Kristeen Young

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? She 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. And ….speaking of…..her new (self-produced) album, The Beauty Shop, 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 has also shot and edited 6 song videos (herself) for The Beauty Shop and plans to release a visual version of the album in 2023. 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 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 mix tape and then contacted her….which lead to him to 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 June 2022 release of The Beauty Shop she’s been filling rooms in New York, San Francisco, St. Louis, London and Manchester…. touring on her own.