Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Kris Angelis

Award-winning singer-songwriter Kris Angelis is a voice that’s taking over the music industry. In 2013, she released her debut full-length recording The Left Atrium, which won Best Female Album at the LA Music Critics Award. Since then, she’s toured around the world and performed at festivals, including Sundance and SXSW. In 2020, she’s gearing up for the release of her new EP, That Siren, Hope, and we got to chat with her about it!

PC: How did you discover your passion for the arts?
Kris: I grew up on a farm in Florida where we didn’t have TV, just my grandparents’ Rogers and Hammerstein musicals on VHS and records. My sister and I would put on costumes and act out the scenes coming from behind the window curtains. We would plan out what was going to happen when we were playing house and then practice and show our family. I loved being in the little school shows, then started going to musical theatre camp, and decided I wanted to keep playing forever.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?

Kris: Tim Hanseroth of the Brandi Carlile Band along with Brandi herself. I had the good fortune to become close with them right before they got signed. Getting to see how they write, collaborate as a band, and perform, along with their values in regard to music and what they stand for has had a formative impact on me and what I strive for as a person and musician, and still does.  

PC: You’ve had a lot of success already in your career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that sticks out?
Kris: There are many good moments, but the one that came to mind is one of my very early shows in Los Angeles at the Pig & Whistle. There weren’t many people there and there was a moment when the sound man said I had fifteen minutes left, and I said, “I don’t have that many songs!” People laughed.

Brandi Carlile was at that show and she beckoned me over, told me to come closer and said, “Kris, that was awesome. Keep it up and you’ll be a great singer-songwriter and performer.” Then she took my shoulders, looked me in the eye and said, “So, get it together and be like that all the time!” because I guess I was funny and confident on stage and I have struggled with shyness and anxiety in my life. That was a huge boost that I was going in the right direction.

Also, around that time, someone told a big music manager that I was an artist and he asked me if I was good. I awkwardly shrugged and felt embarrassed, and he said, “Well, if you don’t think you are, why should I?” It sounds harsh, but he did it in a tough-love way and I’m grateful! So those aren’t big achievement moments, but they are part of what got me to the things I’ve achieved.

PC: Tell us about your new single, “I Hope I Never Fall In Love Again”. What inspired the track?
Kris: It was written from a place of not wanting to feel the pain of a broken heart again. The song came from the place of feeling like, “Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all,” might be crap. Feeling like you couldn’t really fall in love again anyway because your heart is already given, which could be a good thing—a declaration of faithfulness—but in this case it’s not a situation where the person can give you theirs in return.

The EP explores many facets of hope, and even though the title of the song seems grim, it’s more about that feeling than an actual desire because, of course, we want to fall in love again, and we want it to last. It circles back to that truth of being a hopeless (or hopeFUL?) romantic and admitting that if I ever fell for someone again, I’d jump in, heart first (not head) like I always do.

PC: What does the rest of the year hold for you as we look ahead to the end of 2019 into 2020?
Kris: I just finished playing in all 50 states and now I’m trying to get as many people as possible to preorder the new record,That Siren, Hope, before its release on January 24th. Also, raising funds for promo, seeing if I can get some vinyls made, preparing for the big Hotel Cafe release show on January 16th! And of course, lots of nerdy board games with my family during the holidays!

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

PC: A band or artist that fans would be surprised to learn is on your playlist?
Kris: Maybe Hanson? Some people know it because I’m not shy about mentioning that they are one of the big reasons I got into music, but people are still usually surprised because they only know “Mmmbop”, even though Hanson has been making music consistently and prolifically since then along with taking part in important activism.

PC: First album you bought?
Kris: Savage Garden

PC: First concert you attend?
Kris: Hanson

PC: An album that changed your life and why?
Kris: There are so many albums that have had a profound impact on me, but at the risk of sounding like a crazed fan, the one that I can think of right now that qualifies as changing my life is Hanson’s Middle of Nowhere. It brought me out of depression, inspired me to become a singer-songwriter, and following Hanson is how I met the Brandi Carlile band and I’ve already talked about how that basically put me on the path to where I am now.

PC: A venue on your bucket list to perform at?
Kris: Greek Theatre in LA, Carnegie Hall, Red Rocks

PC: A must-have on the road?
Kris: Music, cozy sweater, reusable water bottle, and reusable coffee cup

To keep up with Kris, follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Pre-order your copy of That Siren, Hope here.