Yves Tumor, Kate Bush, Diamanda Galas are all attempts to explain hard-to-describe, multi-genre artist, Kristeen Young. But, they are wrong. You can’t find a comparison because there isn’t one, and isn’t that a nice change?
Kristeen plays piano/keyboard in a dissonant bashing style, sings using a wide range with operatic vocals, and her lyrics eviscerate in a playful way like an afternoon with a Victorian child ghost. You’ll be dead but you will have enjoyed your own life’s kill.
Her latest (self-produced) album, ‘The Beauty Shop’, (which dropped on 24th June 2022 and can be heard HERE), is a song cycle based on the life of a serial killer, with each song also representing a different major emotion. “But, it’s really about how life kills our emotions,” she interjects.
The album’s lived-in imagery originates from the beauty shop her foster/adopted mom had in a room in the little St. Louis house where she grew up. Besides the audio of the album, Kristeen who is of German and Apache decent, has also shot and edited 6 song videos (herself) for ‘The Beauty Shop’ and plans to release a visual version of the album.
Never on a record label, or with management, continuously navigating on her own, Kristeen has always been the epitome of DIY. Shortly after arriving in New York (where she now resides) she met legendary producer, Tony Visconti, who plays bass on ‘The Beauty Shop’ and who brought David Bowie to one of her shows and ended up recording a duet with Kristeen (a song she wrote called ‘Saviour’).
She also toured several times as Morrissey’s opening act. Dave Grohl discovered one of her songs on a mixtape and then contacted her….which led to him playing drums on her entire 2014 album, ‘The Knife Shift’. Nick Zinner (Yeahs Yeah Yeahs) was guitarist for her 2017 album, ‘Live At The Witch’s Tit’.
Her first live show post-pandemic was Riot Fest, September 2021. Following by her own curated night at SxSW 2022. Since the release of ‘The Beauty Shop’ Kristeen has been filling rooms in New York, San Francisco, St. Louis, London and Manchester…. touring on her own.
Next week Kristeen will be heading out on a UK tour and performing 10 concerts throughout the land, opening up in London on 16th September and then moving on to Brighton, Birmingham, Leeds, Bristol, Colchester, Gateshead, Sheffield, Ramsgate and finally Hastings.
The date of the Brighton concert is Monday 18th September and the concert will be at The Hope & Ruin on Queens Road Brighton from 7:30pm until 11pm. Tickets for this show can be purchased HERE and HERE.
Support for the Brighton concert will come from The Pink Diamond Revue who offer up ”Spangly gold late 1950s LSD-inspired tripadelica”.
