Kim Petras has built a reputation for Barbie doll imagery and bubble-gum pop sounds. So fans started to wonder what was going on when, about a month ago, the pop singer started posting strange images on on social media — creepy, dark self-portraits with dripping blood and blank eyes.
When the clock struck midnight on October 1, it all became clear. Petras dropped a surprise Halloween-themed mixtape called Turn Off the Light, Vol.1, featuring spooky sounds, macabre themes and a scene-stealing guest appearance from horror hostess Elvira.
A longtime fan of horror movies and Halloween, Petras says she been itching to make a darker kind of pop record for years. "I think they can stand on their own," Petras says of the songs on Turn Off the Light. "That's important to me, as a fan of pop: I wanted them to be songs that you can listen to all year, but that fit into a Halloween-related context." Hear more from her conversation with NPR's Ari Shapiro at the audio link.
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