The past five months have been very good to Krystal King. In November, the Hickory, North Carolina native released her debut single “(You Had Me At) Double Wide,” which was followed by her rocking sophomore single “90 Proof.”
In those five months, her first two singles have earned nearly 4,000 streams as she continues to establish herself as an artist, something she doesn’t take for granted as she is introducing herself to the country music world.
“It has been so exciting and overwhelming! Releasing music is such a learning process and can be so scary,” says King. “I am so blessed to have so many supporters by my side, and I am so happy to see how receptive everyone has been to my music. To put a piece of myself out there and have it welcomed is so exciting, and I am just filled with gratitude.”
With the world at a near standstill and uncertainty running rampant during the COVID19 pandemic, King has released a new single, “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” a song that touched her given the current global circumstances.
“Right now, the world is in a state of uncertainty, and everyone is grieving loss of jobs, distance from friends, and just the stability we had before COVID19,” says King. “This is one of my favorite hymns, and has really resonated with me during this time, especially with the month of Easter. The lines ‘For by his path he leadeth, though one step I may see’ rings so true right now as we try to remember that there is renewal at the end of all of this, even if we can’t see past the struggle right now. At first I hesitated to release it because it is a different ‘sound’ than I have developed so far, but my faith is also very important to me and I wanted to share it during this time.”
Though she admittedly hadn’t put any elements of her faith in her first two singles, King says she felt that the circumstances at hand called for her to release her new single, and also gave her the opportunity to experiment with a more stripped down sound.
“My faith is very important to me. I’m not often super open about it and it is a very personal thing for me, but this felt like something that I needed to share right now,” says King. “The production had many different turns during this process. Without getting to go to the studio, my husband and I decided to give home production a try. We started out with a more country sound’ with slide guitar and mandolin; however, after building the track, we discovered that we missed the raw stripped down feel of when I performed it acoustic. When listening to Spotify one day, I listened to a song by The Young Fables and really loved their stripped down production with a resonator guitar. I contacted them and Wes Lunsford created a guitar track for me, and we added some minimal instrumentation to fill out the sound. It just felt right at that point, it was more about what was right for the song.”
Recording at home was something new for King and her husband, but after the song was finished, made it that much more special for them.
“It was a very different experience recording at home due to the pandemic. We had decided to do this song right before all of this, and had thrown around the idea of doing it ourselves. The pandemic just gave us the perfect opportunity,” says King. “It was fun to get to take charge of the production more, even though it was challenging not having the instrumentalists all in one place. It was fun working with my husband, even though he wanted to kill me a few times during the process due to my indecisiveness. Overall though, I think the process and product were really rewarding and special.”
While her original plans for the year may be at a standstill, King is keeping busy as a music therapist as excitement builds to bring her music to a live setting when the virus has passed.
“Plans for the rest of the year are still very much up in the air as they are for most people. I am so fortunate that I also have the opportunity to use my music to help others through music therapy. I work part-time as a music therapist, and I am so grateful that is considered essential work. Outside of that job, I have been working on organizing and planning music for the future,” says King. “Despite the uncertainty, I am grateful for my stable situation and the time to rest and rejuvenate. So excited to get to see you all live once again!”
*Images courtesy of Krystal King*
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