( ENSPIRE Music ) Alysia Kraft’s Album First Light touches on Impactful Mundane Moments which Explore her Personal Journey
ENSPIRE Contributor: Gabrielle Maya
The album First Light was inspired by getting up at dawn to create. Alysia Kraft has done this routinely for most of the 2020 quarantine. This is how she could complete her album. Her latest music video, ‘Hamilton Pool’, was released on June 17, 2022. We are here to explore Alysia Kraft’s music journey with her songs and the inspiration behind the album.
Her album First Light is a dreamy indie-pop genre that takes mundane moments and transforms a deep meaning. Also, her songs confront big significant moments in her life, such as kissing a girl, a year of sobriety, feeling homesick while on tour, and the enjoyment of traveling. Alysia Kraft embraces the complexities of growing up queer on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. Moreover, her defining solo debut celebrates her LGBTQ identity and the many layers of her artistry.
In addition, to explore the meaning of her album and music journey further, Alysia Kraft has answered our curiosities:
Are your demons a muse source for your songs?
“I think the demons drove my bus for a long time and I wrote a lot of songs about being twisted up inside myself, sabotaging myself, always really struggling with tangles of internal conflict. I got sober four years ago and feel the muse in a much different way now.
I’m able to stay out of my own way and think about the writing process as a way to connect to something much bigger than myself. I’m more interested in themes that involve some hope, some grace, some forgiveness, some transcendence or transformation. I want to cheer people on and create empathy in spaces that may be missing it. I feel that life and energy and creativity can be consumed by the demons, and I try to put that energy toward more productive things now.”
Any significant mundane moments from your Wyoming ranch that you will write about in your next album?
“Yeah! I spent Easter chasing my 3-year-old niece Sofia around the yard. Her name translates in Italian to “Little Fire” which is very appropriate for her energy and bravery and presence in the world. After everyone had gone home and I was sitting beneath a big Wyoming blanket of stars playing guitar around the campfire, I thought about what kind of advice I’d boil down for her from my lived experience. How could I encourage her to stay as wild as she was now, but to do so in a way that put her self-love first?”
What message do you want your audience to grasp while listening to First Light?
“I want to gently acknowledge that there is beauty in the questions, in the struggle, in the longing. If you’re spending time there, you’re being brave. You’re tuning in to a bigger calling — and I’m here to gently encourage you to keep going.”
Do you feel First Light is a role model for underrepresented songs of the LGBTQ experience?
“It’s definitely the role model for my LGBTQ experience. It’s me as the writer and person I always hoped I could be but really needed to work to get there. I grew up in Wyoming with a total absence of visibility, representation, community, and protections. I had a lot of internalized fear and shame and did a lot of people-pleasing to stay “safe.”
My desire was to be someone who could speak with an open heart about my experiences, who could be authentically myself in every situation, and who could write from experiences that others could find themselves in. I’m really proud of the personal work I had to do in order to be able to write this album.”
Alysia Kraft began a musical concept of conquering demons through storytelling. Having firsts and expressing how small moments can be a huge impact.
Listen to her album First Light to catch a glimpse of her story. Listen and watch Hamilton Pool on Youtube now.
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