Heartbreak and betrayal are both familiar territories in pop music, but Kylie Cantrall has found a way to explore them on her own terms, in her own unique style. With her latest project, Valley Girl Problems, the singer-songwriter offers an unapologetically honest and raw account of navigating the messier parts of growing up, pairing personal storytelling with a nostalgic blend of dance-pop and 90s and 2000s R&B influences.
Valley Girl Problems is clearly a project that has resonated with so many listeners. Following its release, the album debuted at number seven on Spotify’s Weekly Top Albums Debut USA chart, accumulating more than 11.5 million streams on the platform. With her first headline show at the Roxy having sold out and her US headline tour now underway, Cantrall is quickly establishing herself as one to watch in the pop landscape.
Of course, there's more to Valley Girl Problems than its growing success. At the heart of it is an exploration of complicated feelings, delivered with a level of raw honesty that makes the project especially compelling.
During a recent press conference, we asked Cantrall whether listening back to the project now feels like revisiting a version of herself she’s already moved past, or whether the experiences captured across the record still feel relevant.
“It does feel like a version that I’ve moved past, for sure,” she admits, explaining that much of the project was written and recorded as she was experiencing the emotions that inspired it.
That immediacy, she believes, is what gives the record its rawness. Rather than revisiting experiences with the benefit of hindsight, Cantrall was able to capture her feelings as they were happening, creating a body of work that feels particularly personal, and rooted in the intense emotional landscape she experienced during the making of the project.
“It’s really interesting to be able to capture such raw kind of feelings and emotions, literally as you’re experiencing them and writing about it and recording it at the same time,” she explains.
Cantrall notes that time brings perspective. Looking back on the project now, she recognises the growth that has taken place since its creation, but doesn’t see that distance as diminishing the honesty of the music whatsoever.
Instead, she views each release as a reflection of who she is at a particular moment in time, allowing her music to evolve alongside her as she continues to grow, both personally and creatively.
“I feel like Valley Girl [Problems] is probably the most honest I’ve ever been,” she says.
When we described the project as feeling like an open wound, Cantrall immediately agreed, offering a response that perhaps sums up her relationship with the record better than anything else.
“Open wound is a great way to describe it. It’s scarred over now.”
There’s something pretty special about being able to look back at a piece of work and recognise just how far you’ve come from the point you were once at. For Cantrall, Valley Girl Problems remains an honest representation of who she was when she created it, even if she’s no longer in that same place. And perhaps that's what makes music created in such an immediate, personal moment so special: it doesn't have to remain a reflection of who you are forever to remain worth listening to.
Sometimes, looking back and knowing that you made it through something so raw and emotionally distressing is a strength in itself.
Written by Caitlin Kennedy-Sheerin.
Valley Girl Problems single cover by Ghalia Kriaa.