Kristeen Young Confronts Modern Excess With 'Full Scrotal Scorpio'

New York experimental rock artist Kristeen Young is preparing to release Full Scrotal Scorpio on October 23, 2026, a fiercely DIY album confronting overconsumption, greed, digital culture, technology, and the increasingly numbers-driven ways we measure our lives.

Written, produced, and mixed by Young, the project was created alongside longtime drummer Jefferson Wayne “Baby Jef” White, with Young spending nearly a year teaching herself the tools needed to complete the mix on her own.

The album arrives during another active chapter in Young’s career, following a 2026 invitation from Billy Corgan to arrange and record a cover of The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.”

With the latest single “Numbers” already introducing the record’s criticism of capitalism and our obsession with metrics, Young will release the title track on October 20 before celebrating Full Scrotal Scorpio with an album release show at TV Eye in Brooklyn on October 23. Below, Young takes us further inside the ideas, frustrations, and creative process behind the new record.

You wrote much of Full Scrotal Scorpio quickly, but then spent nearly a year mixing it yourself. How did living with these songs for that long change your relationship with what you originally wanted to say?

I don’t think it did. At all. I think it intensified what I originally wanted to say.

The album confronts greed, overconsumption, violence, technology, and the language we use to avoid uncomfortable realities. Why was it important to address those subjects without sacrificing energy, humor, or a “fun beat”?

Because music comes first; if it were all about lyrics, I’d write a poetry book. And I think the music can be an antidote to all that’s happening or a contrast to the lyrics. Yeah, what we are living through every day is a hellscape, and it has to be acknowledged, but also here’s something to make you jump up and down or dazzle the ears to hopefully make you feel better in the meantime. I need to feel better. Even playing the songs at shows or in practice lifts me.

“Numbers” challenges the importance we assign to numbers across capitalism and online culture. What kinds of numbers do you think have become the most dangerously influential in how people measure their lives today?

All of them. People don’t dig deep enough with other people. They don’t even have the desire to. Themselves, yes.

You’ve worked with artists like David Bowie, Tony Visconti, Dave Grohl, and more recently Billy Corgan, yet you remain intensely DIY. What have those major collaborations taught you about protecting the parts of your work that should remain entirely your own?

I don’t have to learn that lesson because I’m unable to be anything else. I’ve tried. Everything just sounds like me. And I think that’s even why they wanted to work with me.

You’ve said that all you want is for people to “really feel something” when they hear this record. What would concern you more: someone being offended by Full Scrotal Scorpio, or someone hearing it and feeling absolutely nothing?

Oh, the latter. I don’t really care if someone is offended (if I’m saying something I really believe in) because it’s going to happen throughout life. The only way to not offend someone is to say nothing. So, it’s impossible. It’s the same way with audiences. I’d rather people shout obscenities than have no energy at all. No energy is death.