Bella Kay's Medicine Box interview is the kind of conversation that makes you feel like you're in the room - honest, warm, and a little surprising. Sitting down at Medium Sized Backyard ahead of her set, the singer-songwriter opens up about the vulnerable bones of My Reckless Abandon, the sisterhood she built with producer Iderose (Alexis), and the hyperpop rabbit hole she's been deep in lately. The moment she casually reveals a pre-album argument with Alexis over the melody of "I Love It" - and that she won - is one you won't forget.
On My Reckless Abandon and Working with Iderose
Medicine Box: Congratulations on My Reckless Abandon. How has that been? How has that felt? I know you've been performing, hitting festivals.
Bella Kay: It's been crazy. Putting out music is like my favorite part of the job. It's so cool to put it out and see people's reactions - that's always fun. The festivals have been crazy, shows have been sick, and I'm just so excited to do it all.
Medicine Box: You worked with Alexis, who also goes by Iderose. Talk to me about that collaboration. I imagine it was incredible and challenging in a lot of ways - I want to know your relationship with her and the challenges she instilled in you making this album.
Bella Kay: I love Alexis. She is truly like a big sister to me, and I think over the process of making this album that only became more of a thing. We got really close - we bickered, we bantered, we had so much fun together. It's always challenging to put out a record and really work on it with one person specifically, go head-to-head, and make sure you both feel good about it and are both challenging each other every single day. After "I Love It" came out, it was like, okay, we made this awesome thing together and people are loving it - we're doing something right. Then we finished the album, and we were putting a lot of pressure on ourselves. Maybe that pressure wasn't really there, but we were putting it on ourselves. I'm really happy with what came out, and I think she is too.
Medicine Box: When you say putting a lot of pressure on yourselves, is that in reference to the response from "I Love It" - okay, this song has done so well, we're doing something right, where do we go from here, how do we keep this momentum?
Bella Kay: Right, for sure. When something like that happens, it's so exciting and you feel on top of the world. We were like, okay, we did this together, so we want to keep that ball rolling. It was about making ourselves proud, and also not just doing "I Love It" ten million times again, because that's not what we wanted. I'm very artist-forward in wanting the music to be true to me, so it was a balancing act - making sure this was something I was going to be proud of, but also something that could follow up "I Love It."
Medicine Box: Were there times where you found yourselves disagreeing with each other? You're smiling, so we have some lore. When you are disagreeing, does the result end up being better than you expected?
Bella Kay: We disagree often - all the time. I'd probably say there's rarely a session where we don't disagree, but also rarely a session where we're not of one mind. It's a very back-and-forth process, but if we weren't disagreeing, we wouldn't have the relationship we have, because that's part of what makes the music good - us pushing and challenging each other. Actually, we had a big argument over "I Love It." The pre-chorus was originally a different melody, and she wanted that melody so bad. I was like, no, I don't like it, and then I changed it, and that's what we went with. I convinced her in the end, but she did not like it at first. I honestly forgot that happened and she reminded me. She was like, "I hated that, Bella." And I was like, "Well, I don't know - we're done now."
Medicine Box: Shout out female producers.
Bella Kay: 100%.
Medicine Box: How did you two get connected in the first place?
Bella Kay: My A&R, Jeff. He's the goat. He was like, "She's lit. Go work with her." And I was like, "Okay, whatever."
On "Sleep for Dinner" and Saying Her Truth
Medicine Box: "Sleep for Dinner" - even just the title is so vulnerable and really touches on body image. It's so honest. I'd love for you to talk me through putting that song on the album, the emotions that come from writing it, and eventually performing it live.
Bella Kay: I started that one by myself before I was even signed - like last spring, maybe May. I'd written maybe 70% of it, and at the time I wasn't even in the headspace of, oh, this will come out, because I wasn't really a working musician yet. It was just me at my piano doing whatever. Then months later I bring it to Alexis and she was like, "Oh my god." We had this deep conversation about it, really got into the nitty-gritty. We sat down at the piano, wrote the bridge, she changed some of the chords. When it comes to being vulnerable and saying my truth - things that feel taboo, things people think you shouldn't say - I'm so anti-that. Like, half the songs I put out, people are like, "Can she even say that?" And I'm like, "We'll find out." I love to just say my truth. I know if something bad happens to me, there's ultimately good in it. There are probably so many girls who listen to that song and feel seen. I know if I'd heard it when I was younger, I would have felt really seen and heard.
Medicine Box: You're saying the things out loud that women have internally thought about and never explicitly said. I want to talk about you bringing it to Alexis - what was that conversation like, if you're comfortable sharing?
Bella Kay: That's kind of the cool thing about me and Alexis's dynamic - we can truly tell each other anything. I just came to her and was like, "I wrote this song a long time ago. I feel like it could be cool on the record." And she was like, "Oh my gosh, I totally get what you're saying. So many people could relate to this." She just really felt like it was something that should be said, and I did too. We were talking about what it meant to me, what it meant to her, and what it could mean to other people.
Medicine Box: It just goes back to that sister dynamic and having that safe space with that person. It reflects in your music. Congratulations.
Bella Kay: Thanks.
On "A Father's Lament" and Writing at 17
Medicine Box: The next song I want to talk about is "A Father's Lament" - another pretty personal record. In the same vein as "Sleep for Dinner," what inspired you in putting that on the album?
Bella Kay: That's really funny because that was technically the first song I wrote for the album - I wrote it when I was 17, in high school. I came home and my dad was giving my brother a lecture, and I was hearing what he was saying like, oh my gosh, I've heard this a million times. It made me feel a certain kind of way, because when I was younger and my dad would have those conversations with me, I'd be like, "Whatever, Dad, the world's not like that anymore." And then I'd go to school and be like, "Oh, it's kind of like that." Hearing my brother go through the same thing, I felt kind of emotional, so I went upstairs and wrote that song. Then years later I was going through my notes app and I was like, oh my gosh, I feel like this should be on the record. I brought it to Alexis, we recorded it, finished it up, and yeah.
Medicine Box: How did it feel revisiting that song your 17-year-old self wrote and seeing it come to fruition on this album?
Bella Kay: It's really cool. She had no idea. And I think that's the charm of this record - I don't know if there are any other songs I have from back then that I'd ever put out besides the ones already out. So it's cool that there are pieces of me from different years all in one place.
On Leaving Things Intentionally Broken
Medicine Box: You've talked about embracing imperfections instead of chasing perfection. Were there any moments or sounds on this record that you intentionally left broken because it just felt right?
Bella Kay: For sure. There's a ton of that on the record. Specifically, "Karaoke" comes to mind. It's funny - I'd see people reviewing the album and some would get to "Karaoke" and be like, "What? This is a mess." And I was like, well, yes, but that's the point. You're actually getting it. When you're making an album, not every song has to be this crazy polished thing. It's you telling a story. It was important for me to make sure not everything was polished, because I think a polished record is boring.
On What She's Been Listening To
Medicine Box: We end with a little segment called Ear Check - who's inspiring you lately, what music are you listening to?
Bella Kay: I'm listening to a lot of Lizzy McAlpine. She has a new album coming out and I'm so excited. She's always inspired me, but lately I've been back in my sad girl guitar era, so Lizzy's on every time.
Medicine Box: Is there an artist or music that people would be kind of surprised to know you love?
Bella Kay: Yeah, probably. I've been really into hyperpop lately. Tiffany Day - she's been my girl. I love her album Halo, it's so crazy. I feel like you can hear it in my music - well, not really, you can't really hear it, but there's like a little hint of it sometimes. I like to do like a clubby, hyperpop-adjacent vibe every now and then.
Medicine Box: Love that. Well, thank you so much, Bella. It was such a pleasure. Come back again soon. Congrats on the album.
Bella Kay: Thanks for having me.
