New album: Kim Petras turns her fears into pop songs

About forty minutes by car from Cologne, in the 3,000-strong village of Uckerath, lie the roots of an international pop icon: Kim Petras. The singer will release her album Feed the Beast on Friday. And that doesn’t sound like a small German town at all, but like American hyperpop: wild, informal, modern.

Petras last made headlines in February with her historic Grammy win. Together with British singer Sam Smith, she was awarded Best Pop Duo for the club hit “Unholy”, which has now been streamed almost 1.2 billion times on Spotify. She is the first trans woman in Grammy history to win in that category.

The 30-year-old is known for her broad voice. There are 15 songs on the new album that capture today’s pop mood. “For me, “Feed the Beast” is about doing things that you’re afraid of,” says the artist in an interview with the German Press Agency.

downsides of success

Before her hit with Sam Smith, she herself was afraid of “playing this pop game,” says Petras – that is, to meet the demands of the pop world. “I’m not trying to live up to that, I just make the music I want to make,” she says. “And then Unholy happened and all of a sudden it was like, ‘Okay, maybe I’m not that strange’.” But with attention comes the downside: “People suddenly have a lot of opinions about what you look like when you have a hit song, which is very strange, I make music to make music.”

Growing up in a tranquil district of Hennef in the Rhineland, Petras learned English in front of the television, among other things: through subtitles on music programs. “I used to be super obsessed with American pop,” she says. She was particularly taken with the music of the turn of the millennium, for example by Britney Spears. “I’ll always love the 2000s,” she says. You can feel that on “Feed the Beast”. “Now on this album, I went all out on just making the biggest pop songs I could make,” says Petras.

Collaboration with Nicki Minaj

“Each song is like a different beast for me,” says the singer. For her, “King of Hearts” is supposed to be about “revenge on people,” but it’s also about sex. “‘Claws’ is a song about love I’m afraid of.” The song “Uh Oh” goes beyond the ego, “finding yourself too great”. The album also includes the previously released single “Alone” with Nicki Minaj.

With “Feed the Beast” Petras not only wants to build on her role models, but also bring something new to the pop scene. She took a big step as a songwriter and dared to try new things, she says. For example, she recorded a song in German with “1000 parts” – which doesn’t happen often. It’s not on the first release yet, but it might appear later on the deluxe version. “I’m always open to doing something in German because it’s actually a really beautiful language and I sometimes miss it.”

Petras, who has long lived in the USA, rarely comes to her home region. She likes the landscape, she likes many of the people – Petras, who became known as a teenager for her gender reassignment, does not only associate positive memories with the area. “Sure, it was hard in my school, but it will always be hard for a trans child to be in school.” Today she sees responsibility for this primarily with the media: “Actually, it was a huge thing because it was the press that made fun of me, that wrote my story wrong.” That’s why they didn’t like the people at school, “because it was freaky.”

Dates for the “Feed the Beast” tour have so far been scheduled in the USA and Brazil. Petras says she will probably also be touring in Europe at the beginning of 2024 – maybe she will come back to “her” area. “Cologne has always been great for me. The fact that I have fans here now and that something can sell out is still totally awesome for me,” she says. I can speak German and my parents come – it’s always a very special feeling.”