[Kareen Lomax](https://www.instagram.com/kareenlomax/?hl=en) is an emerging young talent with an unmistakable voice, and she’s officially stepping into her own as a recording artist. Hailing from Marietta, Georgia, the singer-songwriter is best known for her strong pen game, getting her first major placement songwriting with Maroon 5 on “Nobody’s Love,” which became certified Gold within just one year of its release.
Kareen describes herself as an “introverted artist.” She states, “An all-around creative, that's pretty much all I do. I don't really have any other hobbies that are non-creative.”
Her music career jump started back in 2016, when she decided to spend $50 on a Facebook ad for her single “Melatonin,” resulting in hundreds of thousands of streams overnight. The most shocking part is, shortly after she decided to move back to Atlanta from Los Angeles, returning back to her previous job as a dog groomer and picking up where she had left it years before. In 2019, a chance encounter with Diplo on Instagram led to her lending her vocals and co-penning his Platinum-selling hit “Looking For Me” with British producer Paul Woolford.
Fast forward to 2021, Kareen unleashes her highly-anticipated 7-track EP titled _Hard Feelings_, spearheaded by lead single “GET RIGHT.” _Hard Feelings_ represents her life coming full circle, back to where it all began and back to what she loves most.
_Flaunt_ caught up with Kareen via FaceTime, who was posted in Midtown Atlanta. Read below as we discuss her roots in Georgia, her sound, biggest influences, being a dog groomer, blowing up off a Facebook ad, inspo behind _Hard Feelings EP_, the message she wants to give fans, writing with Maroon 5, studio essentials, and more!
**How is it over there in Atlanta?**
It's pretty open. Things are coming back to normal pretty quickly. I don't know if we'll ever get back to normal “normal”, but people are outside. I was just outside. Everybody's having a normal Saturday, so it's nice. Really hot.
**What was a young Kareen like growing up in Marietta?**
Outside of my friend group, I was very to myself. I always had my headphones in at school. Walking in the hallways, people would ask me, "why are you always alone?" Very misunderstood, I never really felt like I fit in anywhere. I was to myself, I guess.
**How would you describe your sound?**
I don't want to call it alternative, because that's a miscellaneous category. It's R&B, but it's crossover. I have my pop moments and I have my alternative moments. It's soul music because you can feel it.
**Biggest influences coming up?**
My sister used to make these mixtapes on CDs. It’d be Jodeci and Tupac, it’d have Eminem, then it’d randomly have Linkin Park and soft rock groups. It sounds random, but it was very fire. A melting pot of different people that I grew up around. My parents love The Temptations, old school R&B and gospel music. My sister loved rap, D4L, Dem Franchize Boyz, Outkast. Very Atlanta. I went to school in Marietta, which is the suburbs and country, so I had Americana influences. I liked The Lumineers, I loved Coldplay. I loved how cinematic their music was. I'm a melting pot of everybody, it's very hard to pinpoint my main influences.
**When did you realize you could do music for a living?**
Really for a living, I’d say 4 years ago. I knew I wanted to do everything. I dropped out of college so I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I'd been doing music since high school. It took a while to figure out and get to the point of "I don't need a 9 to 5 to do this." I quit my 9 to 5 two years ago, so not even that long ago. So two years ago, that's when I quit my 9 to 5 and started doing this for real.
**You were a dog groomer right? They charge up the ass!**
\[laughs\] It's a lucrative career. It's a trade, that's why I did it. I could go get a job anywhere or start my own business. I was doing that for 5 years.
**Talk about "Melatonin" blowing up off a $50 Facebook ad, that's wild.**
End of 2016, I put that song out. I put it out on Soundcloud first, that was the only platform it was really on. It wasn't getting any traction at all. I thought the song’s big, but I was getting enough comments on there to say “oh, maybe I should put it in other areas.” I said “I'll try to promote this song,” because it's the standout song. I had a 4-song EP that I put together by myself, I didn't have any management or anybody really.
