Photo Credit: Andrew Stevens

Critically-acclaimed pop-provocateur Kady Rain is thrilled to share “Got Away,” the lead single from the Austin, TX-based artist’s self-titled debut album. Set for release on January 21, 2022, Kady Rain marks an evolution for the captivating, talented up-and-comer. On “Got Away,” Rain grabs the power back with a defiant statement of purpose, while singing in her signature snarl “You were leaving me, now I’m leaving you. Glad I’m the one that got away.”

Speaking on the origins of the song, Rain writes: “I recorded ‘Got Away’ with Frenchie Smith and the band at The Bubble in April 2021. We let him work his magic on the production end, and I helped with components of the musical composition, along with the rest of the band. This song is so different from the other songs I’ve released in the past, and I wanted to showcase my range as an artist to show that pop artists can be punk, too. I really love this song and it’s definitely inspired by me listening to the Josie and the Pussycats movie soundtrack on repeat in fifth grade.”

Tell us about the story of your act

I’ve been singing and dancing since I was a little girl and always dreamed of being a pop star. I was in theater and choir all throughout grade school, and in high school I started performing in bands, but it wasn’t until 2014 that I started pursuing music seriously. I was in a really terrible and abusive relationship from January to May of 2014 and it culminated with my boyfriend trying to kill me. I was in the hospital for 10 days, and when I got out I couldn’t work, I had to move out of the place I had where he was staying with me, and I pretty much lost almost everything, including my life. I was living at my mom’s house and one night I was laying down in the driveway looking up at the stars, and I asked the universe what my purpose on this Earth was. The immediate answer was music. From that moment forward, music became an all-consuming passion, and I’ve been writing songs and building my team ever since! I’ve grown from pretty much doing this all by myself to having a team of people, a manager, multiple different producers that I work with, a full band, and even backup dancers, that help me to execute my vision and bring the ideas in my head to life.

What is the message behind your art? 

I want to make music that inspires people to speak their truth. For so long I thought my story didn’t matter, for so long I didn’t speak up about the abuse that I endured through so many of my relationships, and I didn’t talk about my struggles, because I didn’t think anyone would care. But I knew my story was important to tell to inspire others that they can overcome and I’m proud to say that I have heard from fans and listeners of my music that my songs have helped them through their own struggles. I also dress crazy and colorful and have crazy hair because I want to inspire others to express themselves fully, as well. After almost every show people come up to me and say “I love your outfit/your hair, but I could never do that because x, y, z” and I just flat out refute that denial, I tell them they can dress however they want and be whoever they want to be. Basically, I want to inspire other people to be brave enough to be their full and true selves!

What are some sources of inspiration for your lyrics and storytelling?

My dad is a writer and poet and has a masters both in English as well as dream interpretation using the Jungian method. I learned to read when I was 3, and my dad started helping me write down my dreams and write poems and songs probably since I was around that same age, around 3 or 4. I wrote silly little songs but I wrote lots and lots of poetry, and my dad was definitely a huge inspiration for my writing style. My poems eventually started becoming songs when I was around 13. At that time I was obsessed with the song “Horses” by Patti Smith, so I wrote several songs that were in that kind of stream of consciousness morphing into super hooky danceable songs. But I grew up listening lots and lots of pop music. I really loved The Spice Girls and Britney Spears, I was super into N*SYNC and Eiffel 65…I pretty much listened to nothing but big commercial modern pop radio until I was in about 4th grade, and then I started getting into my dad’s record collection and started listening to older stuff, but the majority of my childhood I was just listening to the radio, so those super catchy pop songs of the 90s and 2000s were really big inspirations for my songwriting as well.

Who is an artist that you look up to more than others today?

I think Kesha is an incredible artist and I relate to her story and struggle all too well. Her talent and strength is an inspiration to me, and I hope I can meet her one day to tell her thank you.

What was the record or artist that changed your life?

The artist that made me want to be a singer and perform was Selena Quintanilla. I first heard her music right after she passed in 1995, when I was 5 years old. I heard Bidi Bidi Bom Bom and that was it for me. I had all of her albums, even all of the Spanish ones, when I didn’t know a word of Spanish. I obsessed over her, I drew pictures of her from her album covers and wrote down her lyrics phonetically and kept all of my drawings in a Selena scrapbook. My mom even made me a costume of her purple outfit from the Houston Astrodome concert and I was Selena for Halloween of 1997. She inspired me to sing, she inspired me in fashion, she inspired me to learn Spanish, to dance…Selena is truly one of my biggest heroes. 

