Rock’s Debut, Passenger, Is a Low-Key Stunner Full of Lyrical Wit and Restrained Intensity
kayln rock’s songs come straight from her soul. Although she’s been writing and performing for less than five years, the songs she sings have the depth and polish of a life-long performer. She can charm you with a whimsical ode like, “Peanut Butter Jam,” a tune that hides its vulnerability behind a façade of ironic humor or break your heart with the painful honesty of “Valentine,” a song so full of longing that it’s almost hard to listen to. “I like being around people and don’t take myself too seriously”, Rock says, “But I also like being alone to explore my deeper emotions. I want to create songs that are serious and substantial.”
rock started her career like many folksingers, alone on stage with a guitar. “I played one place where there was a ping pong table set up right in front of the stage. I only got attention if I was accidentally hit with a ping pong ball.” Those experiences helped hone a presence of unassuming intensity, but when it came time to record her debut, she connected with noted producer and multi-instrumentalist, Josh Cohen. (Golden Bloom, Stroamata, Guster). She met him during a Guster concert near her hometown, earlier that October. “I’d play the songs for Josh, or email them to him, and he’d write the arrangements. Another way we’d collaborate, is I would sing the notes to him and he would play them back to me on various instruments until we found our perfect match.”
rock’s songs are marked by restrained vocals that imply a world of complex emotion. She sings “Alex the Great” with a subtle passion that conveys the delicious longing for love that reminds us that the longing itself can be a fulfillment all on its own. “Toledo Song” is a portrait of wary seduction. The arrangement slowly builds to a dramatic climax to support rock’s aching vocal. “This guy told me a relationship would only result in him breaking my heart and me writing a song about it, so I wrote a song to challenge him to do just that, to break my heart.”
“Distance” is one of the album’s more straightforward tales of love, although the distance she sings about in her soft, comforting tone could be the distance between lovers as well as the actual geographical distance of the lyric. The weary country vibe of “Alone” celebrates the joy of self-acceptance that comes at the end of a problematic relationship. rock’s resigned vocal and Cohen’s distressing piano have equal measures of sadness and contentment.
“Relationships are my biggest inspiration because, when you’re in love, there’s always that balance between romance and realism. When you’re in a relationship, you feel differently about yourself and even treat yourself differently. There’s dialogue that you have with yourself when you want a relationship. Then there’s the relationship you have with loneliness itself.”
kayln rock comes from Hudson, New York, a small town just north of New York City. She grew up in the house her grandfather was raised in. She recalls, “When I was young, my Dad would play Buddy Holly songs for me on his guitar. “I would dance on top of his feet as he held my hands listening to The Police.” She went to SUNY Purchase, planning to write for the screen and stage. It was while attending a filmmaking course in Maine, the summer of 2008, that she picked up her friend’s guitar and the songs began to pour out of her. “I think it was a creative domino effect of sorts. If I hadn’t decided to branch out and study film that summer, I don’t think I would have found the confidence to express myself through songwriting.”
Since that summer, rock has become an avid note taker and perhaps even a journal fanatic, spending hours in bookstores searching for the right one to begin her new chain of ideas. For the songs that couldn’t find their way to binded pages, there is a paper mache bowl on her desk that her little brother made. A place for the ambitious pieces of scrap paper to live in. “Sometimes I write with my guitar, if it’s nearby; sometimes I don’t. I’ll sing a melody into my voicemail or onto my laptop. A lot of ideas come to me when I’m driving in my car or washing dishes. Both of which can result in soapy pages or chicken scratch from the steering wheel. Since I started writing, I write everyday in some way. Writing helps keep me grounded and in touch with my feelings and myself. If I don’t write, I feel funny, but not in a funny way.”
Passenger will be available through iTunes and other online vendors starting in January of 2012. The album will also be for sale her website www.kaylnrock.com. Fans can also check out her out on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and read up on the day-to-day happenings of a 25 year-old hopeful romantic that writes songs and plays shows.