Q&A: Rlyblonde Shines Bright: “Star of the Show” EP Explores Identity and Success
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY KIMBERLY KAPELA ☆
Photography Credit: Emilie Wilde
EXPLORING THE LAYERS OF SUCCESS AND STARDOM – Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Carina Allen, known by her stage name rlyblonde, is back with her sophomore EP, Star of the Show. Building on the foundation of her 2023 debut EP Fantasy, this new project dives deeper into her bold and eclectic artistry, offering an irresistible blend of alt-rock grit and pop accessibility. With infectious melodies and introspective lyrics, rlyblonde creates a vibrant sonic universe that celebrates individuality, ambition and self-expression.
In Star of the Show, rlyblonde examines the multifaceted nature of her onstage persona. While her debut EP, Fantasy, was a step into her artistry, this follow-up marks a transformative phase where confidence and self-awareness take center stage.
Drawing inspiration from her experiences living between New York and Los Angeles, she poses a fundamental question: What defines success? For rlyblonde, the answer lies in owning your narrative. The EP invites listeners to embrace life as the lead role in their own stories. It’s a message of empowerment and self-actualization wrapped in dynamic production and rlyblonde’s signature storytelling.
“This EP is really about the illusion of success, and sort of the way that I've been embodying this character that I put on when I perform. Exploring who she is, what she represents, and what she's shaped by,” rlyblonde shares. “This project is me coming back with a lot more confidence, a lot more embodiment in who I am as a person and as a performer, and spinning this performative character more in a positive way, instead of doing it out of protection.”
The EP’s alt-rock instrumentation, paired with pop-forward hooks, feels like a reflection of rlyblonde’s artistic versatility. The tracks burst with energy, confidence, and a touch of vulnerability, seamlessly blending genres and emotions. From anthems that inspire confidence to introspective ballads that tug at the heart, Star of the Show captures a journey of self-discovery and determination.
Visually and sonically, rlyblonde has created a cohesive world where dreams meet reality. Her meticulous attention to detail ensures every aspect of her work—from lyrics to music videos—conveys her unique artistic vision. In this world, she is unapologetically the star, inviting listeners to step into their own spotlight.
Through Star of the Show, rlyblonde exemplifies the beauty of owning your narrative—onstage and off—and inspires others to step into their own spotlight with confidence and authenticity.
Photography Credit: Emilie Wilde
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 single “Karaoke.” 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: I really don't know where the time goes, but that's just been the pace of my year this year is that I blink and everything is happening. It's really been like a rush to the finish line this year, finishing up all of the music for the EP and all of the visual assets. I went out to LA in October to shoot the title song’s music video for the EP, and also a little visualizer video for “Hollywood,” another song off the EP, so that was a huge endeavor that I had been planning for a long time. That took up a lot of time, prepping all of that, and then literally getting out there and doing the whole damn thing. I'm finishing up all of my wedding photography deadlines at the same exact time and at the same time, I also just produced and directed a music video for another artist out in New Jersey. I was prepping that all myself over the past few months. It really all has been everything everywhere, all at once.
LUNA: What inspires you to push boundaries within your sound? Are there any specific experiences, artists, or moments that have encouraged you to explore new musical territories?
RLYBLONDE: There are a lot of big pop artists that really have wiggled their way into my head and stuff that I just can't get enough of. People ask me what genre I am, and it’s always been pop music. At its core, I write melodies from a pop place. I want something that's gonna be that earworm that someone's going to put on repeat a million times because that's what I do with my own music. But top artists on my list right now are Blondshell, Bully and Mannequin Pussy. So definitely more indie-rock, but also very much indie-rock that's femme-led, or with a female vocalist. Indie-rock blending on this singer-songwriter vibe. I remember seeing the Blondshell and Liz Phair tour around my birthday last year, and it rocked my world. That was crazy. I'm definitely really inspired by a lot of these strong indie-rock women that are dominating right now. I like to think that my new music finds a happy place between ear candy pop and something that's maybe a little bit more singer-songwriter confessional, but still has the edge of more 90s influenced, indie-rock music.
LUNA: You just released your newest EP Star of the Show and huge congratulations! I absolutely adore how it’s uniquely your world and continues to push boundaries within your sound and visuals. What is the inspiration behind the EP and what themes or emotions do you explore?
RLYBLONDE: This EP is really about the illusion of success, and sort of the way that I've been embodying this character that I put on when I perform. Exploring who she is, what she represents, and what she's shaped by. I think there was a big light bulb moment for me when I first started writing the music where Fantasy, my last EP, and especially the title track, was very much about putting on this performative female character that fits these stereotypes of the male gaze and what men are looking for in a woman when dating. Putting on a performance for survival, or putting on a performance out of feeling uncomfortable or not knowing yourself or whatever, that song was taking that and then breaking out of it and having this rebellious teenage spirit of being like, ‘well, fuck this.’ And maybe that's not who I am, but that was what she was born out of. I feel like the rest of the Fantasy EP was working through those delayed teen girl feelings of being like, I don't know who I am, I don't know what I want, but maybe I want something like this. I know I want to make music. I know that I want something different for the relationships in my life. Trying to imagine a different world for myself, and putting those dreams out into the ether. That world for me was very much internal, like I was living it by myself. It existed in a real way for me, of going out into the city and going to shows, and feeling myself, becoming myself. It was a very private thing. Once that project was out into the world and we started actually playing shows, and I'm actually doing all these things that I wrote about, I realized I really found this moment between magic and reality of dreaming all these things up and then making them my real life.
