KC Rae Announces New Album

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KC Rae (Now, Now’s KC Dalager) will release her debut solo album Think I’m Gonna Die on November 10th. Today she’s shared the new song “Parking Lot” and pre-orders are now up.

KC Rae (Now, Now’s KC Dalager) will release her debut solo album Think I’m Gonna Die on November 10th, 2023. The news will surely add to anticipation among KC’s fans, who’ve been eagerly following along this summer as she quietly began releasing singles (“Blockbuster” + “Bathroom Floor”) as a solo artist. The songs have marked KC’s first new output since the 2018 release of her band Now, Now’s critically-acclaimed sophomore album, Saved, which landed the duo on multiple “Best Of” lists among praise from NPR, Stereogum, Pitchfork, New Yorker, Nylon, FADER, Billboard and more. Today along with the album announcement news, KC Rae shares the impassioned new single “Parking Lot”, a song that builds and builds to an epic release in the form of a guitar and kick drum filled wall of sound at the end of the track. KC Rae will also play her first ever solo show on December 14th at 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis, MN (Tickets on sale Friday, September 27th at 11am local).

“‘Parking Lot’ is about the feeling of being held captive by someone else’s rage,” KC explains. “Then the song concludes with the realization that I can take my power back.” The track is aptly placed as the final song on an album which, throughout, details the cycle of oppression, surrender, reflection, rebirth and return. “I’m becoming cognizant of a greater process in motion, that we are always going to land where we were meant to land,” she muses, “and for me, that tends to be back where I started, but with a new and deeper awareness.” 

When KC Dalager began writing songs again in 2018, it marked the start of what would become one of the most difficult periods of her life. She was coming to the end of two years on the road, promoting and touring with her band Now, Now in support of their album Saved, playing sold out headline shows, international festivals and in support of artists like Maggie Rogers and St. Lucia. As the cycle wound down, she began to process the last 12 years of her time in the music industry, propelling her to embark on an incredible journey of self-discovery about trauma, mental health, her own autism diagnosis and ultimately, healing and understanding. 

With big discoveries, came a new sense of self. KC Rae, as she goes by now, acknowledges that writing these songs started out as an attempt to regain her power. “It felt like I was writing a response to all of the times I’d been told ‘No' in my career. And to be honest, I kind of just wanted to prove that I could do something on my own, as the sole writer, musician and producer of a thing that was just mine.” However, as time went on, the solo process became much more than that; it became the timestamp of a painful yet incredible chapter in life. The album is raw and uncompromising, yet also warm with familiarity; the way a brand new pair of denim might feel— at first pinching at the soft spots— and eventually easing into a second skin. 

Aside from the incredibly personal revelations detailed throughout the songs on the new album, the music showcases KC’s continued evolution as a songwriter as well. A few years ago KC purchased and started learning the banjo, which you can hear as a prevalent throughline on the album. From the Springsteen-esque “Bathroom Floor,” to the haunting and somber “Hymn,” the way she uses the instrument throughout is surprising and unexpectedly diverse. The production on the album is also intentionally minimal, especially when it comes to vocals. They are left gorgeously breathy and raw– so much so you can hear the pain break in her voice on the gorgeously intense concluding track “Parking Lot.” I don’t understand it/ Why I’m still stuck in the water/ Break the fucking habit/ if it’s just all that I am. 

This November 10th, KC Rae will release her most personal and stripped down body of work to date, Think I’m Gonna Die. One that was indeed never meant to see the light of day, but we can all be thankful we get to hear. 

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