| “A fully formed pop goddess.” – Rolling Stone“ Contrasting a danceable track with some of her most vulnerable lyrics to date, KAYE today presents “Lifeline,” the second single off of her upcoming Neon God EP. Paired with an official video shot throughout her home of New York City, “Lifeline” is available now on all DSPs HERE. The Neon God EP will be released in its full glory on August 5 with a release show at Brooklyn’s Elsewhere on August 9. “In the second single for Neon God, I’m not an archangel or a cult leader,” says KAYE about today’s new single. “I’m just me, a lumpy human trying to make her way through the world. I am so far from perfect, and I know so intimately what it’s like to suffer, what it’s like to be lost. I also know what it’s like to summon my own rescue, over and over again, through music.” Battling the voices that claim being in your mid-30s makes you expired in the music industry, KAYE takes the listener through her own journey of self-worth. Now out from under the gray cloud that held her down for so long, she now has a renewed strength about her own identity. Speaking on the day that “Lifeline” started coming together, KAYE said, “This song saved my life. It’s an explosion of pain and joy and brutality and beauty and the commitment to feeling it all. I have come back to it over and over again in moments of terror and pain, and that same voice, maybe my own, maybe something else, has comforted me and pulled me out. I hope it does the same for you.” |
| Today’s single is paired with an official video directed by KAYE’s sister and longtime collaborator Liann Kaye. A choreographed journey, conceptualized by Frank Lombardi, through New York shows KAYE in those moments of extreme lows and how giving into music can make all the difference. Prior to today’s release, KAYE announced her upcoming EP with the release of its title track, “Neon God.” The debaucherously captivating visual for the single sounded the alarms that KAYE is back and demands to be heard. |
Charlene Kaye (KAYE) spent her childhood all over the globe. Absorbing both the old soul records of her parents and the 90s grunge on the radio, she quickly became a full-fledged music obsessive, beginning with piano but soon abandoning it to teach herself punk songs on her mother’s nylon guitar. After college, KAYE moved to New York to pursue music. She played bass and guitar in several Brooklyn bands (including shredding as Slash in an all-girl Guns N’ Roses cover band called ‘Guns N’ Hoses’). In 2014, a mutual friend connected her with San Fermin’s Ellis Ludwig-Leone. Impressed with her voice, he asked her to be San Fermin’s new lead vocalist. This led to five years of collaboration and touring with San Fermin, with KAYE’s blistering frontwoman energy propelling their albums Jackrabbit and Belong (Interscope) to international audiences and festivals worldwide. This included tours supporting alt-J, The National, and St. Vincent.
Stepping back into her own project, she released the critically acclaimed album Conscious Control, her first full-length in four years, in November 2020. The heavier topics of this album saw KAYE exploring her deliberate decision to be unpartnered from a long-term relationship, despite what is societally expected of women and the era in life when they should “settle down.”
Now moving into the Neon God era, the focus is back on the weird and wonderful, post-healing. With the dark undertones of being raised in a traditionally religious household, KAYE digs into worshiping rock-and-roll and her place in that world. Combining rock, funk and disco with KAYE’s prolific guitar chops, this summer’s release of Neon God flings the door open to the otherworldly quality of her artistry. Neon God will be available on August 5 on all DSPs.
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