“I like to curate my shows, and Dancing and Crying is a very clubby show with really theatrical elements. It’s a hybrid of a live show, like going to a DJ set and there’s something very theatrical,” says Canadian electro-pop artist Kiesza – best known for 2014 debut single “Hideaway,” which debuted at #1 on the UK Singles Chart and went on to go platinum in four countries and gold in an additional four – of the her current world tour, which kicked off May 20th in Atlanta and will hit The Foundry at The Fillmore on June 11th, its penultimate date (Europe and UK were in-between). The tour follows the May 8th release of Dancing and Crying: Vol. 3, the third entry in a collection of dance EPs inspired by Kiesza’s reminiscences of nights spent on the dancefloors of New York City in her early twenties.
“They’re all very different and yet they all feed into one another,” Kiesza says of the trilogy of EPs during a phone chat earlier this month, slightly prior to both Vol. 3’s drop and the accompanying tour (at which time she tells me she’s currently trying to remember the choreography from her most recent shows in addition to coming up with choreography for the new songs). “I don’t always get all the songs done before one is released, so some songs carry over. Like, some songs written around the time of the second one will wind up on the third one, or some songs written around the time of the first one might even wind up on the third one,” she explains, going on to say, “They all have little bits of each other in them, but they each have a song that seems central to build around.”
FEMMUSIC characterizes Dancing and Crying: Vol. 3’s second and most recent single, “When I’m Dancing,” by saying, “With smooth, technically perfected vocals and steady, hypnotizing production, ‘When I’m Dancing’ captures the universal sentiment of letting go of everyday struggles on the dancefloor,” but Kiesza tells me that the release actually had some seemingly unlikely influences: “For Vol. 3, I was listening to a lot of Pink Floyd. You can hear the guitar and the drums and the use of panning. I wanted to pan really hard, but then I realized not everyone can hear out of both ears, so I softened it a little bit… but I wanted to create a 3D effect.” She goes on to explain that much of the EP’s sound was inspired by the studio experience itself: “Vol. 3 was done all in an analogue studio; we were like kids in a candy shop with all these synthesizers and vintage mics.”
Kiesza has been bringing her dance EPs to stages across North America (and now the world) since Dancing and Crying: Vol. 1 dropped in May of 2024, and the live show has apparently been transforming along the way. “I’ve been evolving it as I go. It really is a unique, hybrid show. In dance music, most people are DJs, but I’m a really theatrical performer,” she explains, admitting that she was originally leaning a little more on the latter approach: “For the tour for the first EP, it was essentially a theatre show to dance music, but it was definitely way too long, like over an hour and a half, and I think some people were happy to leave [laughs].” However, she assures fans that her theatricality isn’t something she plans to let go of anytime soon.
“They loved watching me do my big theatre production, but they weren’t really dancing. And because it’s dance music, I want them to experience the music. So, the next show was kind of like a DJ set, but there were no breaks, one song flowed into every other song. For certain songs they wanted to sit and watch me, and sometimes they wanted to dance… The Dancing and Crying Vol. 2 tour worked really well, so I’m building on that concept, but maybe with one break, just for me to catch my breath and have some water [laughs].”
This eclecticism apparently applies to Kiesza’s sense of style as well: “I’m like the anti-brand artist, and it’s not that I have anything against brands, it’s just I really have that many vibes to my personality! I dramatize how I’m feeling every day. I’m eccentric in that way, and so is my mom, and so is my grandma!” However, she does admit to understanding the concept of traditional branding, even if she’s happy to be beyond that point in her career: “For ‘Hideaway,’ I did do the branding thing, and it does work… but then you change and you get upset. I get it, that ‘90s girl with the Reeboks and the mohawk’ thing, and that became my brand, but then they’re like, ‘Don’t take your mohawk off, that’s your brand!’ I understand the corporate side, but I’m eclectic and that’s what defines me!”
I ask if she has any looks amongst fans that she especially appreciates, or that she would encourage fans to consider when coming out to the Dancing and Crying Tour, and Kiesza tells me, “They’ll dress up like an eccentric version of themselves, like themselves with glitter, while they want to wear glitter every day… I just like it when they aren’t afraid to not hold back. Like, if they’ve ever been like, ‘I wanted to wear that and didn’t,’ this is the time for that! This is the show!” And, fortunately, she tells me these tours have been attracting the kinds of audiences more than willing to give themselves to these sentiments: “Because I’m just touring again, I’ve kept it small, really small venues where I can control the lighting, with these core fans dancing their butts off, singing all of the old songs and the new songs… It’s the core fanbase and it’s an emotional experience… It is very much a dance party, but we connect.”
