Areli Castro knew exactly what story she wanted to tell in her debut KiNG MALA album after a lengthy meeting with her producer. The cinematic world she wanted to create needed to be the most experimental she’s ever gone, so hours were spent carving out every single moment of the story. Every beat needed to be accounted for.

The first question her producer asked her was, “What are you interrogating?” She decided to lay it all out right there.

“I told him that I felt like my humanity was getting in the way of my greatness,” she said. “I wanted this story to be a conversation about that; about the difference between humanity and greatness and what is so contradictory about them. I also knew I wanted it to be very horror inspired because that’s my love, my light. We talked for a long time and I realized it’s a possession story. This is a story of an entity of power itself taking a body, and thus the story was born.”

Despite building a narrative, the songs would end up being deeply personal. It was important that everyone involved have a vast understanding of how the story needed to be told, so she created a crime drama-style mood board that laid out the project in its entirety: plot, inspiration and all the conversations leading up to recording. The mood board was brought out for every new writing session, and new players were introduced to it before writing and recording began. They called it, “The Spiel”.

Beginning each session with the mood board and “The Spiel” helped keep the vision clear and focused, and brought out the best in this team of writers, producers, string players, choir singers, instrumentalists and brass players. They had the entire story laid out in front of them, they just had to create songs that fit each step of the hero’s journey.

“Everyone was so excited to be a part of it,” she said. “Seeing some of this beautiful community come together around this freaky little story was so incredible.”

By choosing this writing method, Castro learned that she thrives creatively when she has the opportunity to take her time to build a world around her music. She went into every session knowing that she was building on the day before instead of starting over every time. It felt freeing and inspiring. The end result was 12 songs and one poem that inspired the title: And You Who Drowned In The Grief Of A Golden Thing.

“I felt like it was a story of the grief that you experience through your desire,” she said. “Your desire for greatness leaves you consistently disappointed, just because there’s always this higher expectation of you. There’s a lot of grief in knowing that you’ll never reach this higher point, this golden thing. You don’t have a name for it, this perfect version of yourself.”

In the first stanza of the poem, she wrote:

you who drowned in all that grief

you pray for more

a golden thing

She realized it was the entity, speaking to the protagonist. The album was a dive into desire vs. obsession, humanity vs. monstrousness - and the consequences of all four.

Prior to the album’s release, there were three songs she knew would best encapsulate the album. First, “GØD”, a bridge between past and future sound; second, “FUN!”, a taste of the vibe of the album; and third, “DEVOTION”, a nod to the R&B artists that made a mark on the start of her musical career.

It was important that this highly conceptual album have stunning visual components to go alongside the songs. Every visual element was explained to the creative director, Marly Hall, who took references from Castro’s beloved horror genre and brought them to life through 24 different setups filmed in roughly two weeks.