Susie and I talk about growing up surrounded by art, leaving New York, finding herself in Chicago, and what happens after the structure of school disappears and you’re left to define “home” and “self” on your own. We talk about what happens when songs stop being therapy and start becoming something looser and more playful, and about learning to let songs tell stories instead of guarding them too closely.

As you get older, you can either build anchors that tie you to a specific version of life or learn how to move freely toward new ones. Abby and I reflect on this as we talk about the slow, often invisible process of learning to trust yourself outside of performance or validation, and the space between who you are onstage and who you are when no one is watching. We talk about growing up singing in church when music felt far from a career, borrowing delusional confidence before it became real, and the moment TSA wiped out every one of her project files.

Low Tide is a post-performance conversation series, and episode one features a sitdown with SAINT KID, also known as Kii Kinsella.This conversation came from a very real place. For context: I found Kii’s music organically and spent months listening to it on repeat before we ever met. That shared history shaped the conversation in a way we didn’t plan for.We talk about going home and realizing you’re not the same person anymore, what it’s like to grow in public while still feeling small, and how strange it is to know people are making memories to your music. We get into where songs come from, writing in different cities and chapters of life, building work quietly before anyone’s paying attention, and trying to keep creating without letting numbers, algorithms, or outside expectations take over.