INTERVIEW: Kynsy

Since the release of her debut single ‘Cold Blue Light‘ last year, GIHE have been big fans of Dublin-based multi-instrumentalist Kynsy (aka Ciara Lindsey.) Her lyricism offers a refreshingly honest perspective on the world around her, whilst her self-described “rowdy pop” sounds provide space for reflection and escapism, often within the same song.

We caught up with Kynsy ahead of the release of her debut EP, Things That Don’t Exist, to talk about lockdown-learning curves, how working with co-producers and her band mates has helped to flesh out her sound, the underrated trait of humility, and to reminisce about the deeply humbling and emotional experience of seeing David Bowie’s cocaine spoon at an art exhibition in Brooklyn…

 

Let’s start at the beginning – who, or what would you say first got you into writing and playing music?
My Dad’s a musician, but he never really showed me any specific rock artists, maybe he was waiting for me to turn the right age, but I was always listening to stuff that was in the charts, even though I wasn’t that inspired by it. When I was having a really low point as a teenager, my Dad showed me this music video – ‘Rebel Rebel’ by David Bowie – and I thought it was amazing. I think I was at that age where you begin to realise that it’s actually okay and kind of cool to be weird. Bowie just clicked with me and I knew then that I wanted to be in a band and I wanted to write music like that.

David Bowie seems to have that kind of affect on most people. He’s definitely one of my favourite artists.

He’s an absolute hero. So many people I know cried when he died. I went to New York in summer 2018, and I went to see the David Bowie Is exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. It was really hard to get tickets for, but I somehow managed to swing it and I went and I walked around and I was crying the whole time. I got to see all of his famous outfits which was mad.

I went to the same exhibition in London at The V&A in 2013! Did you see his coke spoon too?

I remember that as well! I told my friend about it, it was mad. I was really hungover when I went to the exhibition, so I remember walking around feeling a mixture of being really emotional and being extremely hungover as well.

That’s a good way to approach anything in life.

Let’s talk about the singles you’ve released prior to your debut EP – ‘Cold Blue Light’ & ‘Happiness Isn’t A Fixed State’. They were both born from personal experiences. Would you say your song-writing process is usually autobiographical? Do you find it more natural to write what you know?

The majority of the time I do prefer to write from personal experience. I think you can be much more emotional and vulnerable, and you can connect with the audience more if you’re talking about a real incident that’s happened to you.

Congratulations on releasing your debut EP, Things That Don’t Exist. Talk me through your memories of making the record, and the context behind your latest single ‘Elephant In The Room’…

Things That Don’t Exist is a collection of four songs that I’ve worked on over a couple of years. The reason why I chose these songs is they’re all very different, they all have this high energy to them that I really like. Each one has their own personality, but I also felt they were kind of contrasting as well, and I like to create contrast and juxtaposition in my music.

‘Elephant In The Room’ is the first song on the EP and it’s a lot poppier than the other stuff. Lyrically it’s reflecting on a darker time in my life when I was using escapism to deal with my problems. I was feeling kind of alienated from myself and trying to run from myself. ‘Elephant In The Room’ is that known metaphor – something you don’t want to mention or talk about, but that everybody knows is a thing – so this song in particular is about being 18-19 years old with my friends, going through a dark time and partying too much and realising that it was something that had to stop, but no-one would ever say it out loud. When I was writing it I was reflecting on that, and I was using the song as a conscious kind of wish to not go back and make the same mistakes when trying to deal with my problems.

But there’s an element of hope in there too. All of the songs on the EP are a bit sad and melancholic, but there’s a glimmer of hope. I like to try and have a positive message, even if it’s only something small.

That’s definitely a good way to frame a song. What are your main memories of recording the EP?

I recorded most of the songs in a studio in my college before Covid, and one of the songs called ‘Dog Videos’ was recorded during lockdown, which was interesting. I had to email my band being like “can you send me a bass line? Can you send me some trumpet?” so everyone recorded from home and sent their stuff over to me so I could mix it myself. Then I got my friend Joseph to go with a drummer and record in a studio in London, then he sent over the drum stems to me and I had to compile it all myself and send it off to be properly mixed. I usually work with a co-producer, so it’s the first time I’ve had to do it all myself. I learned an awful lot, it was really stressful but really good at the same time. I was forced to learn how to bounce out stems and get into the nitty-gritty of the technology side of it.

