Performing Songwriter DIY Spotlight!
June 2005 Volume 12, Issue 86
A Flower Grows In Stone is Kyler England’s third independent release in four years. The California based artist credits her prolific output to the fact that she is able to find inspiration from so many different places, often mining friends’ lives for ideas when she’s already tapped her own stories. “I live for that moment when a song gets inside you and twists your gut up and makes you feel alive,” she says. “I try to write when something gives me that feeling, in the hopes that it will seep into the song.”
The record- a collection of mostly upbeat, tight pop-rock songs- definitely feels alive. England’s voice shimmers with an energy that bounces off the thick walls of sound created by the full band, making the lyrics pulse and breathe as each story unfolds.
The album starts strong with the title track, which England wrote for a friend who grew up in an abusive home. “I was really moved because this friend has such an open, warm heart,” she says. “I think that takes a lot of guts if you’ve been hurt over and over.” Synth sounds and multiple electric guitars float over the bass and drums as stacked harmonies highlight the positive message of the lyrics: “Somehow you defied all reason and rhyme, like a flower that grows in stone.” England says this particular song also has meaning in her own life. “It came at a time when I needed to remind myself not to let sadness and hurt close my heart off to the world,” she says.
“Dead End” is another striking song. “You’re guilty but you won’t confess, you pack up all that you possess,” England sings as bluesy electric guitars and a driving drum beat create a sense of loneliness and desperation. “That song was written as a plea to someone I know who unexpectedly walked out on all the people who cared about him and didn’t look back,” she says. “The more I talk to people, the more it seems everyone has someone in their life like that, be it a family member who cut ties or a friend who lost their way.”
England says that for her, writing is often a balance between the mind and the emotions. “I think a lot of the time my heart and head are gridlocked, each trying to yell louder than the other to be heard,” she says. “That’s when I beat my head against the wall trying to write and I second guess myself.” But out of this struggle she is sometimes able to find a balance. “It’s the precious few moments when my head and heart cooperate to translate an idea into song that I get closer to something true and the music flows,” she says. “I definitely made appointments with myself to write while working on this record, but I much prefer the unguarded moments when a song ambushes me.”