Labelled as the ‘redneck next door’, Krystal King is working her lyrical prowess with a playful take on country music. She amalgamates elements of honky-tonk style with echoes of blues and folk-rock to bring a refreshing perspective to the genre.
Ahead of her new single release, King joined me for an interview to discuss her new music, the inspiration behind her songs and what actually is a Double Wide?
“This single is called Mind Your Own Backyard and it’s a song about murdering my husband and burying him in the backyard,” King tells me as we jump straight in to discussing her new music. She joins me via a video link, and I can see a violin hanging on the wall behind her. Her upcoming EP, ‘Pretty Poison’ is a seven-song project, and this will be the third single that King has released off it.
A song about murdering her husband may sound like a cause for concern, but King assured me all was well. “Yeah, no, everybody asked that, especially because the whole album is sort of like a murder song, a lying song, a cheating song. So, after I finished this album, he would show it to people and they'd be like, are y 'all…are y 'all okay?” She laughs, “no, we're doing great. It's a very tongue in cheek song. So, it's very kind of upbeat, fun, kind of almost like hokey country”.
Naturally, I was curious about what this song was born out of and where the inspiration came from. “The whole thing started just because I had this idea … I wanted to do a murder song and I just had this kind of play on words,” King tells me, “not necessarily focusing on the murder, but mostly focusing more on like the neighbours and the neighbourhood and that whole keeping up with the Joneses thing.”
We talk about Desperate Housewives and the classic nosey neighbour that feigns painting their fences to try and peak at the drama next door. “The song's more about just telling the neighbours to mind your own business, this doesn't concern you. Like you paint your picket fence, you stay on your own side, plant your flowers and even if you know what's going on over here, you just keep your mouth shut. The murder is definitely the underlying story of the song, but the focus is more on just telling those neighbours like mind your own business, mind your own backyard.”
King tells me about the music video that goes with the song, where her friends got to play her nosey neighbours. “We went full on like 60s vintage theme,” she says about the ‘mini movie’ that was shot by Reeves Media, “I had like, you know, a halter, polka dot green dress. And then I had a bright, bright yellow belted dress with pearls and, you know, white fingernails and they have binoculars out and so they're just watching everything go down.” King’s face is beaming with excitement while she talks about the concept of this video – including the dance scene at the end!
The song and the video share equal weight in King’s love for this project and with this in mind, she’s keen to release them both at the same time. “I just decided, you know, typically I want to like juice it and make it last as long as possible. But for this song, I just feel like the visual of it is so important. The song by itself is kind of fun, but I think if somebody just heard this on the radio and wasn't really paying attention, they'd be like, this feels kind of cheesy. But with the visuals and with the storyline, it brings it to life.”
With that in mind, we segued straight into what it’s like to perform this at one of her shows. “I really like to perform live because you just get that crowd interaction. I can stop and do like little banter and make little comments and it's cute and funny.”
King’s single prior to this was ‘House Fire’ which is much slower and fuller and follows are more serious, emotive narrative. We talk about the differences sonically between the two tracks. “I would say this one's a little closer to some of my earlier releases that were very honky tonk,” King says, “I released a song called, like, ‘You Had Me at Double Wide’ and ‘Rhinestone Ring’, and they were very much this, like, Alan Jackson -y, honky tonk sound.”
Now, I had to ask…what is a double wide?! Turns out they’re a cross between a house and a static caravan – constructed elsewhere and then moved to a location. A double wide is one with, well, double the width.
With ‘House Fire’ and ‘Mind Your Own Backyard’ being so different, I was curious to learn about how the rest of the album would marry up. “The album is very eclectic,” King says about her project, “I would say the album probably leans more to the style of like the ‘House Fire’ and the ‘Red Wine and White Lies’ vibe.”
With this song taking her back to her ‘honky tonk roots’, King is also excited to explore some more bluesy and folk-rock sounds on this album. “This is just a fun project overall, because I think I got to explore different sounds,” she says, “And one of the cool things about an album is sometimes you get to put on songs that are maybe more artsy or unique… so I want to show that I'm versatile and can do different types of writing and different types of music, but I still try to keep true to that country root of things.”
King is a lyricist as much as she is a performer and has enjoyed writing her own music and some for other artists, too. This album was written predominantly by her, with some co-writes in there – all female co-writes which was a happy accident! “It was not intentional,” she says about her female power album, “but it did just happen that way. Stephanie Joyce wrote three of the songs with me and House Fire was one of them.” Other writers on the album include Taylor Hughes, Laura Rebell, and Lina.
This album has taken King and her time a long time to put together – a labour of love, shall we say. While that has been going on behind the scenes, King has been getting out there and performing to crowds all over America. From Lainey Wilson’s VIP lounge to down on the sunny coast of Florida, King has been grafting to get her music to as many ears as possible.
At the time of this interview, King was also gearing up to play her first official CMA Fest ‘kick-off’ event and was preparing to interview Niko Moon for her show on Radio Margaritaville with SiriusXM.
Krystal King is out on the road over summer, hitting up North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida and then heading out on tour with Kirsty Krauss this November. Stay up to date with King’s new music and shows via her website and stream her new single, ‘Mind Your Own Backyard’, on July 12th wherever you get your music.
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