To quote Thomas Fuller: it is always darkest before the dawn. But we heed Harvey Dent from the 'Dark Knight Rises' when Dent adds: "And I promise you, the dawn is coming."
In our darkest moments, the perfect chords, beats and lyrics have the power to fundamentally change the world, because they speak to the inarticulate emotions we are grappling with. Music has the power to transport us, to tap into the veins of millions, breaking hearts, affecting change and inspiring hope.Released as an inspired isolation collaboration by KLP and Commandeur, 'Feel The Love' is the anthem the world needs right now; to heal and emerge from a chrysalis to the butterfly of hope in a brave new world. It is the promise 'the dawn is coming'.
Utilising Commandeur's drumming skills and flair for penetrating beats with thick, organic, orchestral textures alongside KLP's songwriting ingenuity and halcyon vocals, it's an incredibly compelling vocal house track with a profound message.
“When Tim and I were writing it,” Kristy Lee Peters – the artist behind the KLP moniker – discloses, “we had this idea we wanted it to be this genre ’cry rave’ – where you cry it out on the dance floor. That’s how we feel right now in real life.”
With many years on the stage between Commandeur and KLP, this is the first song they have written and recorded together. “I remember that day vividly,” KLP recalls of the session.
“When I turned up, I already had the idea of writing about ‘Feel The Love’ as the concept – where everything is changing and we don’t know what’s happening, but we have to find something positive. I had the idea, so the song came about really quickly as we were writing.”
KLP has certainly come a long way since '90s girl group Real Blondes, but she’s successfully managed to navigate the highs and the lows of the music industry, now balancing her music career with life as a new mother.
KLP has enjoyed a ubiquitous career as a triple j radio presenter for ‘House Party’. We may also find her live streaming on a Friday night, spinning the wheels of steel from her kitchen bench.
But these are merely the cherries atop a vast layer of artistry as an illustrious singer-songwriter and producer, where KLP once penned a massive, global publishing deal with BMG, paired to some of the biggest names in music, from Skrillex to What So Not and The Presets.
The future of Australian pop can comfortably lie in the hands of a singing DJ-producer with the mastery of writing a prodigious track and the modest charm of a magnetic personality.
“It all started out from the intention that I love performing,” KLP points out. “I love entertaining. Even from the young age when I was first signed, it happened when I turned up for an audition – not even knowing what it was for, but wanting to be on stage.
“I think that’s carried through my career. Being on triple j came to me almost as an accident. These ‘accidents’ happen and I can only say yes to them because of the years and years of experience and practice I’ve had.
“I never studied radio, but I studied drama, acting and music – general performing,” KLP muses. “I already had the skills – though I didn’t know I did.
“Then I started DJing because I liked controlling the music at house parties I was at. It was something I liked to do and was something I could do. Singing and songwriting was definitely intentional from a young age, but everything else that has come along has been part of the gig.
“It does come from my dad being a songwriter,” KLP recalls. “I grew up with a studio at home, watching him and listening to him writing songs – that is definitely deep within my soul.
“The first year I was signed to a publisher, I wrote close to 100 songs. I don’t write those numbers now, but you have to write a lot of sh.t songs to come to something that’s good. I’ve just had a lot of practice. I still don’t think I’m the best. But every time, I learn something.
“I think I’m also just really resilient. I’ve been doing this for a long time. That’s not to say it’s been easy. It can be easy to compare yourself to others, like ‘this person has been going at it for two years and had all this success’.
“But then I realise that’s not my journey; it’s not my artist trajectory. The more I do things, the better I get at picking myself up and just going for it and not caring what people think.
“Having that attitude makes it easy to walk into a room with someone like Skrillex. You care, but you are confident enough in yourself to go ‘this is cool, I can handle it’.
“Life has really changed across the last year,” KLP notes, referencing her experiences as a new mum. “Then, I had the luxury of time. But now, I have such a small window of time to write.
“I have absolutely no space to question myself and overthink it, which is a really great way of allowing yourself to be censored. When you have no time to overthink it, you let it go, so I try to be present and let the ideas flow out.”
With this brave, new world upon us, what does KLP think this means for the future of music? “If anything, there will be more,” she asserts.
“People have been making the most music they’ve ever made, so there’s going to be so much amazing music coming out. It will be interesting to see how the live side of music develops or returns – I really hope it comes back,” KLP discloses.
“For so many musicians – myself included – performing is our main source of income. We rely on this food chain of performing to fund releasing a song. But that’s part of this roller-coaster ride not knowing what the future is and having no control over it.
“There are positives,” KLP reflects. “I’ve also had a collaboration with Stace Cadet come out: ‘Energy’.”
Released in April, the Sydney-Melbourne collaboration is a slamming club track, replete with intensely acute beats, frenetic electronic bass lines and charming vocal lines.
Entering the Top 5 viral charts on Spotify and Top 5 Shazam Charts in Australia, ‘Energy’ is an undulating musical journey that will tear up virtual dance floors from lounge rooms the world over. “It’s been great and such a nice distraction to keep me positive,” KLP muses.
“But ‘Feel The Love’ is very different. Tim and I love the song and its message.”
A true synergistic effort uniting the best in local triple j alumni, the track’s artwork was created by Australian artist illustrator and musician Mark Harding with Andy Mac producing and mixing and a plethora of local voices for the chorus. “Andy Mac wanted to be a part of this and loved the message,” KLP reveals.
“And Mark was releasing these artworks every day that were just so beautiful,” KLP notes of Harding’s COVID PSA artwork series across Instagram.
“Just little things that were glimmers of hope amongst all the uncertainty. They were helping me get through, so we hit him up because we were loving the art he was doing.
“We also had a bunch of musicians to sing the big chorus at the end too. It was such a nice process of great people coming together to make it out of a shitty situation. It just felt like it all connected.
“It’s normal to feel so many emotions. I’ve felt anxious, angry, sad – so many different emotions throughout. It’s easy to be hard on yourself and think things could be worse: but everything is relative and affects everyone in so many different ways.
“If you realise it’s ok to feel wildly emotional, everyone can take that away and find the positives. We just wanted to find a glimmer of hope,” KLP states.
“We want to feel good, but we also want to cry because this is all types of f...ed up. Hopefully, people can connect with that: that it’s ok to cry it out. We can all cry it out on the dance floor together.”
