Exclusive: Kim Petras Feeds Her Fans With Intimate Behind-the-Scenes Pics of Her 'Feed the Beast' Tour
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Bunheads, rejoice! Kim Petras and her bevy of dance-pop hits are quite literally taking center stage this season on her Feed the Beast Tour. Hungry fans are ready to be fed by Kim's live show and full-length studio album—also dubbed Feed the Beast—, which sonically delivers dreamy earworm choruses, cool synth-funk fusions, and (of course) the pop princess's quintessential bubblegum bangers.
Lucky for them, Kim is a hard worker who is serving up a cheeky, pastel-pink piece of cake of a tour. The result? A jaw-droppingly impressive assemblage of stage wear, choreography, and a music set list that showcases Kim's massive star power. And she's been involved in every step of the process.
In her "downtime"—and we're using that word lightly—, the celeb took Cosmopolitan behind-the-scenes of all things Feed the Beast Tour (never-before-seen pictures included, because Kim's nothing if not giving), from how she prepped to take the stage for the first time and her vision for what fans may feel in the audience, to how she spends her actual downtime when she's not performing. P.S. We also obvi had to chat with her about the “lost” Problématique album, too. (How could we not?!)
Congrats on your tour thus far! Let's start from the beginning: This new album is your first full release for a major label. Did that distinction make the process of penning it different than your previous experiences making music?
Yes, absolutely. It really is very intertwined with “Unholy” as a song, where it went and the success it had. It was my first time being worked by a major label and sent to different sessions and studios, and going to Sweden and writing there, and trying to create in the industry way of making music, which was very new to me because I have been an independent label myself for years before that and just dropped whatever I wanted to drop. So it was a different experience.
I think that's how the title Feed the Beast came to be. It reflected feeding the industry and feeding the endless demand; It's very fitting and it's why all the songs on it make a lot of sense. But my newest project Problématique, which came out very recently, was really written *before* that as my debut album. However, “Unholy” as a song changed that trajectory, and Feed the Beast came out first and now Problematique is out. So it's a trippy kind of weird way that everything happened, but in the end, I got what I wanted, which is as much music as possible for my fans.
I want to dive deeper into Problématique, because it was so unexpected but equally welcomed by fans. Why did you decide to release it when you did?
I've always loved this album—Problématique. It's very special to me and very dear to me, and it's very special and dear to a lot of my fans who heard it when it leaked. I always loved it and always wanted to put it out, and I really struggled to get people to let me put it out. So after I agreed to doing my first big major label and doing all the press and doing all the big things and radio and interviews and stuff like that, they were down with letting me release it. I always kind of had that in mind, and that was always my plan. It was hard to be so patient for it to come out, but I'm so glad that it is.
And we all appreciate it!
Thank you!
You're known for being pretty hands-on with your tour work, from the songwriting to the costuming to the marketing. How did you conceptualize the Feed the Beast tour? What was the highlight of the experience?
My favorite part is always the "from paper to reality" vibe. For example, there are a lot of sketches I made for the iron maiden costume and seeing that come to life was really great. In the shows, I come up as an iron maiden and it's kind of the whole thing, and I wanted it to seem like I'm coming out from the beast there, trapped in an iron maiden and I get released upon this world from there. It's a very theatrical, very dramatic show, but it has a lot of my favorite alter egos and projects and sections because I have so many different personas and things that I explored in my music like Slut Pop, which is my EP about sex, and Turn Off the Light, which is my Halloween project about being a serial killer, and all these different sides to myself.
My show wouldn't be a full experience of me as a person without these personas, so I really prioritized that and giving the show a narrative. It's the first time I really have big visuals like this onstage with me and dancers as well.
And with the dancing, it was really important to me that it doesn't seem like they're my backup dancers. It really is like we're a full team together and it's a different take on dancing than anything I've done before, so I think it's the most me of a show and a little bit of a manifesto of me as a person. I feel like you can understand me better if you watch this show.
I love what you're saying about these different personas as an extension of your music. Do you have a favorite song you perform or even one specific moment in the show that gets you each time?
It changes a lot. My favorite moment in the show is probably when I perform “Hillside Boys.” It's a cult classic with my fans, but I flipped it and made it this kind of Western, kung fu movie version of the song. And on the screen during the song is Hans, my male alter ego who is a hot leather daddy, so I sing “Hillside Boys” to my perfect partner, who is the male equivalent to me.
There are so many incredible tours that happened throughout the summer and are continuing well into the fall—including yours!—, and we've seen a lot of celebs come out. If you could handpick or manifest your ideal front row watching Feed the Beast, who would be in it?
Nicki Minaj, Lana Del Ray, Julia Fox....
I love!
Ah, I know! Me too. And also Bretman Rock, RuPaul, and also Tim Curry.
Incredible picks. I'm manifesting that for you, it would be a pinch-me moment. Thus far on tour, what has been a pinch-me moment that stands out to you?
Throughout everything, the most pinch-me moment I think was honestly last night [October 9]. I played the Brooklyn Mirage—it was a sold-out show. And it was so amazing to be back around the people who put me there and who saw me perform on bar stools and who believed in me and made me feel like I was a star back then. All this work is for them, and I really dedicate my entire life to my art and my fans and their art and making them feel like they can be whoever they are. So being back in New York and just seeing those fans who have been with me for a while and who believed in me before anything else happened was a big pinch-me moment. It was way more important to me than anything else.
