Kris Angelis

Kris Angelis has been living musically her whole life. “My mom says I’ve been singing since before I could talk. I would sing melodies when I didn’t actually know words.” Growing up on a farm in Florida, Angelis spent her childhood playing, running around the farm, and making up songs. She and her twin sister, Alix, sang together, teaching themselves to harmonize by experimenting with their voices. They composed their first song at the age of three -- and it lives on now, interwoven into one of Kris’s more recent works. While her early musical influences were limited to her grandparents’ Rodgers and Hammerstein videos, her parents’ records, and the Lawrence Welk show -- one of the few that came in on their TV -- Kris did not feel deprived. “I still remember putting on the Beatles, the Eagles, the Archies, and even Strauss waltzes, and dancing around, pretending to be the singer. I loved it. It was a great basis in melodies.” Later she would sing in the church choir and, when her family moved to California, in her summer camp’s musical productions. It was with the help of a musician friend that Kris first began learning guitar. She continued learning on her own -- and dived right into songwriting. “It’s how I create, how I express myself. But it’s also a huge part of how I get through life. Music is a universal language. It evokes emotion. It resonates in our souls, it actually vibrates in our bodies. There’s a Victor Hugo quote that expresses exactly how I feel about it: ‘Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.’ That’s how songwriting has been for me.” And she certainly hasn’t been silent. Kris has put her musical talents to good use, developing her folk-pop sound in two EPs, Brief Sounds and Ghost in the Corner. She has also toured the country, as well as collaborated with other musicians on several side projects. But this year has brought something entirely new: her first full-length album, The Left Atrium. The thread of experimentation that began back on the farm has carried through into The Left Atrium. It’s a fusion of genres and sounds that includes elements of everything from smoky jazz to bold rock. It also has its share of the truly experimental, including such non-traditional instruments as tuned wine glasses and kitchen implements. This wasn’t accidental. Teaspoons feature in the percussion for Empty Cabinets, a song about tea. And the clapping in the childhood-sweet Neverland is actually a game of pattycake. For Kris, the process of creating each song was important. “Each song had its own artistic journey, went its own way and became its own thing.” The Left Atrium is a great example of who Kris is as a musician -- beautiful, eclectic, surprising, and yet somehow always herself. written by Alisa Roberts