Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is a classically trained composer, producer, and performer from the Pacific Northwest.
Since self-releasing her debut album Tides in 2012, she has explored the expressive possibilities of modular synthesis, particularly her signature Buchla system, alongside orchestral textures and processed voice. Her music draws on synesthesia and an interest in the relationship between sound, color, shape, and physical sensation.
Her new album GUSH, out August 22nd, follows her 2024 Neptunes EP collaboration with Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard and marks her first solo release since 2022’s Let’s Turn It Into Sound, which was nominated for Best Electronic Album at the LIBERA Awards and praised by NPR Music, Pitchfork, The Guardian, and Bandcamp.
Where previous work leaned into meditative and mesmeric structures, GUSH moves with directness and intensity, focusing on aesthetic experience and moments of connection with people, objects, and the natural world. The album is rooted in Smith’s experience of synesthesia and her long-standing habit of personifying objects. Across its tracks, she draws out the sensuality in everyday interactions and gives form to emotional responses through synths, voice, and rhythm.
Across singles like “Urges,” “Drip,” and “Into Your Eyes,” we get glimpses into the emotional and sensory world of GUSH. What ideas or experiences were guiding you as the album started to take shape?
Love this question! I wanted to make an album that felt like I was falling in love. I wanted to make an album that shared my day to day inner existence with the outer world, that best describes my personality. I love to be in connection and relationship with everything. I interact with and I feel the most like myself, when I get to spend time just being in attention and presence with something.
I wrote these words about the meaning of GUSH:
Gush - is about those “Look at this” moments…shared between people…
It is about flirtation with objects and the environment…
It is about sensuality and personification…
It is about synesthesia and surrendering to those moments when the senses melt together…
It is about “ the third thing” that is created when 2 things come together…
It is about the way the human form is in service of…
it is about experiencing the genius of everything…
You’ve said GUSH is about things like personification and connection. How did those ideas influence how you made the music?
This album is a view into how I like to live my life, which is centered around my love of connection and feeling.
I love to imagine everything is a form of intelligence and that it is speaking. It feels like a very poetic way of filtering the world.
Can you share a piece of advice that helped you develop your confidence as both a producer and performer?
Fall in love with practice, whatever that means to you. I think confidence is KNOWING something and I think that comes through experience and familiarity. Anytime I feel a lack of confidence in my craft - if I spend time with it daily - it subsides for me.
You’ve worked with modular synths and rare instruments for years. For someone new to electronic music production, where do you recommend they begin?
I mean this in the most earnest way; listening and patience. Continue to develop the practice of knowing your preference.
Keep sitting with each aspect of a sound and find out what do you like, what do you not like. This has been the most valuable practice for me, beyond studying sound engineering, orchestration, technique, etc.
Photo Credit: Tim Saccenti
What’s one piece of gear, software, or even a non-musical object that’s been unexpectedly essential to your workflow lately?
I love non musical objects! I love objects in general! This whole album is about personification and object empathy - so I am going to speak to the object aspect.
My favorite palette cleansing activity is to walk around the world and look for objects that evoke a feeling in me. I dont usually bring them into my studio, but that activity always inspires me.
What’s your favorite/least favorite thing about making music?
My favorite thing is creating a form of communication for the ineffable.
My least favorite thing about making music is the underbelly of the music industry and the way music is consumed. The amount of energy expenditure that is expected of artists of all mediums.
Top tip for