The self-described alt-pop anarchist Queeny King shares her latest track ‘Freak’ to hold up a mirror to the dark side of celebrity.
Queeny King – Freak
‘Freak’ is the latest release from LA’s Queeny King. Her previous single ‘She Wants to Kill Me” released in 2023 combined the 80’s style synth and drum effects of her 2020 debut ‘Freakshow’ with a spectral pop vocal. For ‘Freak’ the vocals have emerged from out of the shadows and loom large over a track that combines ’Halloween’ style tinkling sounds, an ominous marching beat, staccato keys, dark resonating synths and a rock guitar that adds menace.
These are all the elements of a track that could easily soundtrack a future episode of American Horror Story, either as the creepy signature intro or as the entrance song of a teenage witch. The song is to feature on screen in an upcoming film “The Spiritualization of Jeff Boyd” which King is co-starring in. Like the kohl-adorned kooky cousin of Katy Perry, this is cracked pop, melodic and accessible yet with a definite undertone of Disturbia. Of course, the artist is no stranger to flux. A nomadic upbringing originating in India and traversing numerous countries led to her and her siblings being signed in 1997, when she was 20, to EMI Germany as The King Family Band. And it is this time in her life that informs the new single; not just through her engendered character that bleeds into the style but also in its construction, the track produced and co-written by Uli Beck whom she has known since the beginning of the EMI Germany years.
The song deals with the ill effects of celebrity, a subject which the artist has personal experience of being married into a dynastic musical family (her husband Elijah Blue Allman, is the frontman of the band Deadsy and the son of Cher and The Allman Brothers’ Greg Allman). With the media spotlight beaming down on her family at the start of the year and aspersions cast against her character, ‘Freak’ is the barbed response and reaction to this: ‘Slap you in the face when I’m done cuz I’m a freak’. The song is a product of when she slipped back behind her veil of privacy to revitalise and recalibrate.
‘I have always wanted to keep my personal life private but after a crazy start to 2024, a lot of my privacy was lost. I took some time off this summer to be with my family and friends closest to me.’
What’s clear from Queeny King’s latest release is that she is navigating her way through a music career on her own terms, combining both past and present life experiences into an interesting and alluring style. There is pain but there is also pleasure. Ryan and Brad if you are listening.
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Words Andrew Gutteridge
