Vulnerability With Volume
Kelsy Karter and The Heroines
Cris Cohen: The song “Wild.” It is very vulnerable, but it's vulnerability with volume. It's vulnerability with power. Which is kind of this fascinating contradiction. What does it feel like to sing that, to project it?
Kelsy Karter: Thank you for seeing it that way, because that's how it's meant to be seen. Going back to the whole “people trying to make you one thing,” I battled so much with my identity… very privately. People always have said how confident I am. “How are you so confident?” And “How do you just know who you are?” I've always had quite a strong will, but I've had identity issues like everyone else. That came from people telling me I couldn't be more than one thing. If I'm this rebel girl, I can't also be the crybaby. It's like you have to pick one. And it was me coming to terms with the fact that, no, I am all of those things.
I am masculine and feminine. I'm hard and soft. I'm tough as nails and I'm sad as hell. And that's okay.
And I say it on stage. People would tell you that if you're all of those things, you must be confused. But I'm not confused. I'm complex. And that helps me own all the parts of me.
That's what the album cover kind of represents, with the leather daddy on one side, naked me on the other side. It's like I am the character and I am the woman. You can be both of those things.
But to answer your question, it's fucking liberating. I just know who I am and I don't have time for anything else. Take it or leave it.
Kelsy Karter and The Heroines website: kelsykarterandtheheroines.com
Full transcript coming soon.