Kalen & Aslyn

 

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“Some of these songs stretch back ten years,” says Aslyn, “and some of them are brand new. It wasn’t something we consciously set out to do, but we ended up recording an album that spans our entire journey together: falling in love, breaking up, getting married, leaving home, coming back.”

It’s hard to think of a more fitting introduction to that journey than ‘Back Of Our Minds,’ Kalen & Aslyn’s gorgeous debut. Written over the course of a decade in which the Athens, Georgia-based duo was primarily known for their own respective projects, the songs here represent something of a look behind the curtain, a captivating series of musical journal entries that reveal the evolution of a relationship in all its messy, honest, imperfect beauty. Kalen & Aslyn produced the album themselves, and their subtle touch is a perfect match for the record’s intimate, understated performances, which at times call to mind everything from Van Morrison and Randy Newman to Harry Nilsson and Glen Campbell. The end result is a breezy mix of southern California country and vintage pop that comes wrapped in warm, richly textured arrangements and lush, mesmerizing harmonies. 

Looking at Kalen & Aslyn’s individual resumes, it might seem inevitable that the couple would make a record like this someday. A Florida native, Aslyn (born Heather Mitchell) first made a name for herself as a solo artist with her infectious Capitol Records debut, ‘Lemon Love,’ which yielded a Top 40 single and helped earn her dates with the likes of Chris Isaak and Gavin DeGraw along with appearances on the Rock Boat, Cayamo, and more. Kalen, meanwhile, came to prominence with psychedelic southern rockers Ponderosa, who worked with legendary producer Joe Chiccarelli (The Strokes, Real Estate), toured with Shooter Jennings, The Old 97’s, and The Whigs among others, and landed festival slots from Austin City Limits to Voodoo Fest. After being introduced by friends in Atlanta, Kalen & Aslyn launched the dreamy synth-pop duo Dega, releasing their self-titled debut to rave reviews in 2018, with PopMatters hailing their “inherent chemistry” and Paper Magazine praising their “dreamy, jubilant” sound full of “glittery synths and shimmying drums.”

Throughout their wide-ranging, genre-defying careers, Kalen & Aslyn continued to write personal, deeply probing, contemplative songs—both on their own and together—that didn’t seem to fit the mold for any of their existing projects. The music was too organic for Dega, too mellow for Ponderosa, too rootsy for Aslyn. Rather than record two separate solo albums, Kalen & Aslyn decided to pool the material, teaming up with engineer John Ashley (The War On Drugs, Hiss Golden Messenger) to capture ‘Back Of Our Minds’ in their own converted studio space just outside Athens. 

“Our instinct at the time was just to capture this music that might otherwise have been lost,” says Kalen. “There was no concept beyond that at first, but when we actually started looking more closely at the songs, we realized you could chart the evolution of our relationship through them. Our whole story is in this album.”

Luckily for us, it’s a story that’s still only just beginning to unfold.

 

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