Kacy Hill has a great elevator pitch: she’s an a American Apparel model turned signer, signed to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D Music imprint. Actually, it’s more interesting than that. At 18 she moved to L.A from Arizona, where she picked up the American Apparel gig. A shot of her on the brand’s website—wearing a white bodysuit—was banned in the UK. Around the same time, she got work as a backup dancer on Kanye West’s Yeezus tour. At 19, she wrote her first two songs. Somehow, Kanye heard the second—a track called Experience—and signed her immediately.
Unsurprisingly, things have gained momentum since then; Kacy’s 22 now. This year, she released an EP called Bloo, and is touring the world with Jack Garrett. She and Jack are in Australia right now for a string of shows, so we sat down with Kacy to find out about the songs that shaped her back in the Arizona days.
The first record I ever bought was…
Baby One More Time by Britney Spears. I think I actually bought that and N*SYNC’s first record at the same time, and I absolutely played them to death. I remember being just as fixated on the cover art and lyrics in the album booklet as I was the actual record.
The song that inspired me to start making music…
Don’t know if I have a single song, but all of Begin to Hope by Regina Spektor really encouraged me to sing and play piano when I was in school. Her writing made me want to write songs, but I think I lacked patience at the time.
The song I’d play to set the mood…
I Will Always Love You, sung by Whitney Houston. Just kidding, I’m so lonely.
My crew’s song is…
Get Ur Freak On by Missy Elliot. Before every show, my band and I crank some Missy and get our freak on. We always need some good old-fashioned confident female energy right before stage, and Missy will forever be queen.
The song I always DJ…
Anything Shania Twain. Man! I Feel Like a Woman! is always a hit.
My favourite song of all time is…
Smooth by Santana ft. Rob Thomas. The song came out when I was like five years old and I don’t remember the first time I heard it, but it has been the most reliably excellent song in my life. Smooth is without a doubt one of the most perfectly written pop songs in existence and I’ll fight anyone who argues otherwise.
Catch Kacy in Australia this week:
July 20th @ 170 Russell, Melbourne (with Jack Garratt)
July 21th @ The Metro Theatre, Sydney (with Jack Garratt)
July 22nd @ Splendour In The Grass, Byron Bay
Credits
Photography courtesy Universal Music