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Kimiko Glenn has spent years letting other people see her as Kiff, Baby Shark, Peni Parker, Brook Soso, and whatever other animated, theatrical, or streaming-world oddity happened to need her voice, face, or well-timed panic. But with her debut EP Modern Dance, Glenn is stepping into the much more dangerous role of herself, which, as career moves go, seems wildly unfair to someone who admits she doesn’t even like attention at dinner. Glenn spoke with Kyle Meredith about turning years of private songwriting into public pop, the dating stories behind the record, and how music videos became her accidental gateway drug to directing. Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Glenn says songwriting had long been her private pressure valve, a little emotional trapdoor she could open and close without anyone asking for a rollout plan. “I’ve always written music. It’s something that makes me feel better,” she says, describing it as “my own version of journaling.” For years, the songs would get half-built and tossed back into the Notes app, because touring after Spring Awakening had already taught her that the musician lifestyle was not exactly built for a homebody Cancer with animals and a need for cozy chaos. The shift came during COVID, when she started sharing songs with trusted musician friends who told her, annoyingly enough, that they were good.
Modern Dance may wear synths and pop hooks, but Glenn is not hiding the source material. “This is real experiences. Unfortunately all real experiences,” she says of the EP’s dating theme, before widening the lens from personal wreckage to the current climate between men and women. On “Hang Out Forever,” she found one of the rare sweeter stories, writing it about a guy who was, in her words, “one of two guys in the past seven years slash maybe my whole life who has actually been nice to me.” Naturally, sincerity required a hostage-comedy video concept. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, what if I trapped him?’” she laughs. “What if I was like, ‘And you will hang out with me forever’?” From there, the visual side cracked open, with Glenn executive producing, styling, editing, and steering the clips herself. “The whole music venture has been such a risk in the best and worst way,” she says. “The thing that really was helping my anxiety is now causing my anxiety.”
Listen to Kimiko Glenn talk about Modern Dance, her music videos, voice acting, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below.
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