While Kiesza tells me that intimate shows with core fans tend to be her favorite, she does have more than a bit of experience playing to significantly bigger crowds, perhaps most notably a handful of 2014 dates providing support for Demi Lovato (with whom our phriend Cobrah also recently shared a stage) on her Demi World Tour arena jaunt, which she admits to enjoying, as well: “When I’m with deadmau5 [whose 2020 single ‘Bridged by a Lightwave’ she features on], I’m playing for like 10,000 people… And I’ve played festivals, and it’s exposure to a bigger fanbase, and when people see you live for the first time, they remember it. I’ve actually had a lot of people meet at my sets at festivals and go on to get married.”
We almost got a chance to see Kiesza on a significantly larger stage – well, split the difference between 10,000 and The Foundry – in the summer of 2021 while she was opening for our buddy Lindsey Stirling (whose Artemis Tour played The Met), but her whole team got COVID and she and the other two members of her crew who tested negative decided to rent a van and book it back to their home in LA, which she admits may have been for the best, considering she was still recovering from a serious car accident in 2017 that led to a two-year hiatus due to a traumatic brain injury: “With the brain surgery, I was still in the midst of recovery… That was a fun show, but I wasn’t able to do choreography because of my brain injury, so I was freestyling… And everyone was like, ‘Should we be doing this?’”
Joining Kiesza for her North American dates is “raptress/actress” Rye Rye, who made a major splash with 2012 debut LP Go! Pop! Bang! and her appearance in 21 Jump Street the same year, but has been a bit out of the mainsteam spotlight for a few years. “A lot of musicians who fall off the map, it’s not because of her or her music, but it’s like a label situation,” explains Kiesza, before telling me she’s a big fan of the musician: “I love Rye Rye! My dancer Jaylen [Brown] literally screamed when the announcement came in!” (Brown also appears on Dancing and Crying: Vol.2’s “Runway,” which you’ll likely hear at The Foundry.) And Kiesza tells me she appreciates pairing with artists like Rye Rye: “I really try to lean into the indie artists. We need to stick together out there… And I think our music goes really well together. I was touring with Bonnie McKee, who I love, but she wasn’t available.” However, Kiesza tells me she definitely doesn’t mind having Rye Rye filling McKee’s role: “I’m gonna be fangirling hard for my opening act!”
Although an April press release called Dancing and Crying: Vol. 3 “the final installment of the singer’s dance trilogy,” Kiesza tells me that that’s not actually true: “I definitely have another volume of Dancing and Crying. Dancing and Crying was created for me to grow through dance music.” But she also tells me that there are additional musical projects she’s hoping to have in the relatively near future: “I have a bunch of folk music, and it wasn’t meant to be released. It was just for me, like a journal entry, but some friends heard it and really liked it… And I did an orchestra show a few years ago and that was incredible, so I’d like to explore that, and maybe even doing a ballet to my music, like making a ballet for me with my repertoire and collaborating with other artists… I’m really into not limiting myself.”
Since 2020 sophomore LP Crave, all of Kiesza’s releases have come courtesy of her own label, Zebra Spirit Tribe, which she tells me she also hopes and plans to expand in the future, bringing on additional artists: “I do want to build the label. I remember sending notes to my friends who had labels about artists I loved, and they were like, ‘They don’t have the Spotify numbers,’ or whatever, but it’s about a feeling, and of course [those artists] got huge! I feel very confident in taking risks, so I think the label will be really special in that way. I mean, I would sign a 90-year-old! It’s not about Instagram likes.” However, she admits that having your own label definitely isn’t easy… and that she’s grateful for the help that she has: “It’s tough, but it’s rewarding to have the freedom to do what I want, and nothing can replace that… but I really have to thank my manager a lot because she really helps me with the backend.”
Those who caught the latest edition of Philthy Radio (now streaming via Y-Not Radio) heard “Sky Ain’t The Limit,” a Crave track that I spun during a block dedicated to recent and upcoming graduates. And while she hasn’t played the song in quite some time, Kiesza admits that not only does she still like it, but that it also serves as a milestone of sorts: “I love that song! During that time when I was recovering, I was told this is what to expect for the rest of my life, but that turned out not to be true… That was the first song I did with Jess Cake (with his band, Lick Drop), who produced Dancing and Crying: Volume 3 [who will also be DJing onstage for Kiesza].” She also informs me that that’s one of the songs we missed out on during the Lindsey Stirling tour, and while she thinks it’s really cool, it might not quite fit the theatrical theme of this tour: “A lot of Crave songs haven’t been making the setlist. We had been playing ‘Love Me with Your Lie,’ but it might get cut [laughs].”
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