K.Flay Talks Acoustic Guitars, Playing Live and Her 'Personal Revolution'

Kristine Flaherty, betteer known as K.Flay, built an audience early in her career releasing mixtapes in the underground rap circuit, but she's leaned more towards a rock vibe with her 2014 album, LIfe as a Dog, and further with her latest, Every Where Is Some Where.

That truly comes to the fore with the single "Blood in the Cut," a gritty, riff-based track that still features a healthy dose of emotional lyrics from K.Flay.

But even though her rock affinity has come to the fore in recent years, that doesn't mean she just recently picked up the guitar, as she served as a rhythm guitarist of sorts to her father's leads as a child.

Flaherty recently connected with Fender to talk about those early days with an acoustic guitar, how she uses it to find inspiration and the Paramount PM-2 Parlor she has been playing regularly for the past few years.

"For me there's a real difference, but a beautiful difference, between performing while I'm holding an instrument and while I'm not, while I'm completely untethered.”

“For me, one of the things I really have found I enjoy in the live show is the constant switching between these modes. Because when I have nothing in my hands and I'm just singing, it's complete frontwoman mode. It's a complete energy transfer. I believe that if you're onstage and you're loud and you're more visible than the people in the crowd, which is essentially what a stage does, you're setting the tone for the experience. If you are wild and vulnerable and welcoming, people are going to mirror that energy and that behavior.”

"I like the non-option that an acoustic guitar provides. It’s a raw instrument.”

“It forces me to focus on the core elements of the songwriting process. It's like two different energies, the way that I see it. An electric guitar is an unhinged energy, and it's a limitless energy on some level. An acoustic guitar is like your mom and your dad. It's like the core energy. Or like your family. It's the basic, and yet transcends everything.”

"So much of the joy that comes from performing is the way in which a song evolves.”

“Not only just over time, like when you first start performing a song, you're still getting to know it, in a way, even though you may have written it and recorded it already. I think there is that constant process of evolution, and for me that's really compelling and interesting, partially because you're just playing the song a lot.

"This Paramount has traveled with me this whole record cycle. I put out an EP and then the full-length record, and I got it at the very start of the journey.”

“The case is all messed up now, and looks perfectly worn in. I think for me the here and watch K.Flay perform her single, "Blood in the Cut," here.