Mikaela Straus, better known as 20-year-old gay, genderqueer New York artist King Princess, first blessed our Spotify and Apple Music playlists over a year ago with her debut single '1950'.
Since then, she’s released singles such as 'Talia' and 'Pussy Is God', her own EP 'Make My Bed', and has even featured on Mark Ronson’s newest album 'Late Night Feelings'. Now she’s back, ready for audiences to hear her debut album 'Cheap Queen'.
To begin, there’s one thing Mikaela wants everyone to know about her new record: “I f…ing love it and I’m so excited to share it with everyone and I really hope people take time to sit down and listen to the whole thing, because I wanna share with you what’s been going on.”
“It’s a story of someone who put out one song and then had a f…ing crazy, wild year following the release of my EP.
“It’s like everything changed, and I was completely out of my comfort zone, and I was in love, and I was floundering but also in this kind of bliss – and I was getting congratulated for everything, so there was a lot of bliss and joy but then so much deep, deep sadness and confusion, and I felt so lost.”
Image © Vince M. Aung
“There’s no book for it. You’re asked to be comfortable with all this stuff that’s completely absurd, and not really human; these things that they expect you to know how to do when you’re a public figure,” Mikaela reflects, “Like photoshoots and carpets and f…ing just going places, and being confident in yourself, and you have to be your own entity when you enter those rooms.
“I think I’d put all those things into practise in meetings and meeting people to work with but I’d never done it in a way where I was the face of it. And on top of all that I was kind of in the midst of this massive heartbreak.”
Mikaela decides to summarise the album in short, simply by saying: “It’s the entire cycle of a relationship and this past year, so the whole record is over the course of the year, chronologically.”
“I’ve been working since I finished the EP. I didn’t really stop writing. I try not to take months off, even when I finish,” Mikaela admits. “I feel like I’m always like 'oh f… I gotta go to the next thing', so I don’t know, I guess that I’ve been writing for a year or so.
“I ended up with like 40 songs, and I picked the ones that I felt like told the story of this album best and were the most emotionally-driven. That’s always important to me; which songs make my friends cry, which songs make me cry. I love thinking about that when I pick songs y’know.”
It doesn’t come as a surprise when Mikaela states, passionately, “['Cheap Queen'] is a broken-hearted record.”
“I tend to write about the women I love. It’s just what comes out. I wanna write honestly. I get gooped by women and then I wanna write about them, and you want that goopery, you want that goopery in your music.”
Among the heartbreak, Mikaela reflects on what she thinks are the not-so-bright tracks on 'Cheap Queen'.
“I think 'Watching My Phone' is the saddest and I also think 'Homegirl' is the saddest. I kind of fluctuate. Those are the two with the least amount of hope. I think that there’s other songs that are heart-wrenching but that have hope embedded within them, but those were two moments of complete 'giving up' on humanity.”
But never fear. . . Not all hope is lost. There are also a few tracks which aim to lift the listener up, creating something of a balance between ups and downs.
The artist says it's a wild ride of not only sadness, but also a sense of self-assurance.
Image © Vince M. Aung
“I think 'Homegirl' and 'Hit The Back' probably mean the most to me. 'Hit The Back' is kind of like one piece from this new chapter of my life, one song, and that’s supposed to be super hopeful – the kind of cherry on top of the record, the second-to-last track, it’s supposed to give a summation of, 'you can find love again, you always find love again'.”
Mikaela makes sure to mention you don’t have to be broken-hearted to listen.
“It really only matters that the people who wanna listen to it find it,” she concludes. “I want the listeners to need this music and want it, and they’re hungry for something different and interesting and emotional. Not every song f…ing blows up. . . And who the f… cares? If we’re gauging what it means to be a good musician by fame then it really has zero bearing on me.”
“This record is my baby. I think this is the best thing I’ve ever made.”
The artist has a pretty clear instruction on the ideal way to absorb 'Cheap Queen' in its entirety, so if you're wondering how best to consume the music, she's got the answer.
“I do want people to listen to it from A to Z, I think that’s hot, I think that’s very horny. I think you should sit down with a piping cup of tea, and a f…ing blunt and listen to my record.”
‘Cheap Queen’ is set for release 25 October.
This article first appeared on our sister site, FROOTY.
