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Nov 15, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Cole Schmidt

Today, indie singer/songwriter Kylie Van Slyke is sharing their new album, Crash Test Plane, their second full-length release under the moniker Kylie V. The record follows after their 2021 debut album, Big Blue, and explores further into their plaintive, lived-in storytelling and well-honed folk pop arrangements.

Van Slyke paired with producer and multi-instrumentalist, Josh Eastman alongside drummer Jess Jones, violinist Tegan Walhgren, trumpeter Gregory Dent, and pedal steel guitarist Alexander Dobson. Meanwhile, Van Slyke contributes guitar, banjo, mandolin and bass themself, crafting a warm acoustic tone that ambles through shades of country, indie pop, and folk. “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,” they explain.

Van Slyke has been sharing a steady string of new singles from the album this year, including “Anomaly,” “Lucky Streak,” “Wish I Was In Bed” and “Year of the Rabbit.” Along with the record’s full release, they are highlighting the album’s title track, premiering with Under the Radar.

“Crash Test Plane” brings out the winding country undertones to Van Slyke’s songwriting, encircling their airy vocals in soft-hued acoustic guitar and pastoral pedal steel tones. They trade rock urgency and pop hooks for a dreamy sprawl traced with a yearning lyrical voice. As Van Slyke describes, the track came together over a long period and went through seven iterations before settling into its final shape. They explain, the track is about “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.”

Their lyrics mirror this same balance of uncertainty, panic, and acceptance. “It’s colder / Outside my door but I barely remember / When I wasn’t afraid of getting older / I don’t want / To make this harder than it has to be, babe / But I’m dying inside each time I don’t make / Something worth hearing / Oh, but / I come content with the ache / I got it for my birthday / And I struggle to explain / It’s a knife in the back / It’s a crash test.”

Check out the song below, along with the full album. Crash Test Plane is out now via Royal Mountain Records. You can also read our Q&A with Van Slyke below.

Are there any personal experiences or stories behind “Crash Test Plane”?

More than I can count, probably! My writing is deeply influenced by my experiences and feelings but the main ones I seem to have come back to on this record were: The Breakup (capitalized for emphasis), riding on trains and buses late at night (perfect for writing lyrics silently), being alone in my room, and just the general experience of growing up.

Are there any songs on ‘Crash Test Plane’ that hold a special meaning for you?

All of them are my babies and are very special and personal to me! My favourite is probably Year of the Rabbit, because I have encoded a couple shoutouts to specific close friends in the lyrics. The closer, Song in Open D, also means a lot to me because I wrote it when I was 16 and have been playing it at shows for 4 years.

What do you hope your fans will take away from this album?

That’s a really good question. I don’t know, I hope people like it! I hope it maybe makes them feel less alone or less crushingly sad about whatever they are going through. I put so, so much deeply personal meaning into my work—some songs I physically couldn’t sing live for the first time without tearing up. Obviously there’s a lot on Crash Test Plane that’s way less vague than the first album, and this is sort of my coming of age album(?) But once I release a project, for the most part I try to let go of the specificity, and it’s cathartic. Truly I just hope that it resonates with the people it’s meant to.

How does this project set the stage for your future work? Are there any new directions you’re excited to explore?

I think I went a little further into a lot of my different genre inspirations on this record, and I’m very excited to do that way, way more on the next one. I assembled this album over 3 very formative years, and I have left myself with probably hundreds of scrapped or unfinished songs and a lot more experience to build the next one out of. I really want to make a proper pop song on the next one, and also probably go way heavier just in general. Guitar tone-wise and emotionally.