Kirsten Izer On Her New Single, "Anyone But Me"
- Josh Kitchen
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
By: Josh Kitchen / November 26, 2025
LA-based New Jersey transplant Kirsten Izer wants to get real. After dropping her poignantly relevant The Perfect Hire EP earlier this year, she’s already back with a brand-new single, “Anyone But Me,” where she examines feelings of insecurity and imposter syndrome that anyone trying to make sense of life in the modern world can relate to.
Izer has been hungry for a life in music since she was just ten years old, obsessed with GarageBand and falling in love with creating and playing breezy, introspective songwriting.
With The Perfect Hire, Izer tackles the sometimes-too-thin line between working life and personal life, and on “Anyone But Me” she dives even further inward, unafraid to put it all out in the open. Izer’s music is a breath of fresh air—authentic without sacrificing smart pop music instincts. I caught up with Izer to talk about the new single, the community found between artist and fan, and the most New Jersey thing about her.
You’ve been pretty prolific in putting music out this year — a wide variety of really good songs. Talk to me about “Anyone But Me." Why that song right now?
I'm glad that I come off as prolific, because that's definitely the goal. That's what I want — my overall goal with music is to make as much of it as possible. So it doesn't always feel like that, so it's nice to hear.
Why put out “Anyone But Me” now? I actually wasn’t supposed to. It wasn’t the plan at all. I put out my debut EP The Perfect Hire earlier this year, and then I had some other single ideas floating around that followed that narrative. But a few months ago, I had a songwriting session and we just ended up writing the song. I didn’t go into the session intending to write that, but it’s a topic that's always been top of mind for me and something I’ve always wanted to write about; I just didn’t know how. Then it came to be.
I sat with it for a few days and just felt like, “I want to put this out.” And sonically, the song feels very autumn — it gave me Halloween vibes. I’m a very seasonal person where I do what the weather tells me to do. It felt fitting. And even though it felt like an outlier in some ways, I’d just made it, it was fresh, and I wanted it out.
I'm glad you brought up The Perfect Hire. I love the album cover, the title, the lyrical theme — it's so relatable. Talk to me about coming from an office world, writing about it, and putting it out in this way.
I think some risks were taken with The Perfect Hire conceptually, given the literal nature of the concept and lyrics. And yes — workplace risks, because I’m also a nine-to-five person who works in the audio industry to make money (and hopefully make money from music eventually). But it’s risky because, as an artist, one of my goals is to make music people can see themselves in. When you go down a very literal path, you risk losing people. Not everyone has been in such a specific situation. But that’s also why I love it — even though it’s specific, the feelings are universal. Most people have felt jealousy, or felt not good enough, or watched someone leave them for another person.
It’s such a strong collection of songs, and it’s a great intro to you. Sonically diverse but still cohesive. It sounds like someone who’s been putting out music for a long time, even though it’s your debut EP. Talk to me about finding your voice and getting here.
It’s funny you say that, because I have been making music for 15 years — ever since I learned guitar at 10. Part of me is like, damn, it took me so long to make an EP. I’ve been doing this forever, but I'm grateful because if I’d released a project like this a few years ago, it wouldn’t have been as good. I needed time to grow as a person and songwriter.
Since moving to LA, I’ve been joining more writing and producing sessions, which has helped me see songwriting from a different perspective. So even though I’ve been doing this a long time, I’m glad I waited. Now it feels like something I’m proud of and won’t regret later. I put out songs I made in high school, and honestly, those songs are good — I’ll stand by that.
When did you know you wanted to do music? What inspired you when you first picked up guitar at 10?
Always. Ever since I discovered guitar and GarageBand. People ask my life goal and I'm like, “This is who I am. This is what I do.” In middle school, I was making music videos to My Chemical Romance songs with my friends and uploading them to YouTube when YouTube was brand new. My parents aren’t musically inclined, but they’re huge music fans. I grew up with classics — lots of rock, lots of pop. My mom was into New Wave: Bowie, Talking Heads, Television. My dad loved that too, but also early-2000s female pop stars — Pink, Britney. I personally loved Hilary Duff.
What’s the most New Jersey thing about you?
Great question. I'm so not New Jersey and also so Jersey at the same time. In the summer, I become obsessed with tanning — very Jersey Shore. And I love the Asbury Park boardwalk.
What’s the best show you’ve seen this year?
So many. I'm wearing a Nine Inch Nails hoodie right now from a show I saw at The Forum. That was definitely top three. The light show was amazing. I’m a huge Trent fan. They played “I’m Afraid of Americans,” which was so cool. I went with friends who weren’t NIN fans and they still loved it. People don’t realize how dancey they are — it hits all the senses.
How has performing live informed how you write now?
Honestly, I’ve realized I’ve written a lot of songs that are hard to play live. “Anyone But Me” is tough — vocally and instrumentally. My guitarist said it’s one of the hardest songs to play, but we make it work. Live music is my biggest passion. If I’m not playing, I’m at a show. I want my shows to feel like an experience and for people to feel part of it. I’ve grown a lot — taking moments in songs to make them bigger live, interacting more. At a recent show, I literally jumped into the crowd and danced with everyone. For my EP release show, we made fake onboarding brochures and handed them out. I had a briefcase on stage. It was camp-inspired — really fun.
Live music really is so communal. What kind of community do you want to build around your music when you play?
I want people to come to shows and feel like they’re part of it. I want to host events that are shows but also have experiential elements. I want the music to be sad, because I’m a sad girl, but I want shows to have movement and joy and connection. I’m still figuring that out. I started screaming during “Messenger” live, which is new and really fun.
What’s the Kirsten Izer goal for 2026? What’s next?
If I have to choose one: put out more music and build more community. Being an artist is inherently narcissistic — you're always talking about yourself and your work — and I don’t want to feel like that’s all there is. I’m a huge music fan and a huge fan of my own demos, and I think a lot of people will relate to them.
I want to release more, meet people who listen, and have them meet each other. That’s the dream — something bigger than me.
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