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| Fuck it, I'll call her an icon. |
Mikaela Mullaney Straus, aka, King Princess, has an interesting enough bio for someone so young - her great-great grandfather, Isidor Straus, was a member of Congress (and perhaps the only one) who slipped into the icy waters with The R.M.S. Titanic, and she descends from the co-owners of (fucking) Macy’s (though she’s clear on one thing: “I didn’t inherit any of this money”). Even her recent family history ties her to someone interesting - e.g., Oliver Straus, Jr., a recording engineer who ran Williamsburg’s Mission Sound recording studio, where she learned a true gear-head’s worth of knowledge, wisdom and technical prowess.
And yet she’s made more life on her own in her short time on Earth than most of us ever will. The challenge comes with wrapping your head around the avalanche of personal details and complexities that surround the one studio album she’s put out…with a deluxe version.
King Princess arrived with a rush of success: her debut single, “1950,” an ode “to The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (1952 novel), to the LGBT community and queer love,” went platinum both on its own strengths and with a push from Harry Styles…who, by the way, she was scheduled to tour Europe with before COVID took a giant shit on everyone’s life and plans (fucking COVID…). She’s got a number of connections to the stars - e.g., Mark Ronson as the flagship artist to his Zelig Recordings (that was in 2017) and Fiona Apple, who calls Straus “my son” and who featured when Straus covered her song “I Know” - all of which sounds like going stratospheric out of the gates…but King Princess has a strong sense of playing on the outside looking in. Which is a shame, because, holy shit…she is good. But she also sounds like…for lack of a better phrase, a full-time fucking handful.
“You know what’s not a fun person to be around at age 7, 8, 9?” she asks. “Someone who knows they’re going to be famous. That kid is challenging. I was a lot. I was brutal.”
That comes out of a New York Times profile from early 2020, before the world closed shop (and which I’m afraid of opening again for fear of burning my free reads), and I feel like the best way for a middle-aged straight man explain King Princess is to let Straus explain herself by way of some telling quotes - if with some filler by other writers. Before that, though, I wanted to round out her profile and career highlights so far.
And yet she’s made more life on her own in her short time on Earth than most of us ever will. The challenge comes with wrapping your head around the avalanche of personal details and complexities that surround the one studio album she’s put out…with a deluxe version.
King Princess arrived with a rush of success: her debut single, “1950,” an ode “to The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (1952 novel), to the LGBT community and queer love,” went platinum both on its own strengths and with a push from Harry Styles…who, by the way, she was scheduled to tour Europe with before COVID took a giant shit on everyone’s life and plans (fucking COVID…). She’s got a number of connections to the stars - e.g., Mark Ronson as the flagship artist to his Zelig Recordings (that was in 2017) and Fiona Apple, who calls Straus “my son” and who featured when Straus covered her song “I Know” - all of which sounds like going stratospheric out of the gates…but King Princess has a strong sense of playing on the outside looking in. Which is a shame, because, holy shit…she is good. But she also sounds like…for lack of a better phrase, a full-time fucking handful.
“You know what’s not a fun person to be around at age 7, 8, 9?” she asks. “Someone who knows they’re going to be famous. That kid is challenging. I was a lot. I was brutal.”
That comes out of a New York Times profile from early 2020, before the world closed shop (and which I’m afraid of opening again for fear of burning my free reads), and I feel like the best way for a middle-aged straight man explain King Princess is to let Straus explain herself by way of some telling quotes - if with some filler by other writers. Before that, though, I wanted to round out her profile and career highlights so far.
