Premiere: Boxknife’s new single ‘Ready or Not’ captures the panic and power of getting what you want

Photo by Justina Kellner

Kansas Citians, Boxknife is back whether you like it or not with a bold new single, “Ready or Not”.

As a Kansas City queer dark-pop band made up of members Stephanie Bankston, Britt Wild, Mia Morrow, Brook Worlledge, and KJ Jarboe, Boxknife explores themes of mysticism, mental health, and the queer experience to create a kind of sound we doubt you’ve heard before.

Their newest track blends a sort of dark fantasy vibe with almost nostalgic, yet totally electric guitar riffs paired with lyrics full of emotional depth and genre-defying style. The song wrestles with the fear of getting what you want, and what it takes to be ready for it.

Ahead of their Aug. 1 release party at Union Library—which is free, but donations are graciously accepted—vocalist Worlledge talked with The Pitch about the fresh release.

The Pitch: What was the inspiration behind “Ready or Not”? What does it mean to you personally?

Brook Worlledge: The inspiration originally came from this electional Astrology course I was taking where in the first chapter of the course, the instructor was like ‘I need you to decide right now whether you believe in fate or free will’. Really, just like pondering that question and how it relates to me is kind of like, you know, seeing all of your dreams in front of you, all of your goals and everything like that, and then kind of being struck with the fear of, ‘Am I even prepared for or equipped to handle the responsibility or the pressure, or, you know, anything that comes with the reality of actually achieving what you want’?

The track combines this dark fantasy and mystical vibe with contemporary songwriting. How were you guys able to strike a balance and blend those concepts?

I think it honestly just comes from us as songwriters. We come from very, very different musical backgrounds, so I feel like striking that kind of balance is honestly just part of the course of how we do things. It’s taking just all of our different influences and saying like, ‘Okay, how can this feel cohesive’.

Photo by Justina Kellner

Is this song leading up to an album drop?

We really, really want to. We’ve recorded two songs that we hope to have on it. We would love to do a full-length album. It’s obviously very expensive to do, but you know, we are hoping that we can get the funding and everything to drop it with an album, but as of right now, it’s just a single.

Is “Ready or Not” breaking new ground in your discography, or does it sort of fit the vibe of previous Boxknife tracks?

I feel like it is kind of building on a lot of our previous work, but a lot of our previous work also can be all over the place in terms of sound. Like I said, we come from very different backgrounds, so with certain songs, you can almost tell who the driving inspiration for that sound was. But I do feel like it is a good synthesis and expansion of our previous work.

Since you guys all have unique backgrounds, are there creative differences that come up?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think that’s why we have to have an odd amount of people, so we never tie when we’re voting on something.

What kind of challenges does Boxknife face as a queer band in the Midwest?

It’s hard to say because honestly, from what we felt, it’s like the community is so tight knit, and everyone is so supportive that, I mean, I feel like we haven’t really felt the challenges, at least in terms of our band, because it feels like everybody now is doubling down on the kind of ‘Fuck You’ to everything that’s going on, so I feel like, in some ways, it has brought the community together. I do feel like as artists, though, we’re all kind of scared of everything that’s going on, and it’s hard to strike a balance between putting yourself out there and putting your art out there while it feels like the world is burning, so that’s definitely a challenge, but that feels more personal than actually the community.

Photo by Justina Kellner

For fans who haven’t listened to Boxknife, but they want to dip their toes in what, what would you say to them to get them to give it a shot?

I would say that it’s probably not like much of anything you’ve heard before. We get that a lot. The themes that we work with, I feel are very interesting. They’re mystical, but also very personal, but they can be totally silly. I feel like it’s a really approachable way to dip your toes into those, and it’s probably not like many things you’ve heard before.

Do you guys have an upcoming show for fans to check out?

Yeah, so August 1, we have our music video and single release party. It’s going to be so much fun. It’s at the Union Library. We’ve got drag performers, we’re playing with the Black Mariah Theater, we’re premiering the video, we’ll have a photo booth and tarot and all sorts of fun stuff. It’s going to be a very, very fun, very cool night. It’s going to be free, too, to get in. We will accept donations, obviously, because, like I said, we’re trying to record the record, but, yeah, we just want people to come out and have a good time.

What’s the music video going to be about?

I would say one of the biggest things is this video is also a direct response to our feelings about how much we hate A.I. It’s a dark fantasy music video, very much inspired by Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal and all of these films that relied so heavily on practical props and sets and everything. There was a big dark fantasy A.I. trend, and it made me so angry because the magic of those movies was that it was made by hand, so we really wanted to inject the soul back into that kind of genre.