Last year, K Nkanza (who uses they/she pronouns) put out The Natural World, the debut release from their solo project Spring Silver. A blend of “queer metal,” “post-emo,” and “they/themcore,” The Natural World put forth a bold collection of sprawling cross-genre tracks that made a strong first impression for the project.
In late October, K dropped “Plead Insanity,” the first single from an upcoming follow-up already in progress, along with a cover of Oneohtrix Point Never’s recent single “Long Road Home.” A poppier cut than most of The Natural World, “Plead Insanity” sees K’s characteristic blend of guitars and synths explode on a bombastic chorus about the outlandish lengths people go to for romantic love. The track also features guest harmonies from Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz / sad13 and Bartees Strange, an approach to collaboration that K hopes to continue with the rest of the album.
We spoke with K via video chat to learn more about “Plead Insanity,” the inspirations that drive their creative process, and what listeners can expect for her music to come.
Allston Pudding: “Plead Insanity” draws the connection between the timelessness of the feelings that it talks about and the unique mental states that a lot of us find ourselves in today. What was the process of developing the song like, and how has it evolved over the course of the year to get to the recorded version?
K Nkanza: I think both the music and the lyrics were written before quarantine, but they were recorded during quarantine. If I remember correctly, I wrote the lyrics once the coronavirus pandemic had hit overseas and maybe had even heard news that it was only a matter of time before it was coming to the U.S. And it was very strange… I don’t know, I was just feeling really down. I was living alone for the first time in my life, so I was just spending a lot of time by myself, on Twitter in this empty apartment, just reading sad news about stuff like climate change and the coronavirus. So it almost felt like quarantine already, and then it hit.
I was still at university, which I recently graduated from remotely, but I was just sitting in this fairly empty study hall and I decided to jot down these lyrics. And I don’t think I had them connected to the tune. I think I just sort of made the [instrumental for the] song for fun. I was like, “I’m gonna make a sort of poppy track.” And then what I normally do is I have a bunch of songs and have a bunch of lyrics and sort of handpick them. Like connect the dots, from the lyrics on my Google Doc to whatever songs are available [and see] if they fit the mood.
AP: Since you brought up your lyrical process, the lyrics on this song feel like a natural progression of the subjects and styles you worked with on The Natural World. What made the intersection of romantic love and mental health something that appealed to you?
K: I’m not sure. I feel like, in a lot of ways, I’m probably in a similar space to the one that I was in when I was making The Natural World. And a lot of the music on this upcoming album is stuff that was written around the same time, both the lyrics and the music. So I feel like, if I had any sort of inclination towards that on the last album, it appears here. I think it’s sort of fun to deconstruct the subject matter of love songs and pop songs a little bit. Sometimes I’ll hear lyrics that I think are meant to come off romantic, but they just stress me out.
AP: [laughs] Yeah, I know that feeling.
K: [laughs] Like when people say stuff like, “The best part of me is you,” it’s like, “You need to work on yourself, maybe.” That’s a lot of baggage to put on someone else. That’s really wild. I feel like I wanted to write a song that sort of…
AP: …flips the perspective?
K: Yeah, and sort of tries to call that out.
AP: I also wanted to ask about the features, because I feel like Sadie [Dupuis] and Bartees [Strange]’s harmonizing vocals add a really nice touch to that bridge. And what was wild to me is that you’ve said in your synopsis of the song that they may not have known that their parts were going to have that effect when they recorded them. What drew you to getting them to be featured on the song?
K: I think — a little bit on The Natural World, but especially on the stuff that I’m working on now — I’m trying to feature as many people I admire in some way. I think that’s a cool way to showcase and express my appreciation for the artists I admire and know personally. And I think it’s amazing that they would even want to work with me in some way. I just thought that was a way to sort of express my appreciation for them, to have them provide their skills in some way to the music that I’m working on.
Also, since Spring Silver is more or less a solo project, I think that’s another nice thing about getting people involved. I feel like, with most instruments except the voice, you can sort of create the illusion that there are other people involved. Like, if you use different guitar pedals or arrange all the different parts and know how to play them differently. But… I don’t know, I feel like it’s difficult to pretend to be another person vocally. You can’t really do that. I just think it’s really cool when you hear music where there’s genuinely other singers singing the parts as opposed to overdubs. I feel like overdubs are really nice, but when you hear that sort of added information of different singers on a track, I just think that’s really neat. One that comes to mind is Steely Dan — on all their songs — but on “Glamour Profession,” there’s the bridge where Donald Fagen isn’t singing any of it. It’s just the backup singers, and they’re sick. They’re singing the bridge section, and then there’s a sort of call-and-response where they’re singing a part of the narrative. And then he comes in and adds his own flair to it. I think that’s such a cool thing and it feels sort of like it’s a party, a little bit. There’s a sort of togetherness in having other people involved that’s really nice. I think it makes a difference.
AP: I feel like now is especially kind of vital for that, given that it’s not as safe to get people together physically in the same space. It’s kind of a way of bypassing that and creating a space where you can exist in the same space through song.
K: Yeah, I definitely feel that way. And I’m hoping to do that on more of the songs that I’m working on, whether it’s vocals or other instruments, to have other people involved. I think it’s a really nice thing, especially right now.
AP: I feel like the choice of Oneohtrix Point Never song [“Long Road Home”] that’s covered on this single is an inspired choice because the song is so recent. What drew you to the song and made you want to cover it?
K: I’ve been a fan of Oneohtrix for a long time. I heard R Plus Seven when it came out, and I was like, “What the hell is this? This is so strange that this is a Warp Records release.” But there was something enigmatic to it that I was drawn to. And from there, I checked out Replica and stuff like that and I was very intrigued. Then when Garden of Delete came out and his style just evolved exponentially, I was like, “I get this entirely. This is so cool.”