Equally, I learned a lot from the co-producer who I worked with when I was working in the studio, watching how they work and how they think when it comes to arranging songs. So it was a combination of both of those things.

In future, do you think you’ll have a 50/50 split when it comes to working by yourself and working with other people on new material?

A bit of both, but I would lean more into doing it with people, especially producers. Right now, I don’t think I’m confident enough in my own skills to completely get a track together properly by myself. That’s not me being down on myself, that’s just how it it. I know I did it for ‘Dog Videos’ on the EP, but it was very stressful and I get into my own head a little bit. It’s so easy to do when you’re just starting out with producing, so you need someone else to turn around and say “that’s done” or “send me the stem, I’ll fix that,” instead of me trying to get into all of these technical areas. I do think I would lean more into working with other people. Their ideas can help to get you out of your own rabbit hole sometimes, you know?

I will probably always write and demo stuff on my own though. I will layer guitars and come up with bass lines and stuff like that. The initial ideas I will do on my own, but bringing those ideas to the band and the producer just brings it such a level higher. The songs wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t for that group of people being there. You need those extra voices there sometimes.

It sounds like you have the balance right. Do you have a favourite track on the EP? If so, why?

Probably ‘Dog Videos’ because I think I’ve been the most vulnerable with my lyric writing in that song. One of my goals as a songwriter is to try to be as vulnerable with myself as possible, just because I think that’s how you connect with people properly. It’s great to hear a song and be like “Oh wow, I feel like that too! Why does no-one ever talk about this?” I like the instrumentation on ‘Dog Videos’ too. I got a really good drummer and I got trumpets on it, which I never thought I’d end up doing. I have a really good friend who plays trumpet who I just hit up and asked if they’d play something for me and the next day he sent the stems over, which was really cool. I feel like I really hit the goal of opening up and being vulnerable with this song.

NME named you in their TOP 100 LIST, The Irish Jam named you as one to watch for 2021, and GIHE featured you on our Tracks Of 2020 list. How are you feeling about having the spotlight on you? Is it a bit nerve-racking or is it exciting?

Overall I’m happy with the attention. Everyone wants to work hard on something and for it to go well, and the main thing for your music is you want it to reach fans so that you can get a following through them. Everything in the press about me means I’ve been able to reach more people. Even with the NME thing, a few teenagers have messaged me personally about it and I just thought that was really nice, so I messaged them back to say thank you, because it means people are really listening which is nice!

I try not to think about the press stuff too much though, because any form of validation can mess up anyone’s head. Even though it is nice and positive, I don’t want to get stuck on it. In my head, there’s still a lot of work to do and I’m always trying to get deeper into the writing process and deeper into myself, that’s the main thing. They’re my main values. Trying to be a better writer, write like myself and trying to create meaning. The reviews are great and all, but they can really obscure your goals and style and I’ve seen that happen to people.

One of the down sides of today is because of social media – and the lockdowns as well – artists aren’t having natural interactions with their fans, they’re just seeing everything online. It’s so easy to slip into the idea that people are only liking this, or liking that. Obviously there’s no gigs at the moment either, so there’s no way you can actually physically see people’s reactions to your music. I think the main thing is just being aware of that and keeping on your own path, focusing on why you started making music in the first place.

I don’t want to come off super negative about it, but I think people will know what I mean. It’s just if people are telling you you’re great all the time, it’s going to get to your ego and your music’s going to suffer. Humility is one of the strongest personality traits you can have and it’s only going to do you good.

I think you’re right, it’s so important not to get side-tracked by other people’s opinions of you.

Finally, do you have any new artists or bands you’d recommend we listen to?

