Directly after the “feel-good song about revenge” Evil Love, the legendary singer Kate Pierson has just released the moody and irresistible club banger “Take Me Back To The Party,” a co-write with Jimmy Harry, known for his work on Madonna’s “Masterpiece” and Pink’s “Sober,” among others. Let loose and watch the video below!

“I wanted this song to appeal to B-52s fans,” says Pierson, who compares the sound to “Planet Claire” and “Dance This Mess Around.” “It’s a disco song that reminds me of a younger Kate from when I couldn’t wait to go to clubs,” she says. “It takes me back to my party girl past! I just love a good dance song.”

There is no voice in alternative dance-rock as distinctive as Kate Pierson’s. Just ask Iggy Pop, Jack White and REM, who all enlisted her vocals on such unforgettable tracks as “Candy,” “Venus” and “Shiny Happy People.” Best known as a founding member of the unique, groundbreaking B-52s, Pierson is beloved for her soaring vocals and catchy keyboards. She has been at the front of the group for nearly 50 years. And now, nine years after her solo debut in 2015, Guitars and microphonesPierson has brought a diverse collection of her most personal songs to date to the stirring, emotional Radios and rainbows (SVR Music). “It’s an eclectic collection of songs,” says Pierson, “hymns, dance stuff, a disco song… Overall, the album has an optimistic vibe because I wanted to release something positive in these dark times. I wanted it to be fun!”

Songwriting is nothing new to Pierson. Even as a teenager, “she had a folk group in high school called the Sun Donuts,” she recalls. “We wrote our own folk protest songs. I was very influenced by the folk movement of the ’60s—that’s how I got politicized—listening to songs by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and Phil Ochs.” Fast forward to the wacky B-52s, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976, who turned new wave music on its head, eventually achieving multi-platinum success and winning millions of fans. But between the B-52s’ recording sessions, film appearances and long tours, Pierson longed to record her own songs that she had written. “When the Bs were touring all the time and had so much work, it felt like a family dynamic,” Pierson explains. “For me, it would have been a betrayal if I had done anything of my own outside of the B-52s. It was a prison of my own mind.” During the band’s brief hiatus in the late ’90s, she finally wrote and recorded enough songs for a solo album. “But our manager put a stop to that,” she says, “because he was afraid our label, Warner Bros., might object.”

Some of the songs found their way onto her 2015 release, which marked her first collaboration with songwriters and producers, including her friend, avant-pop star Sia. The collaborative process energized Pierson. “Collaboration is an adventure,” she enthuses. “You see how creativity can connect you with someone – even if you’ve never met them before you walked into that studio. If people created together more, it could bring different types of people together. That spark that connects you with another creative force, that’s the spark of the universe, the spark of life. It was really great to find out that I could connect with almost anyone!”

To realize their musical vision on a dozen tracks, Radios and rainbowsPierson worked with a number of songwriters and producers to bring her lyrics and sonic ideas to life. She and Sia, along with producer/bassist Samuel Dixon, composed the spooky, rock-infused “Every Day Is Halloween,” which was originally released as a single with a haunting video on Friday the 13th.^th from October 2023. The catchy sing-along melody features a beautiful mix of female voices, edgy guitar and a driving beat.

Another striking video – think Lana Turner as a punk – captures the essence of the album’s second single, “Evil Love,” with a song of the summer vibe that makes it “a feel-good song about revenge,” says Pierson. “A film noir-style short story. It’s atmospheric – and danceable!” Her partner on this catchy track is singer-songwriter Bleu, who has produced artists from Big Freedia to Selena Gomez.

Longtime collaborator Chris Braide practiced four songs with Pierson, including “the most personal song I’ve ever written,” she reveals. “Chris wrote an instrumental track for ‘Beauty of It All’ and the lyrics just came out of me,” she says of the soaring ballad. “The song surprised me how it turned out. It’s about my wife Monica and our relationship. When I met her, I was at a low point and in a bad relationship. Then getting together with Monica was so grounding and empowering – as the lyrics say, ‘Those who walk on treetops will never fall.'” With Pierson’s layered, luminous vocals, the song conveys a rapturous joy. “I love being in harmony with myself,” Pierson says, “and I love a shimmering, high harmony like a dog whistle.” The uplifting ballad “Higher Place” is also “another of my most personal songs,” Pierson says. “It’s about when I left that verbally and emotionally abusive relationship and got together with Monica. I knew there was a better place, but I was really devastated at the time. Monica helped me recover from that and feel strong again. There’s a line in the song – ‘the fight that creates a turmoil inside of us’ – you have to find the strength and the joy to get out of that inner anger.”

Another person close to Pierson’s heart, the late artistic genius Jeremy Ayres, is the focus of a riveting co-write with Chris Braid: the beautiful, lush “Give Your Heart to Science.” “Jeremy was a spark of life,” she says. “I met him early on, when I moved to Athens. He was inventive and curious and had been a Warhol superstar. He was very important to the Bs and REM. He always lived like everything was art.”

The album’s anthemic title song embodies Pierson’s social activism. “Chris and I were jamming on it and we came up with these politically charged lyrics. It’s an anti-war song, a song of peace.” The lyrics reference heroes like John Lennon and Yoko Ono, as well as folk-era Dylan. She co-wrote the call for disarmament, “Dream On,” with bassist Tracy Wormworth, guitarist/keyboardist Ken Maiuri and drummer Sterling Campbell, who have accompanied the B’s on numerous tours. “I said to the band, ‘Let’s write a song together,’ and we came up with ‘Dream On.’ I was inspired by Patti Smith’s ‘People Have the Power,’ which I’ve always loved.”

Radio and rainbows is rounded out by tracks with fascinating characters: the dub-tinged “Pillow Queen,” “a bouncy, flirtatious summer song about someone who’s beautiful but doesn’t really respond,” says Pierson. “It’s a sex song – sexy and bubbly.” “Always Till Now,” driven by tinkling guitars and a rocking rhythm section, describes her ten-year relationship with a boho boyfriend she fell in love with in a laundromat. The funky “Living in Monet” is the album’s only cover. Written by Pierson’s songwriting buddy Cal Ellis, it focuses on 1970s Athens scenesters. Bass and harmony vocals are by Gail Ann Dorsey (David Bowie).

A portrait of the many sides of Kate Pierson, Radios and rainbows has led the singer-songwriter to “do more live shows,” she says. With stripped-down accompaniment, Pierson plans to perform in intimate venues and “let the emotions and feelings of the songs come across and showcase my vocals.”

“My creativity is unleashed!” adds Pierson. “I have many more songs in me and I’m excited to record my next album!”

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