Interview: Kyle Krone

It seems like ages ago since we first came across Kyle Krone's solo project. It wasn't, it was June and he's come a fair way since then too.

With the release of five tracks now, people are starting to wonder when we'll see a full length release.  We were one of those people(s) so instead of sitting around, we got onto Kyle and thought we'd throw him a few questions. See the outcome below.

(One For The People) Tell us a bit about yourself, how did you end up doing what your doing now?

(Kyle) In my life I do what I love, whatever fascinates me and interests me, I also do what I have to do and need to do to survive and for me making music is all these things. I'm at my best when I'm creating music and art, my life is improved by the process and I have a real need for it. I have to do it, it’s how I feel most free and most like myself. I feel like I have little to no limitations living life this way. In a song I can go anywhere I want to go and I don’t need money or a time machine to get there, I can love anyone or write my own story and design my own paradise, I can make it feel anyway I imagine and I can have any strange or beautiful dream become more real through art. That’s why I do this and why I have been since I started playing music fifteen years ago and I suspect in some fashion I will always have the need to create.

"He was a futurist of sorts and that attracted me to his work as well as this intriguing lifestyle he lived (inventor, visionary, playboy, criminal?) It was all fascinating, I mean this stuff is really ripe for a Hollywood film." - Kyle Krone, 2011

(1FTP) "Driving DeLoreans" caught our attention before any other of your tracks. For obvious reasons. In all honesty though it shocked us how good it was baring in mind it was our first listen and the nature of the track name. How did the song come about?

(KK) I'd been reading about John DeLorean and learning about his unique story. He was a futurist of sorts and that attracted me to his work as well as this intriguing lifestyle he lived (inventor, visionary, playboy, criminal?) It was all fascinating, I mean this stuff is really ripe for a Hollywood film. I think on some level I felt like I could relate to him and his point of view and I aesthetically felt like all the images the story conjured up captured my imagination and I wanted to make them audible. He had these dreams and visions that were far from practical and also equal measures classic and futuristic and his struggle was manifesting them into the real world and I wanted to try to accomplish that with the song and give it this sound and feel that encapsulated the way I imagined his vision of the car, the lifestyle and the experience he was trying to create. I also likened his struggle to my own ups and downs in music and art. The final catalyst that pushed me over the edge into actually tackling this idea and making a song out of it was that my friend Matthew Gray Gubler (a true artist and renaissance man) had mentioned he was working on drawings of the DeLorean and it inspired me to write and record the song that day.



(1FTP) It's starting to become a bit of a recurring theme in my interviews that "chillwave" or whatever anyone feels best calling it, rears it's head. You have hints of chillwave within your songs, is it a path you've deliberately gone down out of respect and liking for the sound or is it just a matter of being such an ever present now that any hint of it is drawn upon? It's progressing at such a rate now.

(KK) Honestly I haven’t given this much thought but I see how you could make a case that whatever qualities this “genre” embodies is some kind of common feeling that many young artists are having. This notion of living a better, positive, more beautiful life or at least striving to, and of course that idea is nothing new but it just so happens that many people are feeling it at the same time. Maybe it’s a reaction to all the bummer news out there in the world and people are combating it by creating this really dreamy landscape of sounds and ideas. For me I am just making the music that feels right to me and qualities I mentioned are a part of that.


(1FTP) I've seen that your thoughts during the recording of "For Those Who Think Young" were wanting to keep the same exuberance that brought you to music in the first place. Personally I see that as a contributing factor to why a lot of bands and artists peak early. They can forget what brought them to begin in the first place and they no longer have the same drive. It's the same as in every aspect of life you could say. With that in mind did you have that title in your head from an early stage in creating the album or is it something that progressive grew on you.

(KK) It was the title of the first song I'd written for the album, before I knew I would even make an album on my own. It was a line that I heard in the television show Mad Men and I liked the way it sounded and what it meant to me personally as it related to my music. So I wrote a song starting with that title and it was the first thing that I knew wasn’t for my old band and it seemed to perfectly sum up the vibe of the record for me. I liked the idea of something brand new, a new vision and with that came that sort of youthful exuberance that attracted me to music in the first place.





(1FTP) I can't say I've seen too many people making comparisons between your music and others. I find it surprising, but at the same time it's a testament to creation of original music. Are you glad there's not been too many comparison's so far?

(KK) I am cool with it either way, I like people to draw their own unique conclusions and opinions based off of their personal experience with the music. So if that results in comparisons or not either way that’s fine with me.


(1FTP) I've seen you asked this countless times, so I'll rephrase. Is it feeling right in your heart at the moment for a release date?

(KK) I decided I liked the idea of releasing the album one song at a time with individual art work for each song. I am currently five songs in to releasing it. It was the way it was created obviously one song at a time so I thought it would be a cool way for people to experience it and then once it’s all out there I will make it available as a whole album. I also thought it worked with this modern way of listening to music and gave the songs personal attention and time to digest.




(1FTP) What are your touring plans, if any? any thoughts of touring outside of the US?

(KK) There are no plans set in stone, I’d like to tour and I would most definetly like to tour outside of the US if people want me to. A lot of things have to come together and make sense for it to happen the way I envision it but I'm confident I'm on the right track to making that happen. Hopefully more people get into the music, making touring a real possibility in the near future.


(1FTP) Who are you listening to at the minute?

I made this playlist the other day on Spotify for everyone to check out. It’s got a little bit of everything that I’ve been listening to from old to new favorites.


(1FTP) Fill in the blanks.....

Kyle Krone is the modern California Riviera mixed with a deserted tropical island with a little bit of classic American city downtown thrown in.


Listen to a teaser of his new single "Veil Of Secrecy" below, which can be bought here.