INTERVIEW: K.Flay Reveals Song Meanings on 'Crush Me' | Track By Track

For K.Flay, what started off as rapping for fun during college at Stanford University has turned into a full-blown music career, and is now the first artist signed to Dan Reynolds' (Imagine Dragons) Night Street Records Imprint, and with Interscope Records. The 31-year-old singer/songwriter from Wilmet, Illinois, real name Kristine Flaherty, just released her EP Crush Me, which features four songs -- including her first single to ever land on the US Billboard Alternative chart, "Blood In The Cut." She will also be out on tour this fall in the U.S. and Canada, which you can learn more about here.

K.Flay recently told us about her new EP when she recently stopped by iHeartRadio HQ in New York City during an exclusive interview. She also told us about how she ended up being the first artist signed to Night Street Records.

[Buy Crush Me on iTunes]

On how she was signed to Dan Reynolds' Night Street Records

"Connecting up with Dan happened totally unexpectedly. I was out in Nashville working on music with a guy named JT Daly, who actually I worked on three of the songs of the EP with, and JT's manager is Dan's brother. It just so happened we were gearing up for an independent release, and then Dan got in contact with me, and he and I started chatting. We're very aligned in our orientation of music and creativity, and how we want to be as people, and as I got to know him and the way that they run things in his family and vice versa, it was a great friendship and partnership. I put out this first release with him, and it's been really cool, because I think he has an understanding of very high level stuff in terms of being an international commercial crazy popular act, but he's super in touch with all the DIY aspects of music that are so important to me, too. It's been really good."

K.Flay also revealed the meaning behind each song on Crush Me. She explained what each song is about, what inspired the lyrics, and what they mean to her.

Check out our interview with K.Flay where she breaks down the meaning of her songs on her Crush Me EP below:

Track 1: "Blood in the Cut"

"'Blood in the Cut' started as a breakup anthem. I wrote the lyrics and the riff in 20 minutes, and I was actually at home for Christmas, so I was in my parents' basement doing that. I was in a somewhat dark emotional place. I wrote that, and I immediately felt filled with this vigor that I had previously been missing. And then producing the song, just embracing that spirit of release in the chorus."

Track 2: "Hollywood Forever"

"I just moved to LA about five months ago, and I had been thinking about this idea of our image and how we interact with that right now, because I think it's very complicated and has never been this complicated ever. And then I was driving down Santa Monica passing this cemetery in Los Angeles called Hollywood Forever Cemetery. I was like, 'That's a good title for a song.' Then I was just thinking about celebrity and notoriety, and how we look at ourselves."

Track 3: "Dreamers"

"'Dreamers' is a song I wrote for myself, a bit just as a reminder. I have a lot of friends who are artists and do creative things, but I also have a lot of friends who don't, and sometimes I look at a more mainstream lifestyle, and I'm like, 'What am I doing? I did it all wrong.' I think in order to be creative as your profession, there needs to be a little voice inside you spurring you to continue, despite your own doubts and the doubts of others, and whatever obstacles may come. That song was me talking to myself saying this life and your reality is whatever you make it and it's whatever you strive for it to be. It's a reminder to keep dreaming, keep going."

Track 4: "You Felt Right"

"'You Felt Right' is really just a storytelling song. There's not much metaphor or extra meaning. It's a straightforward thing about the progression of a relationship that doesn't work out. But I think at the end, there's at least a sense of empowerment on the narrator's side. As a narrator, you have the ability to disseminate stories and tell them the way that you want to tell them, which is kind of cool."

Learn more about K.Flay in the video below: