With her new EP "ONE", Kendal Thompson's heart is on fire and you can hear it
burning through her music. After a flurry of singles and a live EP in 2014, Kendal is now ready to unleash new songs and a new sound.
Kendal explains this time around she wanted to "...let the lyrics shine and the meaning and emotion of the song stand out" and it shows from the first impassioned vocal of the lead single "Burn". "It was the most 'pop' song I'd ever written, it took a while for me to like it...but it has a very heavy message. It talks about...getting out of something that isn't healthy...finding your own strength to just walk away." after pausing for a moment she laughs, "and write a pop song about it."
While writing her new EP "ONE" with long time cowriter and producer Mike Schlosser, Kendal explored songwriting at new depths while rediscovering her love of pop music and 90's R n B. There are moments of "ONE" that feel like a day at Venice Beach circa 1991. "Run" and "Easy" both harken back to the heyday of R n B vocal stacks and the upbeat swing of classic Whitney while the sultry "Top Down" and "Secret" simmer with Janet Jackson-esque sexuality and new-jack-swing inspired drum loops and production. "Every song when I was growing up had these slick intros and these cute interludes. I really wanted to capture a few of those moments in these songs.”
When asked how the new songs differ from her previous releases on Little Noise Records, Kendal says that her 2014 single "Be Mine" was a turning point for her. "It was the first upbeat song that me and Mike ever wrote together. It got to a point where we were like, maybe we should stop writing these sad depressing songs and have some fun."