Kelsey Feral is set to release “Pillowcase,” the forthcoming single from her upcoming baroque pop album, If I Fumbled a Girl Like Me, I’d Listen to an Album That Flays Me Alive Just to Hear Her Voice Again. Following the previously released singles “Turn You” and “Slip & Fall,” “Pillowcase” finds Feral turning details of a failed relationship into a darkly funny, painfully candid pop song about excuses, hindsight, and realizing it’s time to go.
The song was inspired by Feral’s relationship with a Philosophy PhD candidate she dated from 2023 to 2024 while they were both graduate students at UC Riverside. The problem, as Feral tells it, was simple: he owned one set of sheets, slept with multiple women in them, and did not wash them before Feral came over.
Her response was to communicate that this was disrespectful. Then, in what she now recognizes as a doomed effort, she bought him another set of sheets.
The spare sheets, predictably, did not solve the problem. Feral eventually realized that even with two sets available, her ex was still not washing them before she came over. What began as an absurdly specific relationship grievance became something larger for Feral: an examination of the ways people negotiate themselves downward inside relationships, and the point at which embarrassment becomes clarity.
“Pillowcase” is ultimately less about dirty sheets than it is about the wake up call around how much disrespect you were willing to rationalize in the name of love. Yet the song also carries a measure of relief. Feral did eventually leave, avoiding what she describes as the greater pain of spending a lifetime with someone who consistently disrespects you.
That tension between romantic devastation and intellectual analysis defines the larger album. If I Fumbled a Girl Like Me, I’d Listen to an Album That Flays Me Alive Just to Hear Her Voice Again grew out of the aftermath of the relationship and became an ambitious pop project that weaves Feral’s background in creative writing together with her experience of being romantically involved with a philosophy scholar.
After the breakup, Feral began writing songs about the relationship and realized she was building an entire pop album that could interrogate the breakup through philosophy. She began with a reading list of 30 books that she knew her ex was either a major fan of or actively using in his dissertation. While “Pillowcase” is one of the album’s less philosophy-heavy tracks, the intellectual framework runs throughout the larger project, turning the record into both a breakup album and an excavation of the ideas, arguments, and self-justifications that can keep someone trapped in a relationship long after they should have left.
The upcoming album follows Feral’s 2025 EP, Overreacting, which showcased her ability to move fluidly between punk, country, and other unexpected sounds. Her forthcoming LP pushes further into baroque pop, alternative pop, experimental pop, dream pop, and synth pop, drawing comparisons to artists including Ethel Cain, M83, BETWEEN FRIENDS, Zella Day, Halsey, panicbaby, and Erin LeCount.
Feral first gained traction in the indie rock scene with her 2018 album Trauma Portfolio. Her iconic DIY punk track “Fuck the Bourgeoisie” has surpassed 1.5 million Spotify streams and appeared on the soundtrack for Season 1 of Amazon Prime’s We Were Liars in 2025.
An artist whose work extends well beyond music, Feral holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside and a BA from UC Berkeley. She is also an author, filmmaker, and stand-up comic, bringing a multidisciplinary sensibility to a body of work that is as interested in language and narrative as it is in melody and sound.Lyrics, composition and performanceKelsey Feral (writing credit under her real name, Kelsey Ferrell)Production, mix and masterGerry HirschfeldPress photosTatiana Yoon
Kelsey Feral says, “I had this radical idea that a 30 year old man should own more than one set of sheets. Looking back I just cringe so hard that I actually thought that was a nice gift to get him. Like girl, stand up, that’s not a cute gift, that’s a reason to leave.”
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