Q&A: Rlyblonde Reflects on Love and Identity in New Queer Anthem “Karaoke”
DIVING DEEPER INTO HER GLITZY, MAGICAL AND CAMPY WORLD – rlyblonde – the project of Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Carina Allen – returns with her electrifying new track, “Karaoke.” As the second single off her highly anticipated sophomore EP, set for release this December, “Karaoke” blends alt-rock instrumentation with infectious pop melodies, showcasing rlyblonde’s signature flair for crafting introspective yet undeniably fun music.
Rlyblonde’s world is one where self-expression thrives, and “Karaoke” perfectly encapsulates this spirit. The track plays like a love letter to all things flirty, fun, and playful, with its anthemic energy inviting listeners to let loose. Underneath the buoyant surface, however, lies a deeper exploration of identity and self-reflection. The song's lyrics explore the idea of how relationships act as mirrors, reflecting back the personas we embody when navigating someone else's world.
“It's all things that I've learned about myself through relationships with other people, characters that I felt I played for someone else in their narrative, in their life,” rlyblonde says, reflecting on the themes that inspired the track. “I think that this song plays to that as well, sort of the position that maybe I'm playing for someone else in their own journey, and also what that reflects back to me about myself as well.” She contemplates these roles and the ways in which they reveal deeper truths about herself, as well as the people around her.
With alt-rock’s signature edge driving the instrumentation, rlyblonde crafts an anthem that feels both deeply personal and universally relatable. “Karaoke” celebrates the joy, fluidity, and complexity of queer identity, while encouraging listeners to embrace the roles they play and the ways in which they evolve through their relationships with others.
The magic of “Karaoke” lies in its ability to merge introspection with a sense of carefree liberation. It’s not only a song about self-discovery but also about the joy of realizing that our identities are not fixed – they shift and change as we learn more about ourselves. Rlyblonde’s multifaceted artistry shines through as she continues to push the boundaries of genre, blending alt-rock’s raw energy with pop’s infectious melodies to create music that’s both reflective and celebratory.
Photography Credit: Marie-Elaine Gagné
LUNA: Welcome back and thank you for talking to Luna again. It's super exciting to have you back since the last time we talked about your singles “Girl In Your Story” and “Your Angel.” I would love to catch up and see how life has been treating you and what have you been up to since the last time we talked.
RLYBLONDE: What a throwback. It's crazy because that feels like so long ago now. I was thinking about Fantasy coming out the other day and it feels like such a lifetime ago. I've been very busy, staying occupied, working, and living my many triple lives out here in New York. Music-wise, I've been working on this new project that should be coming out in December, and I just had the song “Karaoke” come out last week. That is the second single off the project. I'm getting back into release cycle vibes, getting excited to play another show on Thursday, and get back into it meanwhile behind the scenes, pulling everything together that I need to pull together.
LUNA: Are there particular moods or themes you find yourself gravitating towards when writing and performing, especially in this new era of music? How do you channel these into your music?
RLYBLONDE: It's interesting because I feel like I don't necessarily think about it when I sit down to write a song. Most of the time I'm just sitting down with whatever's on my mind at the moment, or whatever is itching at me that I need to get onto paper or into the ether. I think especially just due to the nature of music, since it takes so long to finish it and then put it out and make the visual and everything, I get this opportunity to look back over the last two years of my life, look at what I've got left, and then pick up on these larger themes that I'm exploring that maybe were intentional, or maybe weren’t intentional. That’s how I felt with Fantasy. It was this larger reflection on my life, my identity, the roles I had played in various relationships in my life, and the things I wanted for myself. I feel like this project is doing similar things as far as looking at my own identity, looking at the things I want in my life, what my dreams and fantasies are. I've been finding a lot with this project that I’m playing with where the line between fantasy and reality is when it comes to the performance of the character rlyblonde.
LUNA: What have been some things that have been inspiring you lately? Doesn’t have to be music-related.
RLYBLONDE: Off the top of my head, I went to The Beths concert the other week by myself, and that was just really inspiring. I just love them. I saw them in LA when I was out there alone, and they're just such a tight band. I love their performance, and their music is just so lively and fantastic, and the energy of the shows is always really good. I think just living my life, also. I got a two month break from heavy labor and working and shooting weddings all the time over the summer, so I had the opportunity to actually have fun, live my life, be in the world, and just experience things. I forgot what it felt like to actually be outside of just working really hard. I think you need to get outside of yourself a little bit in order to have something more hefty to chew on.
LUNA: You just released your latest single “Karaoke” and huge congratulations! I absolutely adore how it stays true to your world and your signature sound. What is the inspiration behind the single?
RLYBLONDE: It's a fun, playful, flirty, queer song. It's about how we mirror to each other things about ourselves, in relationships. When I think about the EP and what's coming as a whole, and maybe my whole catalog – because I think that it's reflected throughout all of my music, in Fantasy, and especially in the double release at the end of last year of “Girl In Your Story” and “Your Angel” – it's all things that I've learned about myself through relationships with other people, or characters that I felt I played for someone else in their narrative, in their life. I think that this song plays to that as well, sort of the position that maybe I'm playing for someone else in their own journey, and also what that reflects back to me about myself as well.
