Kat Von D has traded in her tattoo needles for a microphone — but a career in music is something she’s been wanting to do for years.
“Most people know me from tattooing, or when I used to have a makeup line,” Von D, 42, exclusively told Us Weekly, confessing, “Not a lot of people know that [I can sing].”
Von D — who is revealing her brand-new single “Illusions” and its music video exclusively to Us Weekly on Tuesday July 16 — said, “Music has always been my biggest form of artistic expression.”
She told Us that she was “classically trained” as a pianist beginning when she was 5 years old. “That has always been a creative outlet for me,” she added.
Von D is aware that the public was “kind of weary” about her switch to music after making a name for herself as a tattoo artist. (She splashed onto the entertainment scene while starring on TLC’s Miami Ink before getting her own series, LA Ink, in 2007.)
“I want to do this right, especially because people are expecting you to fail. They’re expecting it to be garbage,” Von D told Us of the road she took before creating her second album, My Side of the Mountain, which drops in September. “So, I started taking voice lessons with my voice coach, Ken Tamplin, for almost two years before even releasing any music.”
She explained that before she opened herself up musically to the world, she “wasn’t relying on auto tune or smoke and mirrors.”
When it comes to her new record, Von D said, “All these songs can be sung acoustically and I’m excited to take versions of [other] things so that people can really see that I am legit.”
Von D confessed, “I’m trying not to get offended when I see [negative remarks], but actually, it’s super positive. People [are], like, ‘Oh yeah, I was expecting this to suck, but it was actually pretty good.’”
The rocker, who said that she is a “huge fan” of music from the 1980s, teased, “I love proving people wrong. I’ve done that all my life.”
Von D’s fans will get a real taste of her artist identity with the upcoming release of My Side of the Mountain. The album marks her second release, her first record, Love Made Me Do It, came out in August 2021.
“I would say my genre of music is sad, but with just a tinge of hope. Like anything I’ve ever created, I just want other people that feel the same,” she told Us. “Whether you feel like an outsider, that you don’t belong, that you know, you don’t feel alone in this world.”
She concluded: “That would be what I hope people take away from it. And obviously, if it makes you get up and shake your booty, that’s cool, too.”
Von D described My Side of the Mountain as a “love letter for all of the hopeless romantics, outsiders and lonely hearts trying to find their place in this cold and divisive world,” in a Tuesday, July 16, press release.
“When I was a kid, I read the 1959 novel My Side Of The Mountain and related so deeply to the little boy who ran away from home only to find comfort in isolation, self-reflection, and self-reliance in the wilderness,” she continued. “There’s a comfort in dreaming of escapism, sure. But this album isn’t about that. It’s about confronting the s–t we don’t want to face, accepting the things we can’t control and fighting for the things that matter. This album is about my side of the argument. My side of the bed. My side of the line drawn in the sand. My side of the mountain. And I hope it makes others who feel the same, a little less alone in this world.”
My Side of the Mountain comes out on September 20 and is available for pre-order on Von D’s website. Fans can stream “Illusion” now.
With reporting by Amanda Williams
