Premiere: Kyle Motsinger is ‘Getting Closer’ to unmistakable personal truth
The theatrical-pop singer examines his personal journey to self-actualization.
Change is the vehicle through which we learn, grow and witness the birth of our full potential. The journey to self-actualization is closer than you think, too. Just ask New York City’s singer-songwriter Kyle Motsinger, who came to quite the realization in recent years. His new theatrical synth-pop track “Getting Closer,” premiering today, flips through the story of his life, from a tender, young boy to an undefeated, fire-eyed adult. Turning to the sharpness of pop juggernaut Ed Sheeran for inspiration, Motsinger “wanted to write a song with just a few chords,” he tells B-Sides & Badlands.
“Getting Closer” bows between protracted and raw intensity to imposing universality, cut with his unmistakable vocal timbre. Through revisiting an older song written “years ago in college called ‘Closer to Me,'” he resized the song to fit his new-found sense of self and presence, discarding his former being and injecting the story with ripened wisdom. “I liked the idea of the song but thought I could do better musically. The song wrote itself very quickly this past winter,” says Motsinger, who performed the song at the Delancey NYC this past winter alongside drummer Zachary Eldridge and bass player Chris Bonner. The song is plainly lo-fi but punches hard, bobbing into common threads of humanity.
“The weight of secret lifted off of my / But I still wasn’t floating / I was lost inside, you see,” he sings, fretting over his personal trajectory, tossing his demons into the blazing fire. He continues on the song’s early roots, “I had no intentions of recording it right away, but Zach and Chris loved the song and insisted we get it recorded in their studio in Yonkers.” The final product marries Motsinger’s penchant for jazz-baked classicism and a more progressive pop shift, framed around Justin Timberlake’s “Like I Love You” as a bold touch point. “It’s certainly as theatrical as my other songs,” he says.
“Getting Closer” is the first release since Motsinger’s 2017 studio debut, Far Away.
Listen below:
Photo Credit: Kelly Grider
Follow Motsinger on his socials: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Website
