Oregon’s own khai dreams has released their debut album ‘Absolute Heartbreak’ via AWAL Recordings. Across the 10-tracks of khai’s first full-length album, they showcase their thoughtful and expert songwriting ability while exploring self-identity, romantic and platonic relationships and what it feels like when you hit rock bottom to the tune of self described “unhinged bedroom pop”. Fans can stream ‘Absolute Heartbreak’ here: khaidreams.ffm.to/absoluteheartbreak
Coupled with ‘Absolute Heartbreak’, khai shares the lyric video of the song “Not Enough”, including illustrations and animations from Yana Pan. Watch the lyric video here: khaidreams.ffm.to/notenoughvideo
‘Absolute Heartbreak’ also includes the previously released pop country-tinged “Panic Attack”, “Rats”, which arrived with visuals directed by khai’s friend Ray McMahon and “Bugs”, which arrived with the Yana Pan-directed animated video following a storyline created by khai.
Hailing from Eugene, Oregon, khai, a non-binary, half-Vietnamese American turned to the internet to blossom and truly be themself while growing up. Sites like Gaia Online, Neopets, and Runescape gave them the space to be anyone they wanted. Music always had a similar, escapist quality for khai, too: YouTube wormholes, digital audio software like Audacity, and learning the ukulele helped create another comforting sphere where they could dream. With these roots, the now 23-year-old artist started releasing music from their bedroom in 2017 with breakout singles “I Hold You Close To Me” and “Lost In You”, followed by their collaborative EP with Atwood in 2018’s ‘Nice Colors’. In 2019, touring with mxmtoon and khai’s EP ‘Now and Then,’ which features the hit track “Sunkissed”, which has garnered nearly 200 million streams on streaming platforms and has been used in over 140,000 videos on TikTok.