You've said before that the industry has treated you differently since the immense success of “Unholy” with Sam Smith and that a lot of people are hitting your line to partner. Is there an upcoming collab—or a dream collab—you can tease or tell us about?
Yes, there is a collab that I'm very, very excited about! I'm just going to say it's with one of my favorite DJs and one of the major electronic music producers out there, so it's another big pinch-me moment. But, yes, I have a lot of collaborations that I'm excited about that are coming up very soon. I can't say too much, but I can say that also I love to collaborate with people who aren't necessarily big or people who are going to get me a big song or anything like that.
I've also always loved jumping on songs—I just jumped on a song by Sofía Reyes and Danna Paola [“tqum”], who are these two amazing Latin artists. I loved the song, so I just jumped on it! Collaborating for me is getting to know other artists and bringing something new to a song and transforming it, which is such a fun thing. I love collabing, and it's one of the most fun things I do.
“tqum” is a great song! A repeat track of mine, for sure.
Thank you, thank you!
Listen to “tqum” (feat. Kim Petras) now
When you're not touring or collaborating with other artists, what's your ideal downtime activity whenever you get a moment to yourself?
When I get a moment to myself, my ideal activity is inviting my friends and team on tour to watch a horror movie with me. *laughs* Yeah, we love just watching old horror movies and we all get together with snacks and usually do it in my little bedroom in the back of the tour bus. I'm really, really lucky that I have friends with me on tour—my openers, one of my best friends in years...my whole team exists with people I've been working and traveling with for years.
I've just really learned over the years how to be an athlete about being on tour—how to protect my voice, how to protect my energy—because everything is for the tour. I really put the tour before my life while I'm on it, and I do everything I can to be at 100 percent every night. Rest is extremely important, hydration, what you eat, how much you work out—everything is very important. I feel like a machine on tour but in the best way.
I love you opening up about self-care; it's important! I'm also curious—because it *is* spooky season—what is your top, go-to scary movie?
This year, it's House of Wax with Paris Hilton. I'm obsessed with that movie this year. In general, I would say it's The Exorcist. I just don't think it ever gets old. I love Hereditary, I love the movie Mandy with Nicholas Cage, too. It's really disturbing, so I don't recommend it if you don't like that. But yeah, those have been my go-to's. And then recently, I really love Pearl so much. I'm obsessed with Mia Goth, and we love that movie a lot.
I wouldn't be surprised if your fans read this and then the streaming numbers for all these movies skyrocket, because it's like, Kim Petras watches this, so I have to watch this.
*Laughs* They're so good!
Speaking of the fans, how do you want them to feel after going to a Kim Petras show?
I want them to feel energized for a few days at least. So far, I've succeeded a little bit in that. I really bear my all in this and feel like it's my manifesto as a person—as an artist.
As much as my fans and concertgoers make me feel like I can be myself onstage and like I can have the most ridiculous dreams and do the most ridiculous things onstage, I want to give you that confidence back and encourage you to have it for yourself. Because without you, there is no me.
Beautifully said. I'm also interested in your wardrobe and your looks on tour. How did you approach costuming for your shows? To you, what's the most memorable thing you wear onstage?
I think the very beginning of the tour is the most memorable since I've got armor on. I come out with a nice armor as an iron maiden and I have an outfit on under it, so that would be my most memorable one.
In general, I approach costuming on tour with what makes sense with the music, of course. But a lot of times, I have dreams about outfits and I wake up and I'm like, This is what I want. I want to be a giant pink cloud and then I call up my friends and we're like, “How do we make this happen?” and then we make something from scratch. I have these amazing collaborators who basically can make anything come true, and these artistic friends of mine just mean the world to me.
Sometimes I'll also ask my designer friends for advice, so it's a process that I really, really care about. Fashion has always been a big storytelling device in my art, so it's very important. And now that I have dancers, I also get to dress them. That's very fun!
Can you walk me through a typical workday when you're preparing to go on tour? How is that different from a typical workday when you're on tour?
While preparing to go on tour, I'm in rehearsals every day, so it's a lot of workout wear. It's a lot of comfortable clothes. It's going over the stage, experiencing the stage, figuring out every inch of it and every moment of it, nailing the lighting cues, and perfecting the timing and being around my choreographers who are incredible—all of that.
So that's different from the tour, because on tour we walk through the show midday—usually the whole show—, and then we get dressed, we do glam, we go to meet-and-greets. I wake up on the bus usually, then go into the venue—I shower there, I get ready there. So it's really straight from the venue back into the bus and then to the next city. It's a crazy lifestyle.
How many hours on tour would you say you're fully on and working?
All day until I'm dead asleep.
Have there been any parts of this process that have made you cry tears of joy or tears of grief, tears of frustration, tears of anything? *Laughs*
*Laughs* Yesterday, I cried because I was so happy. I sang “Minute” to my fans and I was just talking about my experience coming to New York for the first time and really feeling like I belonged somewhere for the first time and like I had the same journey and dreams as the people here.
Aw, at least they were happy tears, though!
They really were! All of us singing that song together was just very, very emotional. And everyone being so loving and still being there on my tour is the most precious gift anyone could ever give me. Seeing fans having fun is the best gift to me ever. I want to make them proud.
BE SURE TO BUY TICKETS TO KIM PETRAS' TOUR HERE
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
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