Sorry had an album come out last year and I listened to that a lot. I think they’re really cool, kind of like The Kills, I love the mix of electronic and rock stuff. Another band called Do Nothing. I went to one of their gigs in December in Dublin and unfortunately there weren’t that many people at the gig, which was bad for them but good for me afterwards because it meant I got to hang out with them for a bit!

I’ve been listening to a lot of Micachu & The Shapes as well, they’re kind of like sorry but more experimental rock stuff. Mica Levi is a producer and a writer and she is unreal, she’s someone I’d love to work with.

Thanks to Kynsy for answering our questions!

Listen to Kynsy’s debut EP Things That Don’t Exist here.

Follow Kynsy on Twitter, Facebook, Spotify & Instagram for more updates.

Photo Credit: Paula Trojner

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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STILL SPINNING: The Joy Formidable – ‘The Big Roar’

Our Still Spinning feature focuses on records that we consider to be iconic – whether that’s for popular, or personal reasons – and celebrates our enduring love for them. Get In Her Ears Co-Founder & Features Editor Kate Crudgington talks us through why Welsh alternative trio The Joy Formidable’s debut album, The Big Roar, released in January 2011, is still one of her most influential listens today.

 

At the tender age of nineteen, I discovered The Joy Formidable through a crush I was trying to impress. Naturally, that crush faded over time, but my sheltered ears had been introduced to a new world of music outside of the charts. It’s that priceless personal affiliation with the songs on The Joy Formidable’s debut album The Big Roar that’s kept me listening to the record for the last decade.

Formed of Ritzy Bryan, Rhydian Dafydd & Matt Thomas, The Joy Formidable dropped The Big Roar in January 2011, two years after their debut EP A Balloon Called Moaning, and twenty year old me fell head over heels in love with it. I bought the limited edition boxset which included the album, a pin badge, a CD of live recordings and a piece of Ritzy’s smashed guitar. I worked part-time in retail earning minimum wage back then, so it took a hefty chunk out of my pay-check, but I felt like I’d struck gold.

The record was littered with singles I already knew – ‘Whirring’, ‘Austere’, ‘Cradle’ & ‘The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade’ – so listening for the first time flooded me with familiar excitement. As the title suggests, The Big Roar rips and roars with vital, visceral urgency, plunging listeners into overwhelming waves of sound before allowing them to resurface and breathe again. At the time, I thought it was a bold move to open an album with a 40 second cacophony of indiscernible clacking noises, but it laid the foundation for the spiralling opener ‘The Everchanging Spectrum Of A Lie,’ which rushes the ears with swelling riffs and urgent vocals. This track, along with ‘I Don’t Want To See You Like This’ brim with cathartic guitar wails and commanding beats, encouraging listeners to be “courage’s child” and break away from the past.

I remembered the stomping rhythms of ‘Cradle’, Austere’, ‘The Magnifying Glass’, ‘Chapter 2’ and ‘A Heavy Abacus’ because I’d heard the band play them live. After seeing The Joy Formidable headline The Garage in Islington in 2009, I remember leaving the venue with the overwhelming feeling that I’d seen something that was going to change my life. I know that sounds dramatic, but watching Ritzy Bryan shredding her guitar, singing lead vocals and thrashing her white-blonde hair around the stage with her bandmates galvanized my idea of what a guitar band should be, and quite frankly, who I wanted to be – I wanted to be just like her.

When I used to frequent the dancefloor at The Pink Toothbrush on a Saturday night – one of the only alternative clubs in my home county of Essex – DJ Darren B would play ‘Whirring’ in its entirety so my friends and I could thrash about to it. The thudding drum beats and punchy lyrics kept me stomping on those floorboards for hours. Even now, I can remember pushing open the double doors to enter the club, hearing a Joy Formidable song playing and feeling like I’d truly arrived at a place of happiness. Maybe I’m just overly sentimental, but the trio provided the soundtrack to so many of my clearest memories.

