Having released SURVIVORS GUILT: THE MIXTAPE// with Travis Barker in 2021 and a few EPs since, KennyHoopla is part of a new generation that’s redefining alternative music. This past spring, he shared the rebirth // renaissance EP, which tapped into New Order and the Drums, and he’s got another on the way called conditions of an orphan//, out Sept. 19 via The Orchard. It’s his take on 2000s dance-punk, no surprise given his 2023 collaboration with Bloc Party, and was largely produced by Paramore’s Zac Farro.
Yesterday, Kenny shared lead track “orphan//,” a buoyant, rhymically snappy statement about “wanting to lift others up, but you can’t be a good example because you are just as weak yourself. Trying to look alive.” The song, like the project as a whole, draws from the murky stages of grief following his mother’s death three years ago and was made in Farro’s Nashville studio, after Kenny drove 11 hours from his home in Wisconsin.
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Of the EP’s title, Kenny adds, “A lot of the time, I just feel very alone, like an orphan. I’m just trying to find a home, literally and metaphorically — as a person, and as someone in the music industry. I’m trying to see where I fit in, given the circumstances of life that everyone has to go through.”
Elsewhere, Mike Elizondo (Turnstile, Fiona Apple) assisted with production, contributing to “mona lisa we miss you//” and “too many jocks turned rockstars//.” “He was like, ‘Send me all the ideas you have right now, whether you like them or not — and we’ll pick which ones I think have the most potential,” Kenny says.
Listen to “orphan//” below.