Alexandra Kay released a countrified acoustic rendition of Blink-182’s chart-topping hit, “Dammit.”
On Friday (Jan. 27), the fast-rising country star shared her interpretation of the Blink-182 single after a clip of her covering the tune went viral on TikTok, quickly amassing over 3 million views in just a few days.
“We put up [a cover of ‘Dammit’] on social media and it went viral. People just went crazy over it and we were like well… let’s cut it!” Kay explained to Music Mayhem. “So, we rushed to cut it.”
@alexandrakaymusic I had no idea how sad this Blink 182 song is..😢💔
Kay’s slowed down version of the pop punk hit truly allows the song’s raw, emotional lyrics to be put on full display while also highlighting her angelic vocals.
“I grew up listening to Blink 182… one thing I still admire about punk and emo bands is the raw, poetic, emotional lyrics… that’s what made me fall in love with country music,” Kay continued. “So the opportunity to slow this song down, put my country spin on it and give listeners the opportunity to experience their songwriting as the beautiful art that it is… I couldn’t pass that up.”
Kay explained that the cover randomly came together one day while preparing to head to soundcheck for a show.
“My guitarist Rocko just starts playing whatever song is on his mind and I’ll start to sing… that is generally how it goes when we are warming up for a show. We knew we wanted to record a cover of some sort before we headed to the venue for soundcheck and Rocko just started playing a different song and I was kind of shaking them off song after song,” she added. “I just wasn’t feeling it, so he started playing ‘DAMMIT’ just like the record at normal speed and we laughed! And then we were like wait a second… slow this down, just lay back and pick it and let’s see how it sounds. Once we started, we just fell apart. We couldn’t record it quick enough it was like a gift from the universe it was so random how it came together.”
Fans of the “Backroad Therapy” singer praised her variation of the tune throughout social media and even a few pop punk band even gushed over her version of Blink’s song, which appears on their second studio album, Dude Ranch.
“The fans were so receptive to our acoustic version and when going in to record it… I wanted you to listen and feel like it’s an AK song… I know it’s a cover, but I wanted it to be recognizable to my fans as a cover, but done in the style of Alexandra Kay,” Kay said. “It was so cool to see other pop punk bands like Simple Plan comment and react to our version! We shot a video for it today that we will put up on YouTube with Ray Aley Media.”
@alexandrakaymusic DAMMIT out at midnight 💔
Alexandra Kay’s songwriting was influenced by her love for “emo” music. “I went through a pop punk phase for sure! I loved Blink and their side projects,” Kay shared.
She later told us that she would “love to cover” Boxcar Racer’s “There Is” one day in the future.
Additionally, Alexandra Kay is currently preparing to release her forthcoming, yet-to-be announced debut album.
“It’s a product of the last year, but I definitely still have a few more songs before it’s done, and I just wanna make sure it’s perfect,” Kay recently told Music Mayhem. “It’s my first full-length project, and I wanna make sure that I give my fans something that they listen to and they know it’s me as soon as it starts spinning. And so I just want them to be as proud of it as I will be.”
The viral country hitmaker’s single “Backroad Therapy” and her previous release, “Skip This Part,” will both appear on her forthcoming debut project, which will be titled Backroad Therapy.
