Pertaining to her recently released track “Let Us Die,” King Princess described the experience of working with former Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins” as transformative. King Princess, whose real name is Mikaela Straus, released a video on July 29 for the track. Ethan Gruska and Mark Ronson co-wrote the song.
Per NME, Straus commented, “I was like, this is the type of shit that I want to do,” she told Lowe. “This brings me the same feeling I get from Alanis. And that is what I strive for. And I showed Mark the song and Mark was like, ‘This is amazing, which he does not always say. So I knew it was something special.”
Straus continued, “And he was like, ‘But we really need a drummer who’s going to bring life to this. This needs to be a living and breathing person behind a drum kit and not a programmed beat, not a sample. This is the type of song that needs humanity behind all the instruments.”
Straus said she agreed with Ronson’s vision, with the producer going on to suggest the Foo Fighters drummer. “I was like, ‘Do you think that you could get Taylor Hawkins to play on my song?’ He’s like, ‘Mikaela, don’t even worry about it.”
Straus later explained how Hawkings was very easy to work with, “He took as long as he needed and he did it. And he was so kind and so gracious. And he was like, ‘I’m just so thankful. I just love this song and I just love playing. He was just saying he loves playing drums. And to hear that from somebody who’s lived such a life that, at his age and playing for as long as he has in so many different bands and his own projects, for him to just love to play the fucking drums, that to me is just what we should all strive to be. Somebody who does not lose that love of their instrument.”
The video starts in a hospital with King Princess interacting with a snappy receptionist waiting to see a heart doctor. Straus begins the song and is quickly switched from a red hoodie and jeans to a hospital robe, the doctor in the video is shown with a shortcut and sleeveless dress. Through the middle of the video, she struggles with the nurses and doctors as something is clearly wrong. She is put under using laughing gas and it is hinted that she dies in the operation as she comes out playing the guitar with angel wings.
At this point in the video, Hawkins’ drum is powerful and loud as it introduces the final moments of King Princesses life. The second to last frame of the video has the words
“IN LOVING MEMORY OF TAYLOR HAWKINGS. ROCK N ROLL LIVES FOREVER.”
Hawkins passed away in Bogota, Colombia at age 50 on March 25, 2022.
Following his death, Straus sent a “very respectful” message to Hawkins’ team to make sure it was still OK to release the song with the late drummer’s parts. “They came back and said, ‘As long as he wanted to be on it, that sounds great.’
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