'I feel like I’m giving birth to the most intimate thing I’ve ever created': Kesha announces new album Gag Order
Kesha lays everything bare on her upcoming follow-up to 2020's 'High Road'.
Kesha has announced her fifth studio album, 'Gag Order'.
The pop star is set to release two singles, 'Fine Line' and 'Eat The Acid', on Friday (28.04.23), and the full album will follow on May 19.
The LP's title comes amid her long-running legal battle with her ex-producer Dr. Luke, who sued her in 2014 when she accused him of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.
The trial will start on July 19 and run until July 26, after being delayed.
Speaking to Rolling Stone about the follow-up to 2020's 'High Road', she confessed: “I feel like I’m giving birth to the most intimate thing I’ve ever created."
The 'Woman' singer - who bonded spiritually with the album's producer Rick Rubin - admits it was "nerve-wracking" laying all of these "uglier emotions" bare.
She continued: “I really dug into some of my uglier emotions and sides of myself that are less fun.
“It’s scary being vulnerable. The fact that I have compiled an entire record of these emotions, of anger, of insecurity, of anxiety, of grief, of pain, of regret, all of that is so nerve-racking — but it’s also so healing.”
The 36-year-old star is thankful to the studio wizard for creating a "safe space" for her to unload her feelings.
She said: "I wrote ‘TiK ToK,’ and ‘the party don’t start ’til I walk in,’ so I almost felt like I was becoming a caricature of this toxic positivity.
“We live in a culture where I feel like we always show our best side. But Rick Rubin created the most beautiful, safe space for me to really dive into these emotions.”
The album was made after the star had a "spiritual awakening", which she thought was a mental breakdown.
She recalled: "I had this really beautiful, scary, and intense spiritual awakening where it felt like I was talking to my highest self, or God, whatever word you want to say.
“I fully thought I was having a mental breakdown. I called my therapist and my doctor. They all were like, ‘Oh, you had a spiritual awakening. Yay! Good job.'"
And the experience with a higher power and some advice from her songwriter mom Pebe Sebert inspired her to pen 'Eat The Acid'.
Her parent told her: “Do whatever you want in your life, but don’t eat acid, because when you eat acid, you see things that you’ll never be able to unsee.”
