“Up to now, I’ve given all I’ve got/You could always keep it if you want/I’ll make myself easier to love.”
Zoe Reynolds channels all of her past heartbreak and the lessons learned from giving your all to people that don’t deserve it into her songwriting, and Kississippi’s incredible debut album, Sunset Blush, is a highlighter dusted example of what that looks like in 2018. The album focuses on learning to build from the rubble from failed relationships and learning to love and appreciate yourself above all else. It’s a warm and powerful debut that’s full of arena-ready anthems and pop music so visceral and poignant that you can’t help but get swept up in how resonant tracks like “Once Good” and “Cut Yr Teeth” are.
Today is a huge day for Kississippi! They’ve officially announced the release of Sunset Blush, will kick off a tour supporting the legendary Dashboard Confessional, and are now streaming an anthemic new single called “Easier to Love.” This is the kind of sunkissed pop music that Reynolds says she’s been dreaming of making; the warmth that radiates from her voice and the plucky synth melt together and create a moment of ethereal bliss that sweeps over the runtime of the track and rushes over listeners like a flood. The gospel of Kississippi has been sung and it’s up to us to sing it loudly.
In an excerpt from her interview with W Magazine, Reynolds explains that “Easier to Love” was the first song that was written for Sunset Blush. The song took many forms, and Reynolds openly talks about it saying:
“I wanted to write more poppy stuff really badly, and I didn’t really know how to do it. I had this keyboard that I was just goofing around with. I spent a few hours on this demo and showed my bandmates and tried to flesh it out as a full band, but we didn’t have a keyboard player at that point and the whole thing was keys. We tried to make it an indie song, and it sounded like garbage. We recorded a demo version of it, and at the end of the day my friend Kyle, who recorded the record, was like, “Uh, this doesn’t sound good.” And I was like, “I don’t think it sounds good either, but I have this demo version on my laptop.” So I showed him the synth-y version of it, and we ended up using a lot of the stems from those keyboard parts on the actual version of the song. There’s still stuff from when I first wrote it in the song, which is why it’s really important for me to have it as the first single. It’s been through a lot.”
You can stream “Easier to Love” below.
Sunset Blush is out digitally on April 6th. You can catch Kississippi on tour with Dashboard Confessional and Beach Slang starting TONIGHT in Houston, TX. Dates for that tour can be found below.