I brought it over to Facebook, uploaded it as an audio-video where it’s just the picture and the song. It organically started \[growing\], it got to 70K likes and plays on there. I thought "okay if I really push this, that's cool.” Everybody was commenting: "put it on Spotify! Put it on Spotify!" So I did that. I went from 4 monthly listeners to 4K in a day or two, I’m like "oh wow! That’s a new one." It was the only song I ever had on Spotify, I took off from there. The Discover Weekly playlist really helped.
**_Hard Feelings EP_ out now. How are you feeling?**
I'm feeling relieved to get that out, especially after everything that everybody went through last year. I'm glad I got that time to really work on that, develop it and make it into something that sonically and visually was how I wanted it. I feel really good about it. It makes me excited for more music and about my career.
**Why did you name it _Hard Feelings_?**
I came into the industry with a little chip on my shoulder. I was told “no” a lot, which a lot of people are. Just jaded on the industry. I didn't want to do things the way people wanted me to do or how everybody else was doing it. It was the chip on my shoulder, me letting that go and putting it all into the music. Finally having a story to tell about my experience in this industry, being a young black woman. Putting it out there and saying "F it! I’ma be me. I’ma do me. I’ma do my music how I want to do it." Whoever likes it likes it. I have no hard feelings. I let go of all the toxic relationships I had with everybody else, including myself. This is me.
**What’s the meaning behind the cover art?**
The original image of the slain Medusa has the hand of the hero Perseus who beheaded her. I decided to put my own twist on it and make me the Medusa head and also the one holding it. While I was writing this EP my perspective changed and I needed to slay that part of me and become the hero of my own story.
**I was listening to the first song, who got you fucked up?**
Everybody, I felt like the world had me fucked up. Everybody. \[laughs\] I made a song that I hope feels like that, that's how it was. It was such a relief to get that off my shoulders.
**What is it that you want fans to get from your story?**
I want fans to find their own strength within themselves, the answers are within you. To move at your own pace, don't let anybody rush you in whatever you're trying to do. Don't compare yourself to other people's careers and lives. Everything is not always as it seems either, you just have to do you. I hope they find their own strength and are inspired to be themselves and put that out there.
**How’d it feel to have "Looking For Me" go Platinum?**
That was an amazing feeling, I just got my plaque. \[shows plaque\] I can’t hang it up because I’m about to move, but this shit is big. It’s an amazing feeling really to have a song go Platinum in the pandemic. That’s the highlight of my year last year, and definitely my career.
**Your first songwriter placement was with Maroon 5 on "Nobody Love." What did that mean to work with such a legendary band?**
It was amazing. At one of the talent shows I did in high school, I actually sang "She Will Be Loved." That song was fire. _Songs About Jane_ is one of my favorite albums. I was into all types of music so to have that come full circle, me to have a song on their album and have a song that was single by them is amazing. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, from a writing session in LA that became something Adam Levine really liked.
**What did you learn from those sessions?**
To go into things with no expectations. As long as you love making music, then everything will fall into place for you. You have to really love this to be in this industry. It’s not easy, you have to keep going. I can't imagine if I’d stopped, that's what my Hard Feelings EP is about, too. I was on the brink of giving up music because not to say it was hard and I wanted to quit, but I had failure after failure. Keep going. It was a moment where everything shifted. If I hadn't kept going, that would've never happened. The Maroon 5 would've never happened. Them looking for me would've never happened.
**3 things that you need in the studio?**
Ooh, I like wine in the studio. I like a dessert wine like Moscato, so I can feel the music a little bit. \[laughs\] I have tea and honey for my vocals. I have to have a window in there, a nice studio setup that has a vibe so I can create. I can't be in a room that's 4 white walls. Even a closed-in studio that looks nice, it's hard for me to create in those. I have to have some type of window in there.
**Do you have any goals for yourself?**
I want to make an album. I want to make a full-length album that I'm really proud of and go out there in the world. I want to explore other parts of my creativity. I love film, I create collages and visual art. Getting more into visual art is a goal of mine.
**Anything else you want to let us know?**
I will be doing a virtual show soon, it's called Studio on Sunset. I'll be doing that really soon, people can check that out. Shows are coming back so that's really exciting. I can't wait to bring this project to life and release new music.