My ribs still remember the thrill of being hit by the ear-swelling sounds of ‘Buoy’ when I heard it live for the first time at Kentish Town Forum. From the subtle allure of Ritzy’s opening guitar riffs, to Rhydian’s dense buzzing bass lines, it’s an all-consuming aural blur. I love the way they spit the last lines “And you should have talked / and you should talk too / ’cause in twenty years / you’ll be a fucking mute” – their urgency complimented by dizzying riffs and Matt’s relentless percussion. Bassist Rhydian takes the vocal lead on ‘Llaw=Wall’, which like ‘Buoy’ has a colossal drop in.

The opening track on A Balloon Called Moaning, but the closing one for The Big Roar, ‘The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade’ still sounds as shadowy and hypnotic today to me now as it did back in 2009. It’s a song that I’ve turned to at so many different points in my life, that my heart overflows with nostalgia when I hear it.

After penning such a passionate essay about The Big Roar, it might surprise you to know that I didn’t review the album when it was first released. When I looked up some reviews by respected music publications, one labelled it a “brit-pop” revival record, but I don’t think that’s the best comparison to make. The most important thing is, The Joy Formidable just sound really fucking good on this album.

Listen to The Big Roar on bandcamp or Spotify.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Five Favourites: Venus Grrrls

Having previously supported the likes of Anteros and Bloxx, and following the release of their debut EP last year, Leeds rockers Venus Grrrls have now shared a brand new single. Reflecting on the stereotypes surrounding ‘goth culture’ and witchcraft, ‘Goth Girl’ is a fiercely catchy anthem, propelled by a swirling, seething energy and the soaring power of front woman GK’s vocals.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them or influences their writing. So, we caught up with the whole of Venus Grrrls – GK, Grace, Gabby, Hannah and Jess – to discuss the five songs that have made the biggest mark on them. Check out their choices below, and listen to the band’s new single ‘Goth Girl’ at the end of this article

GK (Vocals):
Heart – ‘Barracuda’
Ann Wilson’s vocals just speak to me in a way that many other vocalists don’t. The power and the intensity she holds with her unstoppable vibrato, communicates complete and utter certainty in herself. That’s something I’m constantly trying to channel through my own musicianship.

Grace (Synths):
Grimes – ‘Oblivion’
The way Grimes uses the synth here really inspired me when it came to composing when I was a teenager. ‘Oblivion’ is something I always go back to when writing, or if I’m suffering with any type of writers’ block. It helps to clear my mind and not overthink things.

Gabby (Drums):
Arcane Roots – ‘Curtains’
I always think about this song because it starts off reserved and raw, but then grows into this big intense huge ending, which I love. It was song that got me into drumming in the first place, I’m a huge fan of playing around with dynamics.

Hannah (Bass):
Sonic Youth – ‘Kool Thing’
This song is important to me because Kim Gordon manages to be the main component of the song, but by being so simple and understated. She doesn’t insist on complexity, and the power of this is highly effective and is something I always think back to.

Jess (Guitar):
The Runaways- ‘You Drive Me Wild’
A song that has massively influenced my playing, specifically in Venus Grrrls is ‘You Drive Me Wild’ by The Runaways. Lita Ford’s solo in this track just stands out to me as so cool sounding, it’s unlike anyone else’s playing and has so much style. It’s something I always come back to for inspiration when I’m writing my own solos.

‘Goth Girl’ is out now, listen on Spotify.

 

Photo Credit: Milly Hewitt

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Interview: The Anchoress

Having released her debut album Confessions of a Romance Novelist back in 2016, multi-instrumentalist The Anchoress has been involved in various projects all whilst creating her upcoming second LP The Art of Losing through unforeseen challenges. We spoke with The Anchoress to find out more about her surprise collaboration with Bernard Butler, which was released last year, and what we can expect from the second album.

We’re looking forward to your upcoming album The Art of Losing, how did you face the challenge of creating and promoting an album through lockdown?
I actually finished the album way before the pandemic hit – back in 2019, but I needed a bit of time out before I was ready to have it come out in the world. It was originally due to be released in Spring 2020 but, of course, we needed to adjust our plans once circumstances took over and Covid took a hold. I have really been very lucky as I have my own studio at home so I’ve been able to continue creating and recording without having to leave the house since then – the result of which was Reprise 2, the “quarantine” covers that were released via my Bandcamp. I’ve been shielding since March, so it’s been a necessity really to be able to carry on working from here.