Something clicked with this new project of being like, ‘oh, like, I did that and so now we're here. What does that mean now? Who am I now?’ This project is me coming back with a lot more confidence, a lot more embodiment in who I am as a person and as a performer, and spinning this performative character more in a positive way, instead of doing it out of protection.
The “Star of the Show” title track is embodying that in a way where I can put on this character for my own enjoyment and for my own fun, and I'm going to live this larger than life fantasy for myself. Because why not? Because I can make my life whatever I want. I can be whoever I want. I wanted to be a star, so I directed music videos for myself. I wanted to play shows, and so I made music and I started playing fucking shows. I think that a lot of it as well is thinking about how the music industry and creative industries in general are very much built on an illusion now. Particularly with social media and the ways that we gauge the success of an artist, I just think a lot of it is fake. Especially as someone who comes from a creative background and comes from working behind the scenes in the music industry, I know the reality is not that everybody's rolling in money and living the big life. People are getting their tour vans broken into. People are going into debt going on tour. People are scraping together. People are working day jobs. It's not as glamorous as it looks. I think that this project for me is grappling with being like, ‘okay, I'm so close to hitting this level of success. I won't need a day job anymore. I won't need all this other stuff. I can make it big, just like everybody else,’ when maybe that’s also an illusion. It’s a lot of questioning how I can define my own success for myself in an industry that is pretty unforgiving. I think that everybody needs to make their own versions of success for themselves, or their own goal posts for what they want to achieve and what a harmonious, balanced life looks like for them as an artist. I think it's different for everybody. This EP is a lot of me looking inside and being like, what do I really want? What am I trying to achieve here with this career?
LUNA: I would love to touch more on the creative process behind the project. What did a typical writing and recording session look like? Did you approach it differently compared to your previous work?
RLYBLONDE: It was similar in some aspects of the process, and then different other ways. For this project I worked with my producer Robbie Guariglia, and he is such a talented and amazing producer and instrumentalist. He's been a touring guitarist for years. I have been so lucky to meet him and work with him on this project. Similarly to the last project, I had all the songs fully formed. I had demos and everything put together. I brought him everything, and we listened to everything, and we kind of made a deal. We said, ‘okay, we're going to work on the whole project together over the course of the next year.’ I think the gift of working with him was just that we established early on, a very consistent working relationship. We were in the studio every week working on this, versus, Fantasy, which I worked on each song maybe three or four times in the studio, and then we wrapped it up. This time around, we had the freedom of that time to just really sit with everything and it was such a gift. We spent a lot of time hanging out, listening to music, listening to references and talking about what we liked about certain songs and what kind of feeling we're going for with everything. We started with “Dumb Blonde,” which was the first single that came out earlier this year, and then just continued on with the rest of it. It's been really fun. We have a really good working relationship. He's played a couple of shows with us as well recently, which has been fantastic, a very collaborative experience. I'm just really lucky to have found someone that just gets me like that.
LUNA: Are there any moments or songs on the EP that felt like breakthroughs in your artistry or personal growth?
RLYBLONDE: Definitely “Star the Show.” Even when I wrote it, I knew we were doing something different and moving in a different direction. The demo originally had a very different feeling to it. It was far less pop. It was more me, like droning on guitar in my room, you know. I think Robbie [Guariglia] has this really great ear for what makes a radio song, and I really appreciate that, because I think that we're trying to have something that could maybe be commercially successful. I still wanted to have a very New York feeling to the music. So still something that someone who wants to go to an underground show would want to listen to and rage to, or dance to at a party. But trying to find the balance between being a DIY indie artist, and also having this polished pop production. So we had the general vibe for it. Then he brought in this drum beat that totally flipped the song for me in the best way. I also think that “Hollywood” in particular, when I wrote it, held the same sentiment of the project for me where it was the poignant and more vulnerable side of the EP. I think a lot of the EP is this fun, performative character, but towards the end of the EP on “Icon Baby,” which is my little ballad about being a wedding photographer, and on “Hollywood” it gets a little more honest. For “Hollywood,” I was out in LA a year ago for a month, and I didn't really go out with a plan to do anything. I was out there for a month shooting and working on music by myself. It was the first time I felt like I had actually built something of value at home. I had built a life that I cherished in New York, that I missed. I don't think that I could have really said that with that much confidence in the past. That was a huge moment for me, of being like, I could be out here in LA, making music, making videos, but at the end of the day, you go home to your real life, like you go home to the real people and real relationships in your life, and that has to be enough. I was asking myself a lot of big questions and then finding the answers along the way through writing these songs.
