Ever since she was young, singer-songwriter KINGS has always wanted to connect to others through music.
What first began as a passion in North Carolina evolved into a music career pursuit that took her to Nashville.
In 2019, audiences took notice of KINGS’s dedication sending a video of her singing at the Starbucks drive-thru into viral TikTok stardom.
Since then, she has released the anthemic “ur a good bye,” and her most recent single, “Thank Me Later.”
We chatted with KINGS about the single, TikTok, and what fans can look forward to next.
Excerpt from the podcast:
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I want to congratulate you on your recent single, “Thank Me Later.” What inspired that song?
Oh my gosh. It was a whole crazy story to be completely honest. I’m a very much a single girl. I love being single, but I was talking to this guy last fall and we were like best friends, honestly. And I was like, we’re probably going to end up dating, but like no need to rush things. We’re just getting to know each other. That was when I kind of started going back and forth between LA and Nashville more regularly because the label was out here. I went to LA for three weeks from Nashville and when I got back, he had a girlfriend and I was like, oh, that’s bold. And it was really painful. Honestly, I was like this is going to inspire a lot of songs. But at the moment it was, you know, it was really painful. Later on, I found out that he actually was super into me and just didn’t think I was into him and just wanted to date someone else. And I was like, that’s totally fine, but you’re going to get a lot of songs written about you. That’s what inspired this one. I was like, you know what, I’m ready to write a sassy one. I’ve written enough sad songs/ Immediately, when I wrote it, I was like, I have to drop this.
Has he heard the song?
He has. He has heard the song. Yes, and I think our entire friend group, which, I mean, we have a few mutual friends. I’m in LA a lot so it’s hard to keep up certain friend groups, but because of that whole situation, I think everyone knows, but it’s okay.
There’s a little voice memo at the end. Was that recorded afterwards or was that actually from a conversation you had?
That was a conversation that I was actually having with my co-writer when I was recording the song. And I was like, we have to add this in, we have to.
Can you tell me a little bit more about that writing process?
Yeah, so honestly, throughout the entire year of, you know, COVID being awful, I couldn’t really do as many in-person session sessions, so I was doing it over zoom. Last January was when I wrote this one and it was over Zoom. I was basically talking to my co-writers. I always, typically have like one of my friends who’s a co-writer and then someone who’s a producer and we all just kind of brainstorm until we come up with something fun. And so the producer was coming up with a dope track and I was like, yes, that’s it. And I had honestly kind of exhausted this topic of this boy, like every writing session I went and I was telling them about this boy. At this point I was like, I’m kind of at a turning point. I think I want to write a song about this rebound, not in a mean way, but kind of like, you should know what you’re getting into, because that was really difficult for me. We just kind of were brainstorming and I think the first line we came up with was like, ‘you’re so welcome, ‘in the very first verse, and I was like, that’s really cool. We should do something with thank me later, or you’re welcome, you know, like that type of thing. And I was like, this could be super cool. So we just started writing it and I remember that we were like going back and forth about the chorus for so long. I put myself on mute and I was just sitting in my bedroom and I was singing it and I was immediately freaking out and we just kind of continued the song from there. I feel like taking this painful situation, turning it into something crazy fun, just set the tone for the song.
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Amelia Cordischi, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Juice Box Press, is an accomplished digital marketing professional with over a decade of experience in media and communications. Her work has been featured in notable publications, including The Boston Globe. A communications graduate of Simmons University in Boston, Amelia served as manager of Simmons College Radio (“The Shark”), where she also launched and co-hosted her radio show, The Find.
In addition to her editorial work, Amelia is an established freelance photographer, with bylines in Blended Magazine and CelebMix, capturing artists and cultural moments across the music and media landscape. Her career began at WCVB-TV’s Chronicle, the ABC affiliate in Boston, where she gained firsthand experience in broadcast journalism and storytelling.
When she’s not taking photos from the photo pit, interviewing emerging artists, or crafting the next Juice Box Press feature, Amelia can be found thrifting and exploring the world of sustainable fashion.