From Oakland to Los Angeles, the Singer/Songwriter and Composer Kyns sings an introspective message with her serene single, "The End."
Getting personal about the heightened anxiety Kyns has seen this year, she's released this single to give an ode to those enduring a similar experience.
After years of working as a behind-the-scenes songwriter, assistant engineer, and label intern, Kyns finally found the courage to pack up and let her dreams flourish in the lively city of Los Angeles. Heavily influenced by melancholy storytelling, similar to that of Phoebe Bridgers and the gritty Alt-Rock/Pop sound of St. Vincent, Kyns is crafting a unique sound of her own.
Regarding her latest single, "The End," we hear Kyns sing a reflective message of impending doom, stemming from the inner and emotional aches she naturally feels. When speaking about the song's instrumentals/production, we're met with a stunning mid-tempo Alt-Rock ballad through the dreamy blend of organic instrumentals and the shimmering production.
Listening to Kyns' single, "The End," the song begins with an ethereal and dreamy electronic soundscape that wakes us up at the drop of the beat. Once an airy kick drum, soft electric guitar bursts, and Kyns' soothing vocals appear, she begins singing her lyrics of discovering that her wounds are too deep to be healed with a bandage.
As the organic instrumentals start to pour in, the song heightens in emotion and captures the undivided attention of any listener who can easily relate to Kyns' vulnerable message accompanied by chilling sonics. Ending the song off with a heartfelt and organic piano melody, Kyns has indeed created this song with all the emotions and stressors we've experienced this year.
We always appreciate a relatable and emotional ballad like "The End," but Kyns makes this track all the more authentic through her stunning lyricism and equally soothing instrumentals/production.
What inspired you to create such a vulnerable and personal single like "The End"? Was it challenging to make an emotional piece like this?
Such a perfectly worded question actually, because I think the most challenging part was that it wasn't birthed from "feeling inspired". The weight of my anxiety this year has made "inspiration" and "motivation" feel so distant at times, but I knew that from that I could find a deeper driving force to fuel my creativity. I think it was a necessary realization that I had to work out of a place of discipline to find my inspiration again. And that journey towards exploring what makes me tick is definitely the main theme in this song.
What did your songwriting process look like for "The End"? How did you manage to write such in-depth and poetic lyricism that tells your story?
The songwriting process for this started as a deep dive into that question of "why the hell am I the way that I am?." 2020 has been very revealing to me in that suddenly, without the distractions of normal life, I've been able to take a really good look at myself and what wounds I may still carry with me that I haven't yet dealt with. This song was an exploration into how those wounds have made me into who I am today, and how I need to reroute a bit to avoid "The End", which is basically the result of self-sabotaging tendencies.
Did you create the instrumentals and production within your single "The End"? How did you create the sonics to offer this chilling and emotional feel?
I did! It's my second ever self-produced release, and being that I'm so new to engineering my own records, I appreciate hearing that I was able to capture some emotion in that, thank you so much. My staples towards creating chilling ear candy are the Roli Seaboard and lots of vocal stacking. Currently, I rely on the many dimensions of the Seaboard to create sweeping, ambient wailing, I route synths created through my Juno-6 plugin into the Seaboard, and play those layered over me literally screaming into my sm7b. Add some reverb and that's the climax of the production in the chorus. If I can't achieve emotion through a few simple techniques, then I need to scrap it and try again. I hope to become even more intentional in my productions as I learn!
Why did you want to release "The End" at the end of the year? Does the single capture the unnerving year we've experienced?
100% I wanted to leave this song in 2020 haha. The single is all about the weight of this year and the sense of overall impending doom that I've felt from the loss of relationships, loss of loved ones, general loss of self at times.
2020 has been a very challenging year for everyone. What has been keeping you inspired to create music? What advice can you give another artist who's finding it difficult to do so?
The thing keeping me going is knowing that if I don't put the work in this year, literally no one else can do it for me. Which at first felt like a SUPER heavy weight on my shoulders, but I have since started to trust myself to carry that weight. Meaning that when I take a week off to binge-watch a show, for example, I now make an effort to fight the feeling of paralyzing guilt because I know that rest is just as much part of the journey as work. You can't just keep driving through the night at full speed and expect to get to your destination in good shape. Trust that as long as you keep driving, you'll make it somewhere other than where you are now. So stop off to rest, and enjoy the sights along the way.
iamkyns.com