Indie pop artist and producer Jenna Kyle has shared her experimental and worldly debut EP – Ojos – out now. Listen to the project here.
LA-based indie-pop artist, singer/songwriter, producer and live electronic artist, Jenna Kyle, shares her debut EP, Ojos, today. The release represents a new era for Kyle, who has actively been leaving her mark as one of the 2% of female music producers in the industry. With more of a techno and world-influenced sound and English and Spanish lyrics, the focus track, “Abre La,” and the Ojos EP marks a new openness and experimental nature of Jenna Kyle’s production and writing style.
Kyle says, “During 2020 we were living in our small NYC apartment, feeling trapped, uncreative, just trying to keep sane and alive. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder right before the pandemic hit which was already up-ending. I was reading Leonard Cohen’s ‘The Flame’ which kept it real and helped me process some of the darkness. The lyrics “I speak with Jenna night and day, it’s highs and lows and highs again” were inspired by Cohen’s poem where he addresses himself directly; “I love to speak with Leonard, He’s a poet and a Shepard, He’s a lazy bastard Living in a suit”. The English verses are more self-aware, while the Spanish breakdown was written all at once at 4am, the imagining of a more open world. Writing ‘Abre La’ which means “open it, or open her” was probably my way to not go mad!”
Recently, Kyle teamed up with DJ/producer Sinego, who created a dark, organic house mix Kyle’s recently released title track “Ojos” — which they call “La Noche Mix” — out now. The track caught Sinego’s attention instantly and this collaboration highlights Kyle’s love of production and connection and takes the track to new places. Since the release, the remix has been featured on Spotify editorial playlists including New Music Friday Latin, Chill Easy, mint MX, and Fresh Dance.
The title track, “Ojos,” from Jenna Kyle’s debut EP, arrived along with a lyric video. This new bop is the second single from the Ojos EP. On the title track, Kyle says, “Ojos is the first song I wrote and produced myself. It’s surprising how few women are producing music still, but the doors are definitely open and there’s a strong group of us out here doing it! I vacillate between feeling enraged that there are so few women in the profession, while simultaneously feeling proud to help hold the torch for the next generation of female producers coming up, all while battling the imposter syndrome many of us feel when saying “I am a producer, I produced this myself!”
One of the ways Kyle has explored her newfound producer prowess is to integrate a multicultural world aesthetic that is so uniquely her own. Jenna Kyle’s debut EP is influenced by her travels over the past several years and her long time partnership and collaboration with Brazilian / Argentine drummer Bruno Esrubilsky (Mitski, Hedwig and The Angry Inch, The Band Joseph), which contributed to a globally-minded sound and an influx of Spanish and Portuguese lyrics.
She adds, “Over the past few years, pre-Covid, we toured through Southeast Asia, Europe, and visited South America every few months to be with family. I was immersed in the music and rhythms while meeting so many wonderful people. Language barriers can provide a new opportunity to communicate. You don’t need to understand every word I say to know what I mean. Exploring writing lyrics and poems in Spanish, which I’ve studied through college and since I was a kid, and Portuguese, which is a newer language for me, opened up a more creative process; there’s more room for experimentation within the new rhyme schemes. I don’t get as caught up on a word being cliche. Ojos and all my new music feels like an opening of sound and mind as a direct result of the freedom from self-imposed language constraints, and deepening my skills as a producer.”
The debut single from the EP, “Tell Me,” is also streaming everywhere now along with a new video. “Tell Me” is a capstone of Kyle’s experience of trying on different personas and processes and the video explores the way people present themselves to the world. Kyle co-produced the new single with BAILE(Anjunadeep) and Grant Zubritsky (Verite, Nick Murphy) mostly remotely in their respective Brooklyn studios.
The accompanying music video emerged as an exploration with director Jay Harwood, art director Gina Schiappacasse and choreographer Cesar Brodermann. Kyle strikes somewhat contorted poses in a rotating lineup of wearable art pieces, masks, and headpieces by Brooklyn staple artists including PJ Linden and Max Steiner, nodding to the Tik-Tok and Instagram obsession culture we’re all trapped in, as she sings ironically “Tell me what to wear, tell me what to think, tell me what to feel inside.”
After a handful of singles, Kyle is carving out her pocket of indie-pop that’s rooted in self-expression with a context that she defines. Her music is a permission slip for others to find their inner voice and go deeply into the heart space that seeks no confirmation or praise, where the goal is to express and not impress. Ojos, the debut EP by Jenna Kyle, is out now and streaming on all platforms.
