KYLE WILLIAM ANDERSON | INTERVIEW + TRACK REVIEW

Kyle William Anderson writes songs like someone pacing the room at 2am with too many thoughts and too many unfinished ideas open at once — not trying to tidy the chaos, just trying to survive honestly inside it. His music doesn’t chase perfection or genre loyalty. Instead, it moves instinctively between dark pop, alternative rock, electronic haze and emotional confession, capturing the feeling of a mind constantly shifting between clarity and collapse. Grab Bag – Season 1 embraces that unpredictability fully, treating songwriting less like a carefully curated statement and more like opening a thrift-store grab bag filled with fragments of different moods, genres and versions of yourself. Underneath the cinematic production and restless energy is something deeply human: a songwriter using vulnerability, instability and raw creativity not as branding, but as a way to stay grounded in the middle of it all.

TRACK REVIEW - SHE WAITS

“She Waits” opens in a way that barely reveals what’s coming next, which honestly makes the payoff even stronger. There’s a psychedelic undertone woven through the track, but it never leans too heavily into the genre tropes. Instead, it feels subtle, emotional and strangely hypnotic. Then the harmonies hit almost immediately, those doubled vocals punching straight through the chest with this raw sense of longing and tension.

What really grabbed me was the vocal phrasing and melody choices throughout the song. They’re unpredictable in the best way, constantly pulling you further into the atmosphere without ever feeling forced. By the time the release of “time keeps flying away from me” arrives, it feels like the entire song has been emotionally building toward that exact moment. There’s such a satisfying tension and release there.

The arrangement deserves serious credit too. I love how the instrumentation strips back right at the end of the chorus before swelling back into the post-chorus, giving the emotional weight of the vocals more room to land. And the “we may be running” section genuinely reminded me of something Alt-J would stumble into — rhythmically strange, slightly disorienting, but incredibly captivating.

“She Waits” feels restless, emotional and beautifully human without ever trying too hard to announce itself.

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Your music constantly balances chaos and connection, almost like you’re trying to hold two emotional extremes together at once. Do you think people become most honest when they’re emotionally unstable?

When I’m feeling unstable, it definitely makes the writing process easier because I actually have emotions to act on. But I can’t speak for every artist because creativity comes when it comes — during chaos, instability, good times, whatever. For me, I try my best to harness those emotions when I’m unstable and pour them into creating.

The title Grab Bag – Season 1 feels intentionally unpredictable. Was it important for the EP to feel like a collision of ideas rather than a perfectly unified statement?

Exactly. I decided I don’t really want to make albums for a while because I don’t want to feel stuck writing songs that all need to sound the same or work together perfectly. I want the freedom to write and express myself however I want.

I had a bunch of almost-finished songs in different genres and was trying to figure out how to release them together instead of just dropping singles — singles are getting expensive too, honestly. Then I thought about the grab bags at local thrift stores that are filled with random toys and how I could treat releases the same way: a bunch of random tunes lumped together. Like you said, a collision of ideas.

There’s a cinematic quality running through your work, but it never feels distant or overly polished. How do you stop atmosphere from overpowering emotional honesty?

I usually write the music first without anything specific in mind — just acting on pure emotion. The lyrics come much later. I don’t really write lyrics in journals or notepads like a lot of writers do. I usually sit in front of the mic and just say what’s on my mind.

Once the lyrics are done, I’ll remix the song by taking parts out, adding or removing effects, and shaping everything so it fits together naturally. Sometimes I even revisit lyrics if they don’t match the atmosphere of the song. I think the emotional honesty comes from speaking naturally in the moment before I start polishing things.

A lot of indie pop leans heavily into nostalgia or escapism, but your songs seem more interested in confronting emotional discomfort directly. Was vulnerability always central to your writing process?

I’ve always been pretty open about my mental health. I can’t really hide my emotions, so eventually I figured, why fight it? Over the years I’ve learned how to harness those emotions and put them into creating.

A long time ago, someone told me to write and sing about what I know and what I’m familiar with, and that stuck with me. Being vulnerable opens your mind to new possibilities because you stop creating out of fear of how people will react.

You describe your sound as suited for both “late-night headphones and crowded live rooms.” Do you approach songwriting differently depending on whether you imagine solitude or a shared experience?

I’m almost always writing with the shared experience in mind. A handful of my friends could tell you I’m constantly blowing up their phones with new songs. I like sharing music and hearing what people think, partly because it helps me figure out whether I’m heading in the right direction while still sticking to what I know.

I write every day — which usually means recording every day — whether it’s 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or four hours. It’s something I feel like I have to do to stay happy.

Your music blends dark pop, alternative rock, and electronic textures without sounding trapped inside any one genre. Do you think genre becomes less important once emotion becomes the focus?

I honestly don’t think genre is important at all. Write what you want and express yourself however you want. To me, art shouldn’t have rules or regulations. Some of the best artists have moved across genres throughout their careers and made amazing music because of it.

I support anyone doing something different. Create for the sake of creating and don’t worry so much about fitting into a specific genre. The more you write, the more it all starts to connect naturally anyway. People will label it however they want because they need something to relate it to.

There’s something restless about your sound, like the songs are searching for stability but never fully arriving there. Is that tension intentional?

It’s not intentional, but it makes sense. I’ve been searching for stability for years, so I’m not surprised that it comes through in the music. Whatever I’m feeling at the time usually ends up in the songs, and that can change daily.

Honestly, I can thank my bipolar disorder for some of that. Mental health definitely changes the way you create, but over the years I’ve learned how to use it to my advantage instead of letting it take me down.

Starting a side project like Iconic Gold while also building your solo work suggests different parts of your creativity need different outlets. What can Iconic Gold express that Kyle William Anderson can’t?

A big part of it is just having another musician to bounce ideas off of. Writing alone can sometimes be difficult when I’m unsure where to take something, so collaborating with someone else is refreshing and a lot of fun. I honestly think writing with other musicians is important.  I met Daniel Minerick a while back at work, and he was playing some of his electronic music. It immediately caught my attention. We’re very like-minded creatively, but we still have our own distinct personalities and approaches. We have a new release called Deal With Me on all digital platforms. It continues to be a super fun project.

A lot of modern production aims for perfection, but your music still carries a raw emotional undercurrent underneath the polish. How important is it for listeners to still hear the human imperfections inside the songs?

I come from a punk rock background, so rawness is where life is for me. Humans aren’t perfect, and I like showcasing that in my music. I definitely try to make things sound as clean as possible, but sometimes the song wants something different, and I just go with it.

I’m drawn to artists who leave some rawness in their recordings because it gives the listener space to use their imagination. Anybody can pay to sound perfect, but sometimes that feels disconnected from how they actually sound in real life. I want my live shows to feel the same as the recordings — raw and human.

If someone listens through Grab Bag – Season 1 from start to finish, what do you hope they walk away understanding about you beyond just the music itself?

I hope people walk away understanding that I’m a songwriter with a lot of different styles and that I’m not interested in following the “right” approach. I’d rather follow my own path creatively.

More than anything, I just want people to know how passionate I am about writing and recording music. It completely consumes me. And again, be different and do different things. Don’t just do what the person next to you is doing. Follow your own path and see where it leads you never know what you’ll create! Most importantly, have fun!