Jump to “Long Road Home.” I remember when the song and the video came out, I was so drawn to it. It was very emotive, but also really alien, and it was looping on repeat in my head and I was like, “I really want to cover this.” Very quickly after I heard the song and watched the video, I just started working on the tune in my room, recorded the guitar and bass and did the beat programming all day. I had a very strong urge to express my appreciation of it. I was sort of trying to make a soul cover of it, more or less.
AP: Yeah, I think it was really fascinating to hear how you interpolated and rearranged that song’s digital radio ether into your signature pedal-driven guitar sound.
K: Thank you!
AP: Something that’s on my mind as a queer and trans person when I listen to your music is how you bring your own perspective as a queer person of color into the songs and lyrics you write. Can you talk about how that informs your lyricism and the subjects you write about?
K: I think, oftentimes, in the lyrics, it can be pretty abstract. As I evolved as a songwriter, that sort of stuff was revealing things about my identity to me. It’s hard to explain; it feels sort of abstract, but if you get it, you get it. I’m glad people, in some way, are getting it. Some stuff is, I think, quite explicit. I wrote this song “Digit” about people in the past, especially white people, criticizing me for not being Black enough, and me being like, “Oh, why don’t you fucking be Black then? Since you’re so good at it, you must get it more than I do. You can just replace me.” My point was basically, like, the Black experience is just: if you’re Black, that is it. That is the experience.
But, other times, I feel like it’s something that’s hard to quantify through explanation, or maybe I haven’t gotten good enough explaining it yet. But I feel like, if I just try to be as honest and raw as possible through my music and go wherever my sensibilities take me, it just comes through. So I think it’s sort of an intersection of exploring personal stuff as well as me maybe addressing a specific concern based around my identity, if that makes sense.
AP: Yeah, totally. I think there’s something powerful, like you said, about expression being a tool for discovery and learning more about yourself. That particular angle has always been fascinating to me.
K: Yeah, back when Small Press Expo was in-person and a thing you could go to, I went to see Rebecca Sugar — the creator of Steven Universe — do a talk and got to meet them. I feel like the show has been so eye-opening for people at large and about themselves, and they were talking about how the show helped them process their own sexuality and things like that. And I just thought that was so amazing. They had this really narratively cohesive tight production and expansive world that was on TV and was being shown to millions of people, and simultaneously, they were discovering themselves through the show as they were making it. That’s a really amazing thing, and I think about that: how powerful consuming and creating art can be.
AP: Yeah, that’s incredible. Especially with that particular show, I feel like that’s a perfect example of something that has had similar resonance.
When I had first come across your music, one thing that initially really stood out to me is how seamlessly you blend a lot of different styles and genres, from things like metal and emo to shoegaze and math rock. Does that cross-section of genres come naturally to you?
K: Yeah, I think so. Sometimes I’ll be very clear with myself about what song I’m trying to make, and then I’ll come back to it a month later and it’s entirely different. So I feel like it’s something that’s inherent, it’s sort of in my DNA. No matter what song I’m making, I feel like they’re always different. There’s just a lot of different stuff that I’m inclined to try within the song that makes it a hodgepodge of sorts.
AP: And I know that asking this might run contradictory to that natural development of songs you talked about, but is there any particular style or genre that you’ve yet to incorporate in Spring Silver that you want to find an in for at some point?
K: Yeah, I’d like to incorporate more Congolese pop music. I’m Congolese and I’ve grown up listening to a lot of dance music that’s from the Congo. It’s a lot of four-on-the-floor-oriented stuff that has a very specific beat and style and [is] also very guitar-driven, which I think is interesting. But when you hear it, you sort of instantly recognize it. Just more dance stuff in general, I really love dance music. I feel like there’s a lot of interesting complex stuff you can make that is still dance-oriented and it still has a sort of danceability to it, which I think is a neat thing. It’s called soukous. I’m not an expert on this, but I like it and I think it’s also a cool thing I have a little bit of personal connection to. So I think that would be fun in the future.
AP: Looking forward to that!
K: Yeah, me too! [laughs]
AP: To tie things up with this upcoming album you’re working on, since a lot of The Natural World had these lengthier, sprawling song structures, how does the shorter, poppier nature of “Plead Insanity” act as a kind of entry point for the album to come as you’re conceptualizing it at the moment?
K: I think the songs on this are more concise and pop-oriented. I really liked The Natural World, but it definitely was sort of me just seeing what I could do. I guess that goes for the songwriting, but I was also just basically making the album at my house over the period of two years. So it was just me being like, “Let’s see where this goes.” And so it’s kind of a strange mix of stuff, and then there were a bunch of songs that were above five minutes. So maybe if I can trim ten minutes off of that, that’s okay. [laughs]
I think it’s a fun thing just to see if I can make something more poppy, and I have a really strong love and appreciation for pop music. But yeah, I think that’s sort of the contrast from this album to the last album. And then, maybe in the future, I’m hoping to maybe go back to more experimental, flight-of-fancy stuff. I don’t know, it all just still sort of revolves around my sensibilities or whatever, wherever that takes me.
AP: The second I heard “Plead Insanity” for the first time, I was like, “Oh yeah, this fits right in with what came before.” So I feel like, no matter what, it’ll definitely still feel like the same cohesive project, but a different approach.
K: Yeah, and I hope that maybe people who discover my music through the stuff that I’m working on now go back and appreciate the stuff that I did before. I think that’d be nice.
Spring Silver’s double A-side single with “Plead Insanity” and their cover of “Long Road Home” is out now. Stream it below via Bandcamp.