LUNA: How do you hope listeners will use Star of the Show as a soundtrack to their own personal experiences? What messages, emotions or experiences do you hope they can take away from the EP?
RLYBLONDE: I hope that it's a lot of the same things, realizing that you are the main character. Everybody is so drowned in internet speak, and that's maybe not considered a positive thing anymore. But you are the main character in your life. Obviously, you have to have self-awareness as a person living in the world, but why not go for your dreams? Why not pursue the things that you want? Why not love yourself like you are the number one person? You have to find ways in a dying empire to make things doable. You have to find motivation to get up every day, whatever that looks like for you. You are the star of your own show. You have to make that choice for yourself. I would love to see the girls doing their little makeup before they go out listening to the songs, feeling themselves. I would love to see the girls driving down the highway blasting that shit, like that is what it is for me. I'd like to think as well, that maybe other people in creative industries pursuing big goals and big dreams can feel solace in the questions and things that I'm reflecting on in these songs. There’s just a lot of fakeness. It's a lot of living on the phone. It's a lot of shit that is not real. I feel like so much of what frustrates me about the industry and about trying to pursue music are things like TikTok and social media personas and all this stuff that really just rubs me the wrong way, because it feels so against what my whole project is about. I'm trying to find ways to stay authentic and genuine to myself, and I hope that other people may see the honesty in that and feel the same way. I would like to see more transparency in the music industry. I would like to see more people being real in all creative industries.
Photography Credit: Emilie Wilde
LUNA: What is your favorite song from Star of the Show? and why do you love this song? Is there a certain element, lyric or message that you gravitate towards the most?
RLYBLONDE: “Star of the Show” is obviously the star. Doing that video out in LA was so fun, and every video I get to do is the best day of my life. That one by far, I've been dreaming that up for a long time and it just felt amazing to see it through. I worked with my friend and an amazing producer and photographer out in LA, Emilie Wilde, and she helped me put the whole thing together. The whole crew was all women and nonbinary folks. It was gorgeous. It was the best experience. For the project itself, that's really the standout. I'm so proud of that whole song and video, and how it sums up the entire EP. I do think it is a really tough tie though, because “Hollywood” might be my favorite song on the EP, just because of all these things I said. I think it's the most honest and really sums up all the things that I was pondering while writing this project and then finding the answer in the song itself. My original influence soundwise for this project, I was in a huge Smashing Pumpkins phase and The Breeders, and was listening to all this shoegaze 90s music. I feel like that song hits the nail on the head with the sound that I was really imagining for this project. Some of the other songs have gone more in a pop direction which is really fitting. I'm really happy with how everything came out, that song really sums up this whole project for me.
LUNA: As you continue to evolve, what aspects of your artistry do you hope to push further in future projects?
RLYBLONDE: I've always said that I like playing with genres and I know that's maybe controversial. I definitely would like to explore other genres or lean into other sounds as we continue onward. So that's always in the back of my head when thinking about what we're going to be doing next. I'm not really sure what the next year will look like. I think right now, I'm just happy to be done with this and let her breathe a little bit. I'd also like to challenge myself as well, when it comes to all aspects of my musical identity or musical skill set. My background is visual and in production, and I think I've proven time and time again that I can show up on that front. I think that for me, it's like making up for lost time that maybe some other artists have, where they’ve been playing guitar since they were seven or something. I'm still getting the hang of all this. I'm ready to really sharpen up all of my technical skills. I think also being in the room with other songwriters, maybe doing some sessions that are not just me and my producer. Even still, to this day, most of my music that's out in the world has been written by me, by myself in my room. Even just writing with one other person in a more collaborative way would be out of my comfort zone for me. I think I'm just trying to be aware of where I've stayed comfortable and find ways to push myself, because you gotta keep pushing yourself as an artist.
LUNA: If Star of the Show were a movie, what genre would it be, and who would play you in the lead role?
RLYBLONDE: It would be a Las Vegas, West Coast-based homoerotic gay thriller. It’s a showgirl-esque adventure film with some thriller aspects and some nsfw scenes. It has a lot of glitz, glamor and gay. I can see Margot Robbie playing me as the lead.
LUNA: What’s the best environment to listen to Star of the Show in?
RLYBLONDE: Highway, windows down girl, that is it.
LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the upcoming year look like for you that you would love to share with Luna?
RLYBLONDE: I think that my life in the past three years of putting out music, starting a separate business, and also pursuing production and working for other people, it's been three massive things at once, and I'm really glad to even have made as much progress as I have, but I've seen how as I get older, there's only so much capacity that I have. I think this year, for me, is a lot about balancing my time a little bit better, knowing when to say yes and when to say no to things. As far as music, I'm really excited to be playing a lot of live shows and spreading the music as far as it can get. I think that this is a special project, and I don't want to skip over it and move right on to the next thing. I really want her to reach the people that resonate in whatever way that it gets to them. I'm hoping that we can have a lot of fun shows around New York and that she finds the right people.
Photography Credit: Emilie Wilde
