In an exclusive interview with Channel Q’s Corey Crockett, international popstar Kim Petras dives into all things Feed the Beast Tour and the “problematic origins” of her scratched debut album.
LISTEN NOW: Kim Petras joins CHANNEL Q Hosted by Corey
Having just seen Petras perform in Brooklyn, host Corey Crockett was thrilled to have the hyper-pop artist on for an interview. He praises her for her quick song releases and immediate performances, though Petras responds quite humbly. “I don't get much sleep, but I like it that way,” she said. “It's so dreamy to just give my fans as much music as possible and then right away go and perform it and be on tour.”
She is clearly appreciative of her dream-come-true career as a musician, as she grew emotional during the Brooklyn Feed the Beast concert. “My career truly started in Brooklyn and on top of bars, on top of tables, performing anywhere I could,” Petras explained. “It started in little gay venues that I would just go to and just perform whatever I could, and meet people that like my music. So I feel like New York, especially this place where people that don't feel like they belong anywhere go to and then suddenly feel like they belong. You know, so there's just like a spiritual connection with my fans there.”
Petras was born and raised in Bonn, Germany, which she describes as “a little tiny town in the middle of nowhere.” With such a tight-knit community, she struggled to find her place as a transgender woman - making her connection with New York even more significant. “I, for the first time, really felt accepted and like I had a chance to be whatever I wanted to be when I came to New York and played at those clubs,” she said. “So I just have so many special relationships with the fans and the people there. That's just like nowhere is like performing in Brooklyn for me. It's the most special.”
The Feed The Beast Tour works through all of her released songs, including those leaked from her re-released album Problématique. “Problématique has a very problematic origin story” she said, acknowledging how it was intended to be her debut before being scratched by the record label and leaked online. “You know, it's this album that me and my friends made and we're really passionate about and I signed to a major label. I had a big hit and all of a sudden I needed to make another album. And I was kind of told like, ‘this album is good, but like not, you know, as good as what you could be doing.'”
Despite both setbacks, Petras said that she felt “lucky” that only demos from Problématique were leaked, rather than their final versions. That allowed her to rerelease the album she never lost faith in. “This was always going to come out and I never gave up on it,” she said proudly, “because I think it's a really special project that just kind of got misunderstood by, you know, business people at a label that don't really get it. And I feel really proud of myself for fighting for it to come out.”
Petras’ fighting has continued to pay off, given that she teased a new song announcement in the middle of her tour. With an extensive list of GRAMMY-winning collaborators like Sam Smith, Nicki Minaj, and Charlie XCX, the pop star seems to be adding another name to that list. “There's another collab coming out which I can't talk about, but it's pretty big and pretty ‘pop star dream’ to have a song like that,” she hinted. “So definitely stay tuned over the next few weeks. There's going to be more info on that.”
You can find tickets to Kim Petras’ ongoing Feed the Beast Tour HERE, and make sure to tune in to Channel Q’s full interview above.