The coming-of-age process has been mined by writers since the dawn of time, and still, people invariably try to put words to its universal specificities. Written when Lia Pappas-Kemps was 17, "Switchblade" is one such song, dissecting not only the feeling of wanting to be specifically formed in the mould of whatever it is that a love interest wants, but the malleability of identity.
From "slow-burn centrefold twin flame" to "deep blue belladonna nightshade," the Toronto singer-songwriter offers a number of different personas she could take on — and while she admitted in a recent interview with the Toronto Star that she's "not even close to knowing" who she is, there are parts of her, quicksilver, discernible in each of them.
The same can be said of the former Anne with an E actor, now 20, and her wide-ranging musical influences. At first blush, it might be hard to pinpoint a soundalike for Pappas-Kemps's debut EP, Gleam, out now via AWAL: on some songs she's more Alanis Morissette or Sharon Van Etten; on others, Courtney Barnett or Sheryl Crow. Producer Nathan Ferraro (Beyoncé, Charli XCX, Carly Rae Jepsen) finds ways to highlight the many sides of her artistic coin, supporting the vision with fuzzed-out grunge guitars on "Star" (co-produced by Julian Psihogios) or crunchy synth vamps on "Catch Release."
"I really strive to have my music sound like it exists in a real live space instead of in a vacuum," Pappas-Kemps told Starry Constellation Magazine earlier this year. "I love when you can really hear a room." She welcomes us to the confusion of trying to find resolution in teenage and early-twenties relationships, toggling between the vantage points of her high school bedroom in the city's West End and a dorm in Montreal during her time studying philosophy at Concordia University.
A simplistic, single-syllable title on the surface, Gleam feels aptly loaded, evoking the particular murky radiance of rain-soaked pavement. Here are some of the most notable influences streaked throughout the EP.
In addition to the "antisocialite wallflower" reference to the East Coast-formed band's dreamy 2017 sophomore album on "Switchblade," Gleam is plentiful in the harsher, jagged guitar sounds on Alvvays' benchmark-redefining 2022 opus, Blue Rev.
The only record Pappas-Kemps name-drops more explicitly on the EP is the Beatles' Live at the Hollywood Bowl, setting the scene of playing solitaire in her parents' sunroom on open-chorded closing acoustic ballad "A Thousand Times Over."
Grounded by its homespun essence and the emotional compass of songwriter Adrianne Lenker, the shapeshifting, chameleonic nature of Big Thief's Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You never feels jarring — even when the singer yelps, "That's my grandma!" amid the warm violins of "Red Moon."
Although the opener for Pappas-Kemps's EP release show at Lee's Palace is yet to have a full-length album under her belt, the Toronto-by-way-of-Halifax Exclaim! Class of 2024 alum's two EPs have earned her a rightful place by her side as another young brunette local lexophile weaving the folk-informed indie rock dreamscapes of tomorrow.
Marked by an avant-pop airiness, the organic and electronic elements that make up the patchwork quilt of textures on Feist's 2017 LP Pleasure are recalled by Pappas-Kemps on the sweeping back-end swell of EP tracks like "A Thousand Times Over" and "III-Intentions," as well as a fascination with jerky push-pull dynamics.
While some may write 1974's Court and Spark off as commercial pandering, infusing folk-rock earthiness with jazz sensibilities (much as Pappas-Kemps does with emo-adjacent garage rock on "Just the Thought" or swirling '90s psych on "Star") saw a new level of actualization for Mitchell, cited with a reverence reserved for the upper-echelon of icons.
One of our foremost balladeers, Welch's Appalachia-indebted approach to folk is chameleonic, yet recognizable as singularly her own. Pappas-Kemps has striven to do the same, letting her magnetic, yearning delivery and immaculate phrasing ground her sound. She may still be finding herself, but inquisitiveness is in the very fabric of her songwriting.