Vonnie Kyle’s latest album, Imperfect Parts, documents a transformative three-year journey during which the Portland, Oregon-based artist made some painfully complex decisions, and bravely emerged to embrace self-love and true romantic love. The 10-song album is a thrilling mix of vulnerable self-disclosure and visceral, hook-laden alt-rock.
“I make it a goal when I write my songs to engage with those who might have similar experiences,” Kyle reveals. “This record addresses my past faults and traumas in ways I feel a lot of other people can relate to. It’s about processing the pain, but also learning to heal and accept that I will always be an extremely flawed person who, no matter what, still deserves to be loved.”
Kyle’s forthcoming, genre hybrid of a record boasts a program of diverse songs that sound cohesive because of the well-defined artistic identity of its creator. Her prismatic musicality is influenced by Sleater-Kinney, Jenny Lewis, and St. Vincent—artists whose hooks are as distinct and strong as their musical identities. In addition, Kyle’s personal and artistic outlook has been shaped by the places she’s lived. She was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and spent a formative time as an adult in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
“When I think of my old life in Minneapolis, I think about riding my single-speed bike to bars to see shows that ranged from rock, to hip-hop, to folk-pop to metal,” she details. After Minneapolis, Kyle spent time in Santa Fe where she wrote most of the songs that appear on Imperfect Parts. Vonnie continues: “I think the beauty of New Mexico heavily influenced my lyric writing, but a lot of the music comes from the person who wanted to play noisy pop songs in a noisy city.”
Since 2013, Kyle has released three EPs and emerged a successful touring artist who began making a name for herself playing DIY and taproom gigs, and selling burned CDs out of a suitcase. During her time living in Santa Fe, she released an EP under the pseudonym Ten Ten Division. Prior to her solo career, Kyle performed in the Minneapolis band Skittish and was featured on their 2010 double-record release.
Imperfect Parts was written while Kyle was retreating from the music career grind, and reassessing her path in life. Kyle and her fiancé, at time, decided on a clean-slate beginning in Santa Fe. However, their marriage was short lived, and with that rupture came some serious soul searching. Thematically, Imperfect Parts spans the unraveling of that relationship, the self-questioning that came in the wake of the divorce, and, ultimately, the healing that has brought Kyle back to centered and joyful living.
The album’s second single, Imperfect Parts, is a graceful pop-rock track with subtleties of 1980s new wave. It makes a powerful statement on self-love and how it relates to romantic love. “The song deals with finding someone new as you’re emerging from a place of pain. You want that person, you know they’re meant for you, but the timing isn’t right yet. For me, personally, it was about finally seeing how far from perfect I was, and accepting those imperfections along with those of the person I wanted to be with,” Kyle details. The lyrics here are a potent mix of romantic and realistic. She sings: We’ve never been conventional/Never been on time, no/It’s enough to make ‘em/Wanna know just who we think we are/Never said I was perfect/I never said you were/But I’d build a city using all imperfect parts. If you listen closely to the song, Kyle manages to sneak in some intriguing chord changes in the song’s structure, making an almost jazzy harmonic sensibility feel totally rocking.
