Kesha is back on the scene with High Road, her fourth studio album, out Jan. 31.
On Wednesday, the 32-year-old pop star joined iHeartRadio in Los Angeles for an exclusive album release party. The intimate and electrifyingly eccentric show opened up with a performance of “We R Who We R,” which Kesha explained is “about being yourself unapologetically.”
She added: “This song really is about basic human rights. Basic equal human rights…And I swear to you that that is something I will stand for until I’m six feet underground.”
High Road was mostly written by Kesha and Stephen Wrabel with contributions from writers like Justin Tranter, Dan Reynolds and Nate Ruess.
“I cannot wait to see what all of you think,” said Kesha. “I made it for my fans and I know you’ve been with me through all of my ups and downs. This is my thank you.”
What does the album really mean to you?
I thought people would think “Oh she’s going to take the high road. You always take the high road.” But sometimes that means that you don’t let the things that used to bother you, like hate and negativity, you don’t let it get to you, and you laugh about it and you get kind of high.
How do you filter out the negativity in life?
That’s why I wanted to put out a record of fun songs because I feel in my heart, I like having fun. Isn’t that the point? We all deserve to have fun. I especially think that I want to have a place were people can come and feel so safe and free to be themselves. Maybe find a neighbour that you fall in love with and you’re making out and you’re getting naked if you want to! It’s just a place where you can come and do whatever you want and there is no judgement on my end. I just want you to be happy.
Tell us about “Raising Hell.”
I went on the first ever Kesha cruise, and I really had no idea what I was in for… I met Big Frieeda on the cruise and we ended up hanging out and getting tattoos the last night and staying up until the sun came up. Then we were leaving the boat crying. For "Raising Hell" we wanted to have a celebratory song about shaking your butt as much as possible. Her songs are very high energy and I hope mine are too.
What song on the album are you most excited for people to hear?
There’s two in particular I’m really excited about. One is “High Road.” Actually, there’s three, one is called “Tonight” and then there’s one called “Kinky.”
Let’s talk about the process of writing this album compared to Rainbow, which was a lot of personal stuff.
Yeah, I think it’s kind of a combination of all my influences. The first two records I put out, I didn’t get to executive produce and Rainbow and High Road I got to executive produce so I feel like you really get to hear the yin and yang of what goes on in my brain. Because there are parts of me that love to raise hell. Especially with [fans] because I just feel so at home here. On Rainbow I had to address some really serious things and I also felt like I really want to balance out how people knew me.
Adapted from an original article by December Savage at iHeartRadio