1. “Body Language (Intro)”

Pitchfork: What was the vibe you were trying to create with this first track?

Kali Uchis: I like being able to open a project with a mysterious, flowy, dainty moment—a feather brushing on the top of your skin. It’s a tease before you start diving into all these different sounds. I always wanted to make a bossa nova song so I brought this track to Thundercat, and he produced around it. Some of my writing is very subconscious, and that’s definitely what happened with “Body Language”—I looped some basic bossa nova sounds and just started singing. More than anything, it’s about escapism. I wanted it to feel free.

2. “Miami”

On this song, you sing, “He said he’d want me in his video like ‘Bound 1’/But why would I be Kim, I could be Kanye.” Can you tell me a little bit more about what inspired that line?

I’ve had very few love relationships in my life, but they have been very long. My first relationship was from when I was about 15 to 19. My second relationship was kind of like a rebound, but also a really important part of my journey—he was very emotionally manipulative and just wanted me to be an accessory. One of the first times that we met, he said that “Bound” was our song, because it was right when the video had come out, and he was always joking about how I was gonna be the Kim on his motorcycle. The lyric is mostly a little dash at his ego, just like, “I’m not the Kim on your motorcycle, bitch. I’m the one riding the shit.” That’s part of what was really difficult in that relationship and my first relationship: being a woman who knows what I want out of life and feels very perfectionist about things, the way Kanye does.

3. “Just a Stranger”

This song was produced by the Internet’s Steve Lacy, who you previously collaborated with on the track “Only Girl.” How would you describe your creative relationship with him?

He’s just so talented, and I’m really drawn to artists that are similar to me in the sense that they’re very raw and don’t necessarily have classical training or try to conform to any type of musical standards. His music is so fresh, so young. There’s something so innocent about his music. Working with Steve feels like working with my friend who lives down the street from me, and we just end up making something that’s amazing every time.

In the first verse you sing, “If the devil was asleep, she’d knock him wide awake… But if it takes one to know one, you must not have a clue.” Who are you portraying in the lyrics?

It’s like a fuck you to people who spend so much time criticizing people for being bold and being themselves. The most important line in the song is: “Go on and say what you want, you’re just a stranger watching from the bleachers.” It doesn’t matter what you have to say about this girl who’s powerful and confident. You can’t tell her that she’s being too extra, you can’t tell her that she’s feeling herself too much. Let her feel herself! Let her do whatever the fuck she wants to do! Do you, and let her do her.

4. “Flight 22”

This is one of the songs you did at the Daptone House of Soul in Brooklyn with their producer and head engineer, Wayne Gordon. What was it like working with them there?

It was a huge honor. [The Dap-Kings] made a lot of songs with Amy Winehouse that I really love, along with Sharon Jones and all the other amazing people they’ve worked with. Amy is so many young girls’ influence—she was such an important, impactful icon in music for all of us newcomers growing up.

5. “Your Teeth in My Neck”

This track feels very political, and very anti-capitalist in its own way. What were you thinking about when you wrote the lyrics?

We’re all born into whatever citizenship, circumstances, or class we happen to be born into. Immigrants and so many people in the working class work so hard every day for nickels and pennies and scraps to just barely get by and then realize that this precious life has been completely drained out of us. We’ve all gone into making money for corporations, for these people who barely wanna give their employees a raise or give people a fair chance to prove themselves. I sing: “Rich man keeps getting richer taking from the poor.” A lot of people don’t realize how much their time and energy is actually worth because these companies are putting such low prices on people’s work.

My family was never able to take vacations or spend time that we should have been able to spend because we didn’t have that opportunity. Everyone was constantly working, making just enough. Meanwhile, these people that don’t care about humans or the environment or the health and education of children or anything that matters are scamming the whole world.

6. “Tyrant”

Why did you pick the word “tyrant” to describe a shitty dude on this song?

A restrictive vocabulary is not any fun for a writer, and I liked how calling someone a “tyrant” was direct. I can be really dramatic and overly sensitive sometimes, and that was a direct reflection of how I felt about a guy that was emotionally manipulative. On the track, I talk about trying to decide whether I should give this person my time because I don’t know if they’re going to abuse the power of me actually opening up. If I give you a little, are you gonna be like, “Oh yeah, this is mine now” and then just shit on me?