LUNA: Can you walk us through the creative process for “Karaoke” How did the song evolve from the initial idea to the final version?
RLYBLONDE: I had a pretty straightforward demo that had a good rhythm to it, and I really had an affinity for it. Similarly to “Dumb Blonde,” I was working with my producer, Robbie, and brought him the song. We threw out a few different references as far as what the sound should be. We got into more of a synthy place, and then we brought it back a little bit. We had a couple demo mixes early on that really had a special quality to them that we kept going back to. A lot of our process ends up being perfecting the shit out of this pop song, then opening up the old demo session, pulling out a bunch from that session, and then putting it on top of the new version, and then figuring out where it all goes after that. I think that the song stays really true to the original demo. This is also a song we've been playing live for a few shows now this past summer. I wanted it to still have its initial spirit and the initial feeling of when we've been playing it live for people. I think now it's just in its prime state. I'm really happy with how it came out.
LUNA: What do you love most about “Karaoke” and is there a certain lyric, message or element that you gravitate towards the most?
RLYBLONDE: I think for me, it's one of my favorite songs to perform. It's super fun to play that guitar rhythm. It's a lighthearted, fun song. I think a lot of my music from last year was a bit angry, so it's nice to just have something that's a little bit more playful that we can bring out instead of always being so brooding. Lyric-wise though, I thought I was being really clever with “Same bar / Another night / Heart-shaped red light,” referencing this bar “Lovers of Today” in the East Village, because someone had just told me that Taylor Swift referenced that bar in one of her songs too, and everyone freaked out about it. I’m not really a swiftie but I love an easter egg. It was kinda an inside joke with myself, like, 'Oh the pop girls LOVE this bar for some reason.’ It’s really cute though, I won’t lie.
LUNA: If you could collaborate on a karaoke night with any artist – living or dead — who would it be, and what song would you sing together?
RLYBLONDE: I feel like it's got to be Avril Lavigne. My karaoke playlist is definitely like Avril Lavigne, Carrie Underwood, Sheryl Crow and Liz Phair. The more obscure you get, the less likely they are to have it. The biggest rule of karaoke, like the silent rule, is that you have to pick songs that everyone in the crowd will also enjoy. I think that everyone loves Avril. Everyone's happy when Avril Lavigne comes on.
LUNA: I know visual storytelling is near and dear to your heart, especially with Hot Creative and you self-producing and directing a lot of your own content. How do you think you’ve elevated or grown in your visual storytelling since the Fantasy EP?
RLYBLONDE: I think that it's all building on itself. I'm in competition with myself when it comes to making music that I think is not only on par, but even better than what I did before. The visual is the same thing, like I already have proven what I can do, so now I have to sit here and challenge myself a bit and be like, ‘okay, what would be challenging for me to work on or implement into the narrative and into the production itself?’ For example, with “Dumb Blonde,” the video that we put out in May, it was very narrative based, but also took the rlyblonde world to another level of fantasy or magical realism, dare I say. I think now I've fleshed out the foundation for the cinematic universe. I can have even more fun and be even more imaginative with what's real and what's not, and what exists in the rlyblonde universe that doesn't exist in ours. I do really want to keep challenging myself and building off of all these themes that I was talking about before, and role playing different characters in my life. I’m thinking a lot now about the line between rlyblonde as a persona and a fictional character, and also as my real self, living my real life, writing real music about real things that I go through.
LUNA: How do you feel about Fantasy and its impact a year later?
RLYBLONDE: It's such a love hate thing with your old work. Sometimes I hear the music and I never want to hear these songs again, but then I tap back into it and into this younger version of myself that wrote all this music. I'm so proud of her for doing that because it built this whole foundation for everything I'm doing now. Even though I think that the sound of the next project is a little bit different, as far as a larger body of work, it all ties to similar themes. I do think that I have a similar playful, sarcastic attitude to the Fantasy era. I think that this project has a little bit more confidence. I am very grateful for everything that Fantasy was. I think that if I hadn't committed to that in the way that I did, and gone forward with the whole thing, I wouldn't have anything to show any of the people now that are on my team or that were considering being on my team or working with me. This opened up doors for me to have a publishing deal and to have a new booking agent for shows. I have a new producer that I'm working with and I'm expanding production-wise as a visual artist. I'm doing a shoot in LA with a bunch of creatives that I have not worked with before, and so it’s helpful to be able to show them all of the stuff we've done so far. I think that if I'm committed to following this through, I know that I'm going to have to be playing Fantasy until the day that I die. I have much love for that girl, but it is crazy, because it does really feel like an entire lifetime ago. I think it's really special to be an artist and have this living, breathing archive of your life. It's something really unique that no one can really take away from you, so I treasure that.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
RLYBLONDE: I'm really excited. I'm really trying to show gratitude for everything that I'm doing, everything that old me did three years ago to get me here. Just trying to be really grateful for everything that I have, really enjoying the process, enjoying creating, and enjoying the journey, instead of focusing so much on some external validation. I'm excited to finish this project and put it out into the world; to shoot this video and to play shows and be able to play the new music for everybody. A tour in the next year or so would be really fun. I'm excited for any and all new opportunities that come my way. I'm excited for more people to find the music that are rlyblonde girls and just don't know it yet.
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