So far we’ve been enjoying your single ‘Show Your Face’, what else can we expect from the album?
I was listening to a lot of Depeche Mode, The Cure, Twilight Sad and Bjork, so you can expect something darker and more dense than the debut album. As I was writing and producing alone for this one I feel like it is certainly more coherent and purposeful as a body of work too. You can expect fourteen tracks in total which I realise is quite a meaty offering these days for an album, but it just kept growing and growing. I was writing a lot more in the classical vein when I was recording the album, and these began as little instrumental segues that just sort of took on a life of their own as I began experimenting. There’s also many more traditional “singles” on there alongside these more experimental pieces. Lots of vintage synths (on which I wrote most of the album) and tonnes more of me playing guitar than people are used to!

The Art of Losing is centred around loss. How did you balance being honest and open with protecting your own privacy?
I think it’s always important to have some boundaries when you are creating and sharing any kind of pain or grief with the wider public. I had a lot of trauma-based therapy over the past two years and there were certainly discussions about how much I felt I wanted to share and what I would let the songs speak about. Safety and health always comes first obviously and you don’t owe anyone all the details of your trauma – you get to decide what is too much and what is helpful to share. Also, that is what songwriting is for – it enables you to be both honest but also leave space for the listener’s own experience to fill in the gaps. It’s a fine tightrope to walk, especially when you are keen to talk about subjects that people shy away from – sexual assault, baby loss, death. I’m not sure any of us entirely get the balance right, but that’s what I have found particularly challenging about the project, and also equally frightening. I’m a very private person and it was certainly not the album I had intended to make, and yet I am very proud of it as the body of work that it turned out to be.

You also launched a podcast series by the same title. What inspired you to open up the conversation?
I really wanted to delve deeper into some of the ideas and different cultural reactions to loss that I had encountered during my writing. I also felt that I wanted to connect, perhaps selfishly, with other people that had gone through both similar and different kinds of loss. It was part of my own journey, and healing, really to have these conversations and remind myself that I wasn’t the only one. Songs can only go so far to explore themes and concepts and I wanted to hear from other perspectives and experiences that dovetailed with my own. It’s been such a healing experience recording the first series and I’ve made some lovely new friends as a consequence. I’m hoping to begin recording season two shortly.

You surprised us all in 2020 with In Memory of My Feelings, an album in which you collaborated with Bernard Butler. How long had you both been sitting on that project?
We had finished writing the album in 2015 and the bulk of the recordings were done before Confessions… even came out! It has been a long wait for it to find the right home with the right label that understood what it was about but I’m so glad in a way that it took the time it did because without that long delay we wouldn’t have ended up on Pete Paphides’ label Needle Mythology. If you believe that everything happens for a reason, then the wait was worth it to find such a thoughtful label that knew exactly what Bernard and I had been trying to do with the collaboration. The packaging is beautiful, there was such attention to detail about everything in the artwork. I hear that there is talk of a repress of the vinyl as it sold out so quickly!

What advice would you give to musicians during these uncertain times? Have you been offered any advice which you can share with us?
Oh goodness, I’m not sure I’m the best person to give advice! I’ve made so many mistakes along the way. I’m also not certain that my advice would have changed that much to when I was starting out myself: try to be as self sufficient as possible. Make it your business to understand all aspects of releasing music – not just the creative side. Teach yourself to record – even if it’s just the basics. Apply for funding. Practice your craft. Make good work. Remember why you are doing this. 

As we’re a new music site, which bands or artists can you recommend that we keep an ear out for in the year ahead?
I’m currently producing a few really talented up and coming artists – Tega Mendes is one who I am really excited about. She has a wonderful approach to arrangement, a fabulous voice and a really unique set of influences.

Huge thanks to The Anchoress for answering our questions! 

 

The Art Of Losing, the upcoming album from The Anchoress, is set for release in March this year. Pre-order here.

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