Paige Kennedy Explores Their Male Childhood Alter-Ego on New Single “He Is”

Kent-raised, London-based alt-pop songwriter Paige Kennedy’s energetic sound brings together a mix of indie, funk and electronic stylings. Their latest release, “He Is,” showcases their style, and as the latest single to be taken from their upcoming EP Doubles, is set to be the most reflective moment from the record.

As the EP’s closing track, “He Is” is a lofi-R&B gender-queer track that explores Kennedy’s own gender fluidity in childhood, through the character ‘He’. Set at the onset of puberty, ‘He’ has a growing awareness of the fact that their days are numbered due to social pressures and body changes. The song also touches on the demand to perform masculinity both through idealised body image and appearing powerful and brave for men of all ages.

The release of the single comes alongside the official music video, directed by Katie Grenville. Grenville shares that, “When [Kennedy] described to me the inspiration for this song it resonated with me a lot. For me, the song captures very sensitive and complicated notions about gender identity. The song is about a person in two halves—it’s about developing out of childhood, and the trauma of feeling like a foreigner in a body that is changing and developing beyond your control. It’s about navigating a body in a state of flux, and the loss, and grieving, of a past self that is no longer recognisable in a body that has experienced the changes of adolescence.” Emotionally charged lyrics tell the story as scenes of self-exploration play out in the video, Kennedy diving into the theme of duality and gender fluidity through lyrics such as “He is my nighttime body / will He wake up for me” and “How can they say being Him isn’t right / when they don’t know that He lives in my insides?”

Grenville further speaks to the music video and the subject matter at its heart, saying: “It’s incredibly difficult to express through art what it means to experience gender fluidity—to try and describe something that is, by nature, constantly realigning, rebalancing and reluctant to classification. I’m extremely happy to have worked on a project where the goal was to bring attention and representation to this particular kind of queer experience. I hope that the song and video resonates with people, and that it communicates what I see as the beauty in recognising and celebrating all the nuances and idiosyncrasy of queer and non-binary gender identities.”

‘He Is’ follows the EP’s well-received lead single “This Is The Girl” and follow-up release “Love You From A Distance.” New EP Doubles will be released April 14 2023 via Open Sandwich, and follows the release of the 2021 EP, 4 Degrees.

Live Dates:

April 19th – London – The Lower Third (w/ NIMMO)