Tell us about your latest release and how it came about

Got Away is the first single off of my debut album. It’s a song about breaking up with a toxic person and realizing that you were the lucky one for leaving. It’s full of piss and vinegar and I absolutely love it, and that’s why I chose it as a single. Got Away is vastly different from all of my previous releases and that’s a good thing! With this song I got to showcase that I’m not just a cookie cutter pop girl, I can do punk too, and “pop music” can be from many different genres. Got Away was first written at Morgan’s house during a songwriting session along with my boyfriend, Chris Jones in November 2020. Morgan started playing a super fun pop punk riff on bass and the lyrics just started coming out of me. Both Chris and Morgan helped in tightening up the lyrics and within an hour the song was done! During the first practice session for another song on the album, Crooked, with the band, we showed Frenchie a couple other new songs we had written to see what he thought. We played him Got Away and he immediately said he wanted to work on that one too. The band and I worked in practice with Frenchie to get everything right before it was time to record, and we recorded Got Away alongside Crooked in April 2021. I really love this song and it’s definitely inspired by me listening to the Josie and the Pussycats movie soundtrack on repeat in 5th grade, haha. 

My album altogether is a culmination of the last 7 years of my songwriting journey. There are songs that I wrote more recently, like in the last two years, but there are also a couple songs that I have been working on for years but never got the chance to release. One of the songs, It’s Over, was actually one of the first songs I wrote when I started this project back in the summer of 2014, but wasn’t released until now!

You seem to be fusing several musical genres. What inspires your sound?

Literally everything inspires my sound! Growing up, I listened to all kinds of music. My dad loved David Bowie, The Sex Pistols, and The Beatles, and my mom listened to a ton of The Dixie Chicks (now known as The Chicks) and country radio. I grew up listening to pop, rock, punk, country, dance, electronic, indie, hip-hop and rap…I listened to everything and I am inspired by everything as well.

How would you want people to feel while listening to your music?

Literally if people feel anything at all when they listen to my music I’ve accomplished something. If one of my upbeat pop songs makes them smile and want to dance and sing along, and then put it on repeat and listen again, I’ve accomplished my mission. If one of my ballads makes them cry, awesome. If Got Away makes them want to scream and break shit, hell yeah. The best thing for me is when my music makes people feel something, makes them relate, makes them make connections to other songs they’ve heard or experiences they’ve had in their own life. If someone, anyone, even one person, connects with my songs on any deeper level than just saying “oh that’s a good song,” that’s incredible to me.

Where are some things you really want to accomplish as an artist?

As far as my minimum goals, I want to be able to be full-time music. I want to be able to quit my day job and have my music pay my bills and never have to work a regular job again. That’s truly a dream for me. But far reaching goals? All of the big things? Oh, the list of things that I would like to accomplish are limitless. I’m aiming for the stars. I don’t want to put specific goals out there though, because people might doubt me and make it more difficult for me to put that energy out into the universe haha, but I have big goals and big dreams, but if I can become a full-time musician, I would be satisfied.

What inspires your style?

Just like my music taste, my style and inspirations for my sense of fashion come from EVERYWHERE. When I was growing up, I wore your basic kid clothes of the 90s but also played dress-up a whole lot and had a whole bucket of costume clothes that I would wear. From 4th-6th grade I was the ultimate tomboy and I wore a white t-shirt, blue jean bell bottoms, and a blue bandana covering my hair pretty much every day. I hated fashion, and I especially hated dressing like a girl. But then I grew out of that in middle school and started dressing weird. From 7th-10th grade I wore fairy wings every single day, everywhere. To school, out and about, at home, everywhere. I think I had 14 different pairs. I also wore different colored and patterned tights in multiple layers, even in the hot Texas summers. Then, I was inspired by the emo/rave/Japanese street styles, anything alternative, I was into it. I think my biggest thing really is color. I love wearing clothing that is bold and bright and loud and can’t be ignored.

Was there ever a moment when you felt like giving up?

TW: thoughts of suicide

Oh, there have been plenty of moments! I almost didn’t even get started! In May 2014 I was hospitalized the first time when my ex tried to kill me, but then I was hospitalized a second time in October 2014 and spent another 10 days in the hospital. I even had family members telling me I needed to give up on my stupid music and get my life together. But I just never stopped. That second hospitalization was a wake-up call and the beginning of my journey of sobriety and getting properly medicated for my mental illness. Since getting sober and being medicated, it’s gotten a lot easier just living with myself from day to day, but I still struggle from time to time. Honestly, once I knew in my mind that music was what I wanted to do, it’s what’s fueled me through these past 7 years and what will continue to drive me through the rest of my life. I’ve had a couple of really bad, dark days where I wanted to end it all, but I have a really strong support system and mental health professionals that have helped me stay. I don’t think I’m going anywhere anytime soon.

What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?

My Pepaw, my father’s father, was a veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam wars. He was in the battle of the Chosin Reservoir and was one of only a few in his troop who survived. He hid underneath dead bodies for days to not be bayoneted by Chinese soldiers, got frostbite in his feet, and had to walk miles and miles through icy cold water to finally get to safety. When asked how he made it, he always said that he “just put one foot in front of the other.” When I’m having rough days, or when I wonder if I should keep going, I remember to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving, no matter how slow and no matter how painful it might be.

Where do you think the next game changer will be in the music industry and entertainment scene?

I think that artists from the POC and LGBTQ+ communities are taking over and I am absolutely here for it. It is way past due to have out and proud pop stars and having representation and diversity in music and entertainment. We’ve needed this for a really long time but I think that it’s going to blow up soon and I’m so excited to be a part of that change!