KYLIE V – “YEAR OF THE RABBIT”
A SPILL EXCLUSIVE MUSIC PREMIERE
When it comes to navigating the path to adulthood, there’s no flight plan. You have to try things, make mistakes, and learn from them. As singer-songwriter Kylie Van Slyke — better known under their stage name Kylie V. — puts it when talking about their second album Crash Test Plane.
“I’m 20 years old. I’ve watched so many things in my life happen to me that I thought were going to be the absolute end, and a week after each of those I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I’m fine.'” This kind of self-awareness may seem rare in such a young artist, but like Conor Oberst, Samia, and Christian Lee Hutson before them, Van Slyke’s version of indie folk pairs lived-in storytelling with an unmistakable knack for soul-baring. Starting at age 14, Van Slyke wrote songs and played local shows in Vancouver, sparking a creative outpouring that led to self-managing their career, the release of their acclaimed 2021 debut album Big Blue, and signing to Royal Mountain Records.
Just how much their music has evolved on Crash Test Plane is evident on songs like “Runaway,” where they confront the terror of “falling in love for real for the first time” with caressing sounds and imagery that’s downright gory (“What if I regret it and you leave me with a gaping wound?”). “Saying brutally honest, borderline gross lyrics is something that can be so beautiful and personal to me,” Van Slyke explains. Though plenty of Crash Test Plane’s songs deal with the fallout of falling in love, the singer/songwriter is just as unflinchingly honest about mental health and career goals on the flowing “Golden” and self-sabotage on the ambling warmth of “Song in Open D.”
Van Slyke pays homage to a dear friend on “Catherine” (“the only truly wholesome and tender song on the album”), which is apt, since friendship provided the bedrock for Crash Test Plane‘s musical growth. Working with producer/multi-instrumentalist Josh Eastman — another close friend — made them feel ready to take risks: “Making this album felt so good. There’s a lot of trust needed for making music with somebody, but especially for me because it’s so personal.” That intimacy is heightened by Crash Test Plane’s polished-yet-rustic sound. “There’s something about assembling a song entirely from actual instruments, like guitar, mandolin, bass, drums, and violin that just feels really natural and beautiful,” Van Slyke says. Playing guitar, banjo, mandolin and bass themself, they’re backed by drummer Jess Jones, violinist Tegan Walhgren, trumpeter Gregory Dent, and pedal steel guitarist Alexander Dobson, who lends a late-summer glow to songs such as “Okanagan Peach” and “Year of the Rabbit.” Van Slyke leans further into their country influences on “Crash Test Plane,” a song that embodies the album’s themes of “putting all of your energy and effort into something and then watching it explode in front of you and then realizing it’s actually totally fine because you didn’t die” in its lyrics as well as its development: Nearly scrapped, the song went through seven iterations before taking on its final shape. Van Slyke deftly blends rock and pop elements (“it just feels like different ways of speaking the same language to me”) on “Lucky Streak” and “Wish I Was in Bed,” a “gay Sheryl Crow song” that they wrote while getting ready to go to somewhere they didn’t want to go. There may not be a designated route to growing up and discovering yourself, but on Crash Test Plane, it’s a thrilling, moving journey.
ARTIST QUOTE
“‘Year of the Rabbit’ is a song I wrote while healing from a breakup and reflecting on my (incredible) friends/support system and my feelings after the fact. I was inspired a lot by Andy Shauf and Sufjan Stevens in the writing and production of this one and it means a lot to me. The track is produced by my great friend Josh Eastman and features us two on most of the instruments, with Jess Jones on drums, Gregory Dent on trumpet, and a handful of friends singing on the outro.”
Kylie V
Crash Test Plane
(Royal Mountain Records)
Release Date: November 8, 2024
Artist Links
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: KYLIE V – “CRASH TEST PLANE”
