Gay Meat to Tour East Coast with Imperial Teen, Debuts New Single 'Leslie'

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Karl Kuehn's project explores grief and memory through emo-tinged alt rock on the album BLUE WATER.

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Gay Meat, the project of Southport, NC native Karl Kuehn, has shared a new single, ' Leslie ,' along with its official video. The release follows Kuehn's debut full-length album, Blue Water , which came out earlier this year on Skeletal Lightning.

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Alongside the new release, Kuehn will join Imperial Teen on a run of East Coast tour dates this November.

' Leslie ' was originally tracked for Blue Water , and the song — much like the bulk of the album — is about pre-grieving the loss of someone who means the world to you. 'It started out as a call to someone who had already passed on, in hopes of finding some clarity in the way the living remember the dead... but it's really taken on a new meaning/emotion to me now that my mom has passed as well. And when we started experimenting with french horn sounds in the studio? I knew we were cooking!'

Blue Water , Gay Meat's debut full length, is motivated by pride, love, and grief. Raised in the small seaside town of Southport, NC, Karl and his mom Karen built a vivid life together. It had always been just the two of them — their days colored by late-night coffee chit-chats, tv binging, music and more. In 2018, everything changed. Karen suffered six grand mal seizures that left her brain permanently damaged, and Kuehn's life shifted toward caring for his mom. Their fiery, free-flowing world quickly narrowed. Though doctors gave Karen anyw here from a week to a year to live, she didn't pass away until January 2021. That time became a gift, one that allowed Kuehn to know the person behind the parent. Across three years marked by a hurricane, a pandemic, and a life upended, he found solace the only way he knew how: picking up any instrument within reach and piecing together their story. Blue Water is a record that gently, lovingly says goodbye to his mom.

Piecing together the sepia patchwork of memories through a child's eyes, the album's 13 tracks were written alone, chronicling the anticipatory grief and the immediate aftermath of loss. Friends including Jeff Rosenstock , Chris Farren, Sarah Tudzin (illuminati hotties), Lamont Brown (RNIE) and Taylor Haag lent their vocals and instrumentation across the record, with production from Brett Scott and Alex Thompson .

Artist Jana Sojka says that 't here are blues for every kind of leaving and every kind of return,' and it's on Blue Water that Gay Meat lets the waves of grief envelop his chest while keeping the horizon in view, treading water until he's ready to step foot on land again. Eclectic in its sonic space, the album details the overflowing, chaotic state of sorrow that ebbs and flows between the quiet and still nature of realization.

Kuehn, who's been making music since he was a teen, broke onto the scene as the frontman of emo three-piece Museum Mouth, who released four full length albums, played over 300 shows and toured with the likes of mewithoutyou and Say Anything. He's been releasing music under the Gay Meat moniker since 2020, consistently garnering new fans with each release. 2022's debut EP Bed of Every saw early supporters in Stereogum, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, and more, cemented by 2023's follow-up Lychee Ice // Not Even Sadness. Gay Meat just wrapped up a slew of tour dates supporting Baths across North America as well as opening for Perfume Genius on his Chicago tour stop earlier this year, as well as supporting Alex Lahey, and separately supporting The Sonder Bombs.

11/3/26 – Somerville, MA @ Warehouse XI

11/4/26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby's All Right

11/5/26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Nikki Lopez

11/6/26 – Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong

11/7/26 – Durham, NC @ The Pinhook

Born Cursed

My Mother's Son

Love For Fun

More Good Angels

Hate

The Powerball

Hymn 1 (Severance Pay)

Vodka Sprite

12,000 I Love Yous

Simple Life

Holly Drive

Cheat Death

Blue Water

Photo Credit: Karl Kuehn

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/GAY-MEAT-to-Tour-with-IMPERIAL-TEEN-This-November-Shares-Leslie-20261007)._