Domino Kirke Pays Tribute to Bonus Mother and father with ‘Stepchild’, Displays on Being pregnant (Unique)

Domino Kirke is paying tribute to the attractive methods households take form.

Together with her newest single “Stepchild,” the singer/songwriter and doula — who’s at the moment anticipating twins with Penn Badgley, with whom she additionally shares a son, and can be mother to son Cassius from a earlier relationship — pens a “love letter” to her husband, 38, and to all the bonus mother and father that tackle these roles.

“I feel there’s loads of stigma round a stepparent,” says Kirke, 41, over Zoom from Brooklyn, N.Y. “I do really feel prefer it’s a typical sufficient story within the households I work with the place there’s mixing.”

“You caught us on the flip facet / Somersaulted into our area / We sat you on the head of our desk / However all I may do was eat your face,” Kirke croons on the monitor.

“I wrote it as a ‘thank’ you to my husband round selecting to take us on as his new household,” she tells PEOPLE of the You star who met her son when he was 5 years previous. “However within the tune I additionally take my time to say goodbye to my son’s father as properly.”

Within the music video premiering solely with PEOPLE, Kirke’s monitor performs because the digicam pans to varied stepfamilies reacting to the tune, sharing images of their youngsters and telling tales about turning into — or opening their arms to — a stepparent.

For the visible, Kirke discovered inspiration in her music video for “Half Blood,” the place she requested half-siblings to speak about what it is prefer to have a sibling — that is not totally biologically theirs — linked to them on this “full” approach.

“With ‘Stepchild’ I wished the identical factor. I wished the visuals of those folks that have chosen to embark on stepparenthood but additionally hear sufficient of the tune that it nonetheless catches your ear. It is likely to be a bit of heavy on the speaking, however that was a alternative,” she explains.

“Stepchild” will seem on Kirke’s sophomore LP The Most Acquainted Star.

Written and recorded with Elliot Krimsky and Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, Kirke’s forthcoming album tackles the notion of shedding oneself and discovering renewal as she grieves her pre-marriage and pre-parenthood self and was once pre-family, pre-marriage, and displays on the change that is occurred.

To introduce The Most Acquainted Star, her first album in eight years, Kirke shared lead single “It’s Not There,” a collaboration together with her pal Angel Olsen that contains a Sharon Van Etten pattern from a 20-year-old demo.

The album additionally notably delves into Kirke’s harrowing expertise with sexual abuse for the primary time with the tune “Secret Rising.”

“I had been doing loads of emotional deep investigative work on myself since my oldest son, who’s 16, was about 4. I used to be in remedy like everybody else, however I additionally determined to affix some 12-step teams and skim books about household programs. And after doing that, I began to have reminiscences of kid abuse that I would repressed,” she explains.

For Kirke, “Secret Rising” is about “remembering issues I do not need to bear in mind after which utilizing that materials to have a greater understanding of relationships and why I attracted the folks I attracted.”

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Amid her self-exploration, Kirke can be making ready for a brand new chapter — the start of twins, which she introduced final month.

“I really feel like I put on the sensation of twins,” she laughs. “Twin being pregnant is simply on my face. It is my resting bitch face now.”

For Kirke, anticipating twins was a “whole shock” and an “absolute shocker.”

As Kirke sees it, there is a sure “grief” that’s inherent in turning into a father or mother.

“You might be postpartum perpetually,” she explains, referring to one thing she tells her doula shoppers. “I simply wished songs that go on that journey with me, and that is what I feel has translated probably the most onto this album.”

The Most Acquainted Star is out on April 18.