Kesha Details Plans To Upend Music’s ‘Old Guard’: ‘Those of You With Deep, Dark Secrets, You Better F–king Run’

Kesha is maximum without a doubt now not able to construct great. The “Only Love Can Save Us Now” singer evocative what she described as a scorched earth plan to shake up the track business’s worn barricade in a fresh ELLE brochure profile by which she warned that anybody with “deep, dark secrets” higher be able for a reckoning.

“I don’t believe you can create if you’re not feeling safe,” she advised the brochure in detailing a fresh virtual platform she’s running on with backup from family within the tech business that she mentioned will prioritize artist’s protection. “The old guard, they’re falling. The old way of doing everything with secrecy — there’s no future there. So, like, those of you with deep, dark secrets, you better f–king run.”

Her ultimatum to these conventional gatekeepers pulls deny punches: “The music industry should be f–king terrified of me,” she mentioned. “Because I’m about to make some major moves and shift this s–t. I really want to dismantle it piece by piece and shine light into every corner. I hope my legacy is making sure it never happens to anybody ever again.”

Kesha extracted herself from a promise with Dr. Luke following a 2023 settlement in her long-running civil lawsuit in opposition to the manufacturer born Lukasz Gottwald over her claims of infliction of emotional misery, sexual harassment and attack; Luke denied the claims and reached a agreement with Kesha to brush aside his defamation swimsuit in opposition to her utmost past, with each events denying any misconduct.

She has since shaped her personal detached label, Kesha Records, which she mentioned is the primary fat step in taking again her musical tone later signing with Luke in 2005 when she was once 18. “I’m free and it feels good,” she mentioned, noting that she has a reminder on her telephone that reads “you’re free.” Kesha is now absolutely answerable for her track and distant to paintings with any manufacturers and writers she desires, a status that resulted in the shed of her contemporary unmarried, the A.G. Prepare dinner (Charli XCX) and Zhone (Slayyyter)-produced “Joyride,” a bouncing, horn-spiked celebration document on which she sings, “Rev my engine til you make it purr/ Keep it kinky, but I come first/ Beep-beep b–ch, I’m outside/ Get in loser, for the joyride.”

Now not for not anything, Kesha mentioned “Joyride” was once birthed each later the agreement of her Luke swimsuit in addition to within the wake of a dissolution with anyone she felt was once “in it for the wrong reasons and was a bit of a starf–ker,” and whose constancy she assessed in probably the most Kesha method imaginable. “I decided to test that theory and took one of my friends instead of him to Taylor Swift’s party. He came over the next day and broke up with me,” she mentioned.

At this level she hasn’t get a hold of a title for the follow-up to her uncooked, 2023 5th studio novel, the not-to-subtly titled Gag Layout, which marked her ultimate shed thru RCA Data and Luke’s Kemosabe Data. The phrases that store coming to thoughts as she ponders a reputation for it also are pointed and telling: liberty, protection, pleasure.

“This record is my little wild child,” she mentioned, describing Gag Layout so as to give tone to her extra painful feelings. “I was really vulnerable. Now I’m really trying to make way for the bad b–ch. I’m giving her the moment — because we need the space to have all the emotions safely. I capture the empowered emotions, so that I can listen back to it when I’m not feeling that way.”

Psyched to be “100 percent in control of everything now,” Kesha mentioned her fresh track wealthy person past is permitting her to do all of the issues: “ideating the song, writing the song, singing the song, comping the song, coproducing the song, marketing the song, designing what I’m wearing for the song.”

As evidenced via the bubbly playful vibe of her recent social media posts, Kesha is leaning into the which means of her title in Russian (“innocent joy”) as a result of, as she mentioned, “my soul needs this album. I need to reclaim my joy. Because I fought so f–king hard for it.”

She additionally loves the truth that her fortitude and defiant spirit have obviously helped empower a fresh pace of strident feminine pop stars who’re embracing their authenticity. “I do have a sense of feeling protective of young women in music. I really hope my joy can stand for others to know that it’s available to them and to not give up,” she mentioned of the singers she regularly DMs to deal herself up for recommendation or a type sounding board. “I enjoy feeling my power, which hasn’t been available to me for a really long time, and I’d love to give that gift to others if I can.”

She in particular screams out Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp, regarding the terminating because the “most genuinely cool, calm, unbothered, iconic pop girlie.” Kesha invited Rapp to accomplish together with her in Brooklyn in Nov. 2023 and Rapp returned the bias at April’s Coachella Pageant, the place Kesha carried out her Billboard Sizzling 100 topper “Tik Tok,” which pointedly featured a revised line dissing embattled hip-hop wealthy person Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was once indicted on intercourse trafficking fees utmost occasion amid a bundle proceedings alleging sexual attack and harassment; Diddy has denied the costs.

Even though Roan drew consideration for taking part in to what was once described as the largest daylight hours population in Lollapalooza historical past this summer season, Kesha mentioned she may sense the strain the “Hot To Go” singer was once most probably feeling all the way through a future many noticed as a dream state of affairs.

“Kesha was so lovely to me after my Lollapalooza set,” Roan advised the brochure. “Because with that huge of a crowd, maybe only five other people there understood what that’s like. Kesha came to talk to me after, and it felt like a big sister was helping me through it. Me and Reneé were crying because we felt like we were seen in a way we never had been before. Kesha has always stood up for women and what she believes in and that’s very inspiring.”