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Queen Kwong

Known for a bold, raucous sound and defiant punk attitude, Queen Kwong is the artist alias of Los Angeles-based alternative rock solo musician Carré Kwong Callaway. Eccentric, discordant, and undeniably magnetic, she developed a reputation for wild live shows on both sides of the Atlantic, which earned comparisons to Nirvana, Swans, Patti Smith, and Iggy Pop. Debuting in 2010 with the Love Is a Bruise EP, she issued the project's first official full-length Get a Witness in 2015. She followed with 2018's Love Me to Death and 2022's seething Couples Only. Founded by Callaway in 2009, Queen Kwong delivered feral rock & roll on albums such as 2015's Get a Witness and 2018's Love Me to Death, even though she had been writing and recording material under her own name since the early 2000s. She was discovered in New Orleans at age 17 by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, leading to her opening for the band on their 2005 With Teeth tour as a solo act. She relocated to Los Angeles where her songs took on myriad different tones and emotions. After taking a break from the industry for several years, she returned in 2009 using the moniker Queen Kwong with a full band, opening for Nine Inch Nails again on their 2009 Wave Goodbye tour. The following year, she self-released their debut Love Is a Bruise. The EP featured the track "Pet," which was used for Levi's 2010 fall advertisements. Callaway spent the next few years writing, recording, and touring internationally. In 2012 she put out their first official single, "Long Gone," written with ex-Icarus Line singer Joe Cardamone, and released a second EP, Bad Lieutenant, on Instant Records in 2013. 2014 saw the release of the single "The Strange Fruit." For Queen Kwong's first official full-length, Callaway spent just two weeks writing Get a Witness, a stream-of-consciousness record improvised in real time, which was released on Dissention Records in 2015. This creative process would define her subsequent albums. She promoted the record with a nationwide and European tour, further widening her fan base with the release of a cover of Chris Isaak's "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing" from Bad Lieutenant, which was featured on the hit television show Peaky Blinders. She returned to the studio in 2017 to pen the project's sophomore set, Love Me to Death, which saw release in 2018. The Oh Well EP followed in 2019. Charting a slew of traumatic life changes, her cathartic third LP, Couples Only, arrived in 2022. Produced by Cardamone and mixed by Tchad Blake, the album also featured guest appearances from members of the Cure and Swans.
© Neil Z. Yeung & Rob Wacey /TiVo
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Discography

16 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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