TRACK BY TRACK: KYE releases new EP 'Kylie's Rant'

British born, Australian based KYE has emerged as one of the brightest star on the Australian music scene in the past few years with her beguiling music inspired by 2000s garage, pop, soul and rock. In 2023, her second EP Ribena was nominated for an ARIA Music Award, and today she drops her third EP Kylie’s Rant.

While KYE’s music has always been an exploration of herself and her life, on Kylie’s Rant she takes the personal to the next level. Her lyrics are some of the most open and honest of her career while sonically there is a sense of elevation as she explore different sounds and production, which contributes to a sense of more powerful storytelling and more intimate moments. Perhaps most importantly, it is an EP where KYE has never sounded more confident within herself or as an artist.

That confidence often shows itself through vulnerability. Opening track and first single ‘Gospel’, co-written with G-Flip and arguably the most stirring and soulful song on the album, is a pertinent take on the world right now, filled with misinformation, fear and hate but asks us to consider the better path, even though that can make us uncomfortable: ‘We’ll take our fear / And wear it well…And life is heaven / Throughout the hell.’

‘29’ is a guitar-pop-rock track that really lifts the lid on KYE’s anxiety and fears of growing older and the thought of never achieving your dreams, before turning it around with knowledge there is so much more life ahead: ‘You’ve still got time / Nothing but miles and miles of time / You’ll be just fine.’

The rocky ‘Love Yourself’ looks at someone who puts on a persona to hide a lack of self-esteem, in the process turning everyone away from them: ‘If you never conceal I bet you’d see the impact’. The song acts as a message to everyone to self love will always come from within, not from external validation: ‘No one can show you how to love yourself.’

The EP ends on the title track ‘Kylie’s Rant’, the rockiest, angriest song on the EP and also perhaps the most vulnerable. Against a rollicking, punk beat KYE sings of the heartbreak of a relationship where the other half won’t commit, but you can’t bring yourself to walk away: ‘You’d rather keep your own apartment / Guess I wish I’d have kept my heart.’ Like everything on the EP, the trauma is tempered with an empowering lesson, in this case maybe it it time to love yourself more than relying on someone else.

Kylie’s Rant is in many ways a rant, but in the best possible way. This is music that draws you in and connects you to stories that everyone can find a mirror to their own life in. It is KYE at her most realised, warm and empowered without ever becoming twee or cloying and a remarkable new high point in her career.

To celebrate its release KYE took Women In Pop through Kylie’s Rant track by track to explain in detail the meaning behind each song.

GOSPEL

Coming out of the last EP, which was a lot of fun and upbeat, finishing that era off and returning to this writing phase…the number one thing was that I wanted to write something that was true. Not saying that any of my other music has been untrue, but I wanted something that felt deeply, deeply personal. Something that felt like an insight into my actual life and what’s been happening in my life. ‘Gospel’ really plays on that idea of gospel truths and debunking what I’ve always seen as gospel truth.

Saying, “What does the word ‘gospel’ really mean to me?” – it’s taken so many forms in my life. Reaching that point where I’ve gone, “I need to write my own gospel now.” Everyone in my life will attest to the fact that I’ve probably gone through a Saturn Return, in the sense that everything really shifted over the last couple of years. It really turned itself on its head! I actually could not keep up with all the changes, but it has definitely felt like this big second coming of age. The first one was so mild in comparison to this one. I’ve really been going through a phase where I’m like, “I’m actually growing up now!”

A session with G (Flip) was one of the first I ever did, when I first started music. I was super nervous, super green; we wrote a really great song and remained friends from there. Obviously, we hadn’t seen each other in a while, but being in the room with them again…It did set the scene for being able to write something that felt indicative of that feeling that we’ve grown, we’ve changed. It was really easy to write ‘ Gospel’ with G.

29

‘ 29’, for me, is probably the one I bawl my eyes out to. Especially as an artist, I’ve always had this fear of getting older. My life looks different to my friends’, being a creative. Watching my friends having kids and getting married…I’ve always looked at myself and have gone, “I’ve fallen behind.”

I got to a point where I had to remind myself, I’m actually so young! It was coming up to a big relationship ending as well, where it hit me that of course, I can start again! I t’s so ridiculous to think that I can’t. I’m not even 29 yet, I’ve only just turned 28, but it’s the feeling of going, “Even a year from now, I’ll still have so much time. It’s not just 29, it’s 39. It’s 49, it’s 59…” I don’t know how many days I have on this Earth and for all I know, I have boundless time.

The song captures the feeling and message of, “Keep going, you’re allowed to change. I’m allowed to change.” Go with the motions of life, because we have infinite amounts of time. It’s a way to champion myself and other people to keep propelling forward and not get stuck on an idea of having messed everything up.

All the songwriting on this EP just happened. I didn’t go in, sit down and really concentrate on writing the songs; it was more a moment of sitting down and just asking myself what I felt. The words came tumbling out.

Writing ‘ 29’, I finished writing it and went, “Oh. That’s exactly how I feel!” I’m writing to my future self, reminding myself to not get caught up. I can’t wait for people to hear this one. I’ve shown it to friends, and they’ve cried, saying they’ve really needed it.

LOVE YOURSELF

I really wanted something that was punchier and that was a guitar-driven pop moment. I love making music for the fun of it and sonically, going into something that I know is going to be so fun to perform. I’d been listening to a lot of sounds like that. They really resonated with me over the last couple of years. I’m a guitarist, so I thought it was time for my big, rock god moment! This one was a really fun one to do.

Lyrically, it was one of those moments where I started off writing about a friend; looking at him and being like, “You are this beloved person and people really love you, but they don’t know you.” Wearing that facade and knowing that it actually stresses him out, pretending that he is that person. It’s like, “If people actually knew you, you wouldn’t have to work at all for people to love you.” The song goes into that thing of, “Well, if you actually loved yourself, then you would allow others to love you too.”

It really resonates with me as well. Like, cut the bullshit for once! Just be you! There’s no point in trying to be anything else. I’m so sick of trying to be cool. I needed to jump back on the self -love wagon a bit more. Being in this industry for a while, you get good at being like, “What’s a good way for people to perceive me?” rather than going, “I’m just going to do the thing, and it doesn’t matter if people love it or hate it.”

This song reminds me to just do the thing and stop being so worried about how it looks.

KYLIE’ S RANT

‘Kylie’s Rant’ is my favourite. I love that song so much. I sat in his [my ex’s] apartment, writing that song. I literally was cleaning his apartment, and I picked up my guitar while I was cleaning and just ranted with my voice recorder on and then went, “Whoa…this is over!”

It was a bit tongue in cheek, a bit sassy; I wanted to be a bit rude. I’m never rude to anyone but at that time I was like, “Maybe I should actually be a little bit rude, because I am a little bit pissed.” It’s okay to be annoyed! Stop subduing your feelings – if you’re feeling like being a bitch today, be one. I just allowed myself to have an angry, cheeky song.

Delving into the end of the song too, I’m like, “Maybe it’s me? Maybe I’m the one who needs to deal with not loving being myself and not having gotten to the place where I love my own company.” It’s still introspective in that way, a note to be like, “You need to deal with yourself.”

Kylie’s Rant is out now via Sony Music Australia. You can download and stream here
Follow KYE on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
Read our four page feature on KYE in issue 14 of Women In Pop magazine.