BY CHRISTOPHER BARILLA
FREEHOLD – The sun hasn’t even begun filling the sky with its morning watercolors, yet one man sits in his yard in meditative silence, feeding on the sounds of the birds chirping and the world awakening around him. He listens attentively, dissecting the pitch of each of his winged counterpart’s calls, following the breeze as it carries through the trees and across the sky, and contemplating how he will attempt to change the world today.
“I take a lot of rhythmic inspiration from listening to the birds call to one another in the morning.”
Kyle Smollon, 22, a tall, slim figure draped in garments of his own creation, does not allow a single aspect of himself to be described one-dimensionally, meaning the man is an increasingly complex character whose real life is an actual reflection of his art, and his constant pursuit of personal reinvention has driven him further in his craft in just a few years than many well-known artists progress in a lifetime. A graduate of SAE Institute, a premier college of creative media studies in New York City, he not only has the passion for his craft but the credentials to back it up as well. It is exactly this departure in mentality and training from the traditional path a musical artist takes that makes him so uniquely interesting.
The Facts
Smollon, who has assumed many pseudonyms throughout his career, began his musical exploration, specifically rooted in hip-hop/R&B elements, at arguably the ‘peak’ time in the genre’s history. For the first time ever, R&B/hip-hop has surpassed rock to become the biggest music genre in the U.S. in terms of total consumption.
According to Nielsen Music‘s 2017 year-end report, 8 of the 10 most listened-to artists of the year came from the R&B/hip-hop genre, led by Drake, with 4.8 million album equivalent units (combined album sales, song downloads, and streams), and Kendrick Lamar, with 3.7 million. Rap also experienced the second-highest growth of any genre, spiking 25 percent over 2016, and coming in just behind Latin music, which was up 30 percent.
The widespread acceptance today of a genre that was previously demonized is particularly fruitful to artists like Smollon, who strives to succeed in the field but also pushes him to always redefine himself as an artist. He experiments with new mediums and sets himself apart from his peers.
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Uniquely His Own
Smollon’s goal of redefinition and constant reinvention has driven him down many artistic routes, from writing, producing, and performing music live, to painting, to even designing his own clothing. Having already crafted an astounding 22 projects, with another on the way, Smollon’s music has practically grown just as he has, each project reflecting a certain mentality, point in time, or deeply intense feeling, all of which is easy to comprehend for practically any listener. The songs, which can vary vastly from traditional raps and drum lines to ukelele tooling and grungy electronica, are all as complex as the man who created them but tends to all similarly exhibit the same type of raw emotion and energy that he conveys and thus has become his trademark.
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The multifaceted artist is meticulously crafting his own world, and much like, for example, an established artist such as Kanye West, he has never allowed his creativity to be stifled in any respect, experimenting with any and all outlets that allow him to fully express his feelings.
Whereas many of his creative peers have focused on simply one element, Smollon has allowed himself to truly fill that “renaissance man” title and has led to the acclaim he enjoys amongst those same peers today.
How It All Started
Despite beginning his foray into music already at a tender age, writing songs at a summer camp in the 5th grade with his friend, Smollon had a deep appreciation for the art of musical creation that extended even further back than that.
“My father always displayed music to me like something physical, something that although you can only hear is still tangible, direct soul extract.”
This ethos directly affected his younger self, so he began formulating a musical identity based around the core goal of creating something tangible with his music, as well as to be afforded the true ability to express himself fully.
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“I look up to Otis Redding,” he says, “his legacy bleeds into centuries to come. His influence was Sam Cooke. Otis Redding is to me what Sam Cooke was to Otis Redding.” For those who don’t know, Otis Redding was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, arranger, and talent scout who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, oftentimes dubbed the “King of Soul.”
Although this may not be the typical musical inspiration for an artist whose playlist could include anything from XXXTentacion to Mac Miller, it is, in a way, a fitting one, simply because of Otis’ widespread impact in the industry.
On top of this, Smollon considers his inspiration in music to derive from a source completely removed from the traditional conventions of rap, whether it be “watching Boiler Room performances,” a popular global platform for alternative artists across a spectrum of genres, or drawing influence from one of the most iconic names in the history of American music. These vastly different influences have come together to create an artist proficient in so many different genres that he is able to effortlessly flow between them all through his projects.
What Do The Fans Think?
This goal of creating music so personal has directly led to the resounding support of fans, who interpret the messages he conveys through sound, allowing his listeners to not only audibly process his feelings but physically manifest them as well.
And indeed they do exactly that, as fans of his music will attest the experience of listening to what he creates is far unlike that of any of his peers.
Brian Arway, 22, also of Freehold, has been a fan of Smollon’s work for years and has “thoroughly enjoyed” seeing his progression over time, “I really like what Kyle makes just because it’s so different. Sure, you could go listen to any other artist that makes similar types of music to his, but after a while, they all start to sound repetitive,” Arway says as he checks through some of his favorite tracks by Smollon on Soundcloud.
“I enjoy seeing his progression, and how his music has evolved as he has over time. Many artists remain stagnant and sound the same from the second they start making music until whenever their career fades out, Kyle has pretty much made it his mission to be the opposite of that.”
Another fan of Smollon’s work, and also a current student of music production at Ramapo College, Eric Nelson, recounts fondly of his time collaborating with the artist from a tender age, and how his affinity for the music his hometown friend creates has gone on since both of their discovery of music creation, ” I was with Kyle from when we started this music thing, and have always been a big fan of him as an artist. His approach to creation is just so organic that it often makes you wonder how one person is able to come up with and fully execute so many vastly different ideas at the same time.”
What’s Next
“Stylistically, I think my physical art with the pen/pencil will continue to evolve as I reinvent myself,” Smollon says, pondering what his tangible works will be as time goes on. He’s constantly creating, so the evolution that he speaks of that has already occurred bountifully in the few years he has already under his belt should only continue to grow exponentially as he creates and explores into the future.
“The same goes for my music and clothing. I will sing a lot more and involve a lot more live instrumentation in my upcoming works.”
For an artist with exactly the same amount of bodies of work under his belt as years he has spent walking the earth, it is, as his fans state, remarkable that Smollon manages to find time to also subsequently create so many other forms of art as well. His unique level of personal determination and drive are his biggest asset in an industry of one-hit wonders and artists with triple the number of years in the industry then they do tangible products. Of course, while this is no justification to rush any work, none of Smollons seems rushed at all. Each piece is calculated, concise, and reflects a certain mood, event, ideology, or other abstraction of his conscious.
A sample of some of Smollon’s work can be found below.
I think this is a great profile piece. the use of the mutli-media brings in Smollon’s character along with his music style. Having the music videos in between the text also allows the reader to hear what the writing is trying to describe. Overall it gives a great sense of Smollon and what he is doing.