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Oct 17, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Danika Karolinski

Los Angeles-based indie singer/songwriter Grace Kay debuted last year with her full-length album, Grace’s Gospel. The record expanded on the lush synth pop and R&B shades of her 2022 EPs, Open and renaissance, immersing Kay’s vocals in gleaming synths, electronic textures, and lush, soft-focus production. Today, Kay is back with another new single, “Actress,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Actress” is a glittering and sleek dose of retro synth pop, combining ‘80s synth pads and drum machine percussion with Kay’s airy vocal delivery. The results feel equal parts nostalgic and modern, recalling the chic, cosmopolitan synth pop of bands like The Japanese House, The 1975, or MUNA. The track bursts forward with a sharp chorus before pulling back into simmering, hooky verses, but it also subtly plays with these pop aesthetics. In the track’s final moments, Kay draws the track to a close in a haze of drum and bass rhythms and chopped vocal harmonies.

Meanwhile, the lyrics dissect a toxic young relationship, following as Kay twists herself into an imagined ideal facade to please her partner: “Girl next door and I know all the lines / Meeting all my friends yours will never be mine / We dance, I let you lead / Follow / Lay down, I’ll meet your needs / Follow.”

Kay says of the track, “While I’d love to say this song and my next project are all about spiraling into anxiety and blaming the men I’ve dated in the past, it goes deeper than that. The theme of ‘Actress’ is how I molded and transformed myself into someone I didn’t recognize; someone that would fit perfectly into ‘this guy’s’ life. Throwing away my own sense of self was the deadliest weapon used against my mind in my 20s, and being on the other side of it now, I have the clarity to recognize it.

Check out the song and video below. “Actress” is due out on October 18th via Trailing Twelve Records.