By Annette Hansen
Kaylinn West created Tiny Stills as a sort of coping mechanism, a way for her to make sense of all her experiences and feelings and channel them musically. From its inception to now, Tiny Stills has grown from a project to a full band. We spoke with West about the band’s recently released sophomore album Laughing Into The Void and how the band continues to help her process life’s ups and downs.
You put out your second full length album Laughing Into The Void. How did you hope to challenge yourselves this time around?
Well, this album I really was working as an independent label for myself. I did the Kickstarter for it, in that way I got the funding for it, and then I’m doing PR for it. Basically I’m my own label in a sense, whereas, when I did my first record, I didn’t really know what to do. I didn’t know how to tour. I didn’t know anything about PR. I didn’t know about the things that a label would do basically. I knew that I really wanted to do a good job with this one and try and make it viable and make it part of the conversation. I went on tour in 2015 with Anthony Raneri and A.W., that was when I kind of realized ‘oh, I feel like people are really hearing it’. I never felt that way before that tour. With this one I really wanted to make sure I put my best foot forward. I put everything I could into this record including operating like an independent label because I don’t have a label to do stuff. I’m completely indie which means I just have to be smart about the things I do and who I do it with and act like a business. I really wanted to make a record I was proud of and put out and tour, which I didn’t do last time.
You actually produced most of this album.
Yeah, I have kind of a background with productions, but I was always scared to do it on my own. My husband, Tony Thaxton, who played drums in Motion City Soundtrack, he’s kind of been a big inspiration for me. He’s kind of my cheerleader. He really encouraged me to continue producing on my own when I couldn’t find someone to produce the rest of it. I had Andy Freeman produce two songs, and then he couldn’t do the rest of the record. I was like ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do’, and he was like ‘do it yourself, you can do it yourself’. It was a challenge, but I’m glad I did it.
I feel like it’s more common to see artists putting in all the footwork these days.
Yeah, the other thing is I’m kind of a control freak, so it’s hard for me to hand off stuff to other people because I like to know what’s going on all the time. I care so much. It’s hard for me to imagine anyone else who would care about this as much as I care about this. It’s like my baby. I put everything into this, like all of my free time, all of my free funds that I had, like I care about this more than anything else.
I think it’s a lot more dynamic. It’s a lot more aggressive sometimes. It’s a lot more pointed. I love a lyric you can quote, or like an ‘away message’. I grew up in the days of AIM, and I wanted to be the person to write the lyric that someone puts in their away message. To me, that’s the biggest compliment, so I really wanted to write songs that were worthy of that. I’m always aiming for that, but this time around I feel really proud.
You’re lyrics come from a deeply personal place. Why is it important for the music you create to be such a transparent reflection of your thoughts and feelings?
I think I get really offended by artists who waste my time with art because your time is so precious. I think, as a listener, if you’re not being completely honest with your audience and you’re not being completely real, you’re just doing them a disservice, you’re wasting their time. I just want to be the most honest and genuine. I just want it to be real. It comes from a real place. I love a lot of records that are written from an ‘I’ve invented this character and this is their story’. I love that, but for this project it always was about me trying to work through and process my feelings and everything going on around me. In that sense, it helps me because if somebody comes up to me and they’re like ‘I really liked that song, thank you for saying that’, that’s a genuine interaction that means a lot to me, if I can reach an audience in that way. It was always really important for me to write things that were honest.
Your playing Fest for the first time next month. What are you most looking forward to with that experience?
I’m excited to have played. The other bands on that bill, even though it’s not the same stage, I’m really freaking out about it. I’ve never imagined..I’m always optimistic that things will do well, but I never anticipate it, so when something cool like that happens and I get to go play stuff like this, I’m always really, really excited. I’ve played fest with A.W. as a side musician. I have so much respect for them. I love their lyrics. It was really an honor to play for them because I’m such a fan of their’s too, so now I’m doing it on my own. I almost got my first tattoo at fest when I played with them. I didn’t, but now it’s like I get to go and do it as me and I guess that’s everything. I’m really looking forward to seeing all the other bands I love too. Unfortunately, I think we’re playing at the same time as Lagwagon which I’m bummed about, but…
Opportunity costs.
[Laughs] I know, I’m working. I have a lot of friends going, so it’ll be great to see them play.
