After years of making her mark on the rock world with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, singer Karen O has finally found her comfort zone.
Karen (last name: Orzolek) releases her first solo album, Crush Songs, on Monday, and begins an intimate 10-date tour later this week in New York.
"I have friends who are producers who've been trying to get me to do a very produced, upbeat kind of 'Karen-O-goes-solo-dance-revolution-record'," she told Independent. "But there's so much of that out there in the world. It doesn't seem like there's a whole lot out there ... about just, like, navigating through your love life .... "
Most of the material for Crush Songs was written in 2006 and 2007, when Orzolek was going through a breakup with notable film director Spike Jonze.
"He's in there somewhere," she said of the album. "But probably less than people think; there are other significant exes in there too.
Heartbreak is one of the feelings that makes you feel most alive. I mean, it totally reduces you to rubble, but you don't feel it very often in your life, and once you're settled, you're settled, so who doesn't want to revisit that melodrama and rekindle some of those feelings?"
Orzolek settled most of her romantic drama in 2011, when she married British film director Barnaby Clay.
"Some of those songs are about the process of actually finding the one that I ended up with. You don't experience a lot of falling in love in your life either, and who doesn't want to revisit that moment too?"
Here are the dates:
09/09: New York, NY @ Manderley Bar at the McKittrick Hotel
09/10: New York, NY @ Manderley Bar at the McKittrick Hotel
09/11: New York, NY @ Manderley Bar at the McKittrick Hotel
09/12: New York, NY @ Le Poisson Rouge
09/17: Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
09/18: Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
09/19: Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
10/04: London, England @ Bush Hall
10/05: London, England @ Bush Hall
10/07: Berlin, Germany @ Heimathafen
