Interview by Carol Wright | Photographer: Alix Angelis
We got to chat with singer/songwriter Kris Angelis about her song “Meet You in Our Dreams” and her forthcoming album.
Music has always been a part of your life but when did things shift to where you started seeing making music as a career?
After I moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. I had been playing guitar and performing at little coffee shops and bars before that but as I kept going, it became more and more of my focus. I had other jobs and as I started getting more opportunities to play shows in other places, I had to do them less, and eventually, music became my full-time job.
Who are some of your music inspirations?
Brandi Carlile, Tim Hanseroth, Sara Bareilles, Gregory Alan Isakov, Ray Lamontagne, Damien Rice, Rufus Wainwright, Regina Spektor, Jeff Hahn, Taylor Swift, Hanson, Creedence Clearwater Revival, David Gray, Phoebe Bridgers, I could go on and on.
Your latest single “Meet You in Our Dreams” is beautiful. Did you pull from personal experiences to write the song?
Yes, I had a long-distance relationship before and we would talk on the phone to say goodnight and sometimes describe a place where we would try to go in our dreams and be with each other. It was a fun thought to drift to sleep to. I have lately found myself dreaming often of people I miss and especially during this time of isolation, thought it would be a wonderful thing to be able to do: go to a beautiful place where you could be with people you love without any worries. Dov Rosenblatt of Distant Cousins who’s music I love agreed that that was a delightful idea, wrote the song with me and added his beautiful voice to the track.
Do you have a particular songwriting process?
I tend to write lyrics first. I’ll be inspired by something or just have a feeling or thought and I’ll write it down throughout the day. Then I’ll sit down at some point and put a melody to a key lyric and build from there. Sometimes I’ll have a melody idea first but usually will end up putting lyric ideas I already had into it and then filling it out with whatever the rest of the story is. Lyrics and melody are both so important and having a melody first can sometimes limit what you want to say or vice versa so there are benefits to both directions and it’s usually a dance back and forth within the process – rarely do I write all the lyrics before coming up with a melody but it has happened once or twice. I’ll just say that I have pages and pages of lyric ideas and not as many voice notes with just melodies.
“Meet You in Our Dreams” will be on your forthcoming album. Can you tell us anything about what we can expect from the album?
The album is called The Skies We Look To and the cover art is a photo by Lee Holbrook of the Milky Way over Bixby Bridge in Big Sur. It has a mixture of contemplative, dreamy songs and more folky/country tunes. It features a beautiful real cello playing by Ashley Ng and Dave Eggar and fiddle by Jeb Bows. These are some of the more raw and vulnerable songs I have written, particularly “That Wine Stain” which is about the pain left behind after a relationship with someone who struggled with alcohol abuse. The production includes sounds made from a wine bottle and glasses using the wine that the person’s family made. So the connection goes deeper into the music than just the words. It’s available now to pre-save and pre-order at bit.ly/theskieswelookto – and you can even get rewards that are described on my website. “Meet You In Our Dreams” will be an instant gratification track on iTunes and Bandcamp.
What advice do you have for aspiring singers?
Sing as much as you can. Get out and perform and make friends! Community is so important and you can lift each other up rather than feel like you’re competing. If you want to make a career of it, learn the ins and outs of how to properly register songs with the organizations that keep track of when they are played so you can get paid. And finally, do the music that lights your heart on fire – if you love it, you’ll keep doing it and people can sense that passion and authenticity and will be drawn to it.
