think of the music in my head, but of course that music wasn’t originally meant to be put alongside the story I’m seeing unfolding on the page. It makes me want to go out and MAKE something like that of my own. My love for illustration started with watercolor painting and the has evolved into graphic novel styled illustrations using graphite and ink, so to see those kinds of art used here inspires me so much!
My question(s) then is: Was the decision to incorporate this kind of art into this album something you had decided on early on, or did it evolve from a single piece of art initially? Did the art inspire the music or vice versa? Has your own growth with watercolor painting been a source of inspiration for this album and its artwork?