Singer-songwriter with RI roots says mother's death inspired latest album

WARWICK, R.I. (WJAR) — A singer-songwriter who grew up in Rhode Island is set to release her third studio album on Valentine’s Day, saying her mother’s death, along with her father’s recovery from alcohol abuse, inspired most of the music.

“Losing my mom really forced me to find love within myself,” Kathryn F. Hoxie, whose stage name is Kfhox, told NBC 10 News during a phone interview.

“All that writing just came out of me,” she said, adding that she also met someone new and fell in love, while father is set to celebrate one year of sobriety on Feb 28. “Every single experience in my life this year led me back to love, and so it was just kind of a natural thing.”

The album, “Love 360,” features 15-tracks, including "North Star," a balled she released on November 13, 2019, marking the first anniversary of her mother's death.

“I had a very, very tumultuous relationship with my mother most of my life. She was manic depressive,” Kfhox said, noting that her mother had her first episode when Kfhox was only 6 months old. “I really only ever experienced my mother mentally ill.”

But about a year before her mother passed, doctors weened her off the prescription medication she was taking to treat her mental illness.

Kfhox said the lack of meds introduced her to a whole new woman -- her mom.

“It was like meeting my mother for the first time in my life,” Kfhox said. “I had this beautiful year of connecting with my mother and learning about her childhood and what led her to where she was. It was the bittersweet part of losing her. We finally had this incredible relationship -- and then she was gone. ‘North Star’ really talks about that and me needing to find my own north star to navigate life without her.”

Kfhox, who grew up in East Greenwich, moved to Warwick and graduated from Toll Gate High School in 1999. She then moved to New York for college and lived in Florida for a bit before heading back to New York.

Now, she’s in Nashville, where she’s been living since Christmas Day 2017.

“It was my Christmas gift to myself,” she said. “I was ready to take my music to the next level as a songwriter.”

Sadly, Kfhox’s mother got sick shortly after the move. The singer-songwriter was back and forth from Music City to the Ocean State.

“I kept coming back to Rhode Island, so it was really hard to get settled,” Kfhox said.

During that time, her father was struggling with alcohol addiction and suffered a life-changing accident.

But, she said, the incident ended up helping him detox and he’ll be celebrating his first year of sobriety on Feb. 28.

“I’m coming home at the end of this month for his one-year anniversary of being sober,” Kfhox said. “His sobriety opened up our relationship -- and every relationship in my life has evolved.”

After her mother died and her father began his road to recovery, Kfhox said she knew it was time to start writing.

She also found a new boyfriend, who introduced her to a producer, and immediately got to work.

“I fell in love this last year,” Kfhox said. “Our anniversary is actually Feb. 22, so everything is happening in February -- my one-year anniversary with my boyfriend, my dad’s one-year anniversary with sobriety, my album dropping -- everything is coming full circle right now.”

She went on to say her new boyfriend inspired the album’s first single, "L-O-V-E,” describing it as a “a fun and flirty song” that allowed her to embrace her edgier side.

“It was super scary for me to release it because it’s super sexy and I’ve always had this good girl thing,” she said. “I was afraid of expressing myself fully as a woman and showing up as an artist -- and as a human being -- and owning being a woman, but it felt really freeing and empowering.”

The song earned a spot as a first-run contender for three Grammy categories, her fourth consecutive year in the Grammy process with the Recording Academy, including best pop solo performance.

“It’s about finding the love within myself and being able to really come back full circle,” she said, adding that she’s looking forward to her trip back home.

“Rhode Island will always be my home team,” she said. “I feel really excited to be putting Rhode Island on the map here in Nashville and I’m excited to come home and celebrate love and life with my family and my friends at the end of the month. It feels really rewarding and it’s amazing to be in this space after everything that happened over the last couple years.”

Learn more about Kfhox at Kfhox.com.