Today, Grammy-nominated songwriter and performer K.Flay – aka Kristine Meredith Flaherty – releases “BLOOD CELLS” with ONErpm. “BLOOD CELLS” arrives alongside its official music video, created from footage submitted by 23 people who attended K.Flay’s sold-out show at The Barfly in London. Rather than bringing in a traditional production crew to document the night, K.Flay asked the audience to film what they saw, however they saw it. Listen to “BLOOD CELLS” here.

Of the track, K.Flay says. “In some ways, my sexuality feels entirely incidental to who I am, and in other ways, it feels utterly essential. Blood Cells is about the experience of discovering my queerness and being with a woman for the first time. There was so much joy and relief, but also real pain, friction. A rush of life pouring in from every direction. The song is about huge personal change, revelation. What it feels like to become yourself.”

K.Flay has always been interested in what happens when the line between artist and audience disappears. For “BLOOD CELLS,” she decided to erase it completely. No prescribed shots, no matching cameras, and no attempt to make 23 perspectives look like one, all credited at the close of the video helmed by master editor Dylan Coughran; “You’re an artist. I’m an artist. Sometimes we make our own weird little things alone in rooms, and sometimes we throw them at each other and somehow they become a bigger, stranger, better thing. Artists supporting artists. People showing up for people. A community making stuff because making stuff together is fucking great.”

Watch the official video for “BLOOD CELLS” here
Twenty-three cameras.  Twenty-three artists.  One night.  One song. You were there. Now you’re in it forever.
“BLOOD CELLS” and previous single “Ants” – a song about consumerism, disillusionment, and complicity, and a reminder that she’s always been watching, reckoning with the nature of consequence – come on the heels of her 2023 record, MONO, released in the wake of K.Flay’s sudden sensorineural hearing loss that left her completely deaf in her right ear. Since MONO, she’s been able to process the depth of the hearing loss and what it’s truly meant for her life. Compounded with her sobriety, her queerness, it’s all coalesced in a raw, back-to-basics sound that fans of NIN, early Yeah Yeah Yeahs, heavy guitar tones that’d make Gojira happy, the tactile recording quality of Pet Sounds – and early K.Flay – will feel comfortable in.

At 41, K.Flay has distilled the spirit she originally brought into her projects with a level of creative focus and maturity. Just last week, she released a track with electronic trio Levity, “Slipping Away,” which is quickly approaching 50k views in the short amount of time. She’s heard herself on the radio, been signed to big-name labels, collaborated with everyone from Tom Morello to Travis Barker, from FIDLAR to Pvris, Vic Fuentes, The Prodigy, and many more; she’s toured with marquee acts like Imagine Dragons, Dashboard Confessional, and Thirty Seconds to Mars. Now, as a fully independent artist, what she cares about is hearing herself in her music. “When you are inhabiting yourself, you are free,” K.Flay says. “When you’re in touch with who you are, there’s an ease. And I think that kind of freedom of expression is contagious.”

In 2022, the fearless performer scaled the crag and rock of Mount Kilimanjaro. K.Flay is always reaching for new ground. This new music comes out as we approach the decade mark since her breakout 2017 album, Every Where Is Some Where, which included her smash single, “Blood in the Cut.” In the time since, she has been on an artist’s journey, navigating life right along with her creativity. “What I’ve learned about myself,” says K.Flay, “is that I NEED to make music. Before, I felt that I loved to make music. But I need to make it in a real way now, to understand myself and the world.”

K.Flay just wrapped up a support tour with Evanescence and Poppy in the UK, with one last show at Red Rocks coming up this Monday on October 26th. Ahead of that, she’ll play two nights at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco. Upcoming North American dates below. She’s also just launched her first ever paid fan club experience, played at Super Girl Surfer Pro Festival (the world’s largest women’s sports, music, and lifestyle event), and has more music on the way throughout 2026.