Khai Dreams Shares New Single: Panic Attack

Oregon’s own khai dreams shares “panic attack,” the third offering from their debut album Absolute Heartbreak, on Friday, January 27th, via AWAL Recordings.

Inspired by country and folk, the new single infuses khai‘s intimate lyrics about the overwhelming feeling of a panic attack with soothing guitar plucks and upbeat strums.

The 10-tracks of Absolute Heartbreak mark khai’s first full-length album and will feature the previously released singles “rats“ which arrived with visuals directed by khai’s friend Ray McMahon and “bugs“ which arrived with the Yana Pan-directed animated video following a storyline created by khai. Self-described as creating “unhinged bedroom pop,” Absolute Heartbreak showcases khai’s songwriting skills and ushers in a new era for the young artist.

Hailing from Eugene, Oregon, khai is a non-binary, half-Vietnamese American, who turned to the internet to blossom and truly be themself while growing up. Sites like Gaia Online, Neopets, and Runescape gave them the space to be anyone they wanted. Music always had a similar, escapist quality for khai, too — YouTube wormholes, digital audio software like Audacity, and learning the ukelele helped create another comforting sphere where they could dream.

With these roots, the now 23-year-old artist started releasing music from their bedroom in 2017 with breakout singles “I Hold You Close To Me“ and “Lost In You“, followed by their collaborative EP with Atwood in 2018 Nice Colors. In 2019, khai released their EP Now and Then, which features the hit track “Sunkissed“, which has garnered nearly 200 million streams on Spotify and has been used in over 140,000 videos on TikTok.