Back in December we wrote about BYLAND, the recording project of Albuquerque-born, Seattle-based artist Alie Renee Byland. We described single ‘Postcard’ as “mournful but never without hope, [exploring] the concept of searching for a place to call home within a world in which things too often fall away.” The song was taken from Heavy For A While, an upcoming full-length album on Mother West Records which concerns itself with such themes, tracing the disappointment and exasperation loaded into any search for belonging, while arcing towards a sense of acceptance. An album as preoccupied with both wistful reflection and hopeful dreams, and learning to square reality against such ideals.
Latest single ‘Two Circles’ encapsulates the duality of such ideas. A song which allows competing and seemingly contradictory emotions to occupy the same space. “[The track] feels like it changes meaning each time I get to sing it,” Byland explains. “I see myself in this song. I see others. I see love, pain, anger, frustration, joy, shame, angst, everything and nothing.” The sound’s hushed restraint approaches this with an attentive care, giving equal weight to every shade of feeling, and ultimately emerging with a decidedly empathetic tone. “To me, this song feels like meeting another version of yourself at the bar and experiencing for yourself the curiosity and compassion that you might lend a stranger,” as co-writer Jake Byland puts it. BYLAND is not afraid to present the difficult alongside the hopeful, and thus carries the authenticity of emotions truly lived.
Photo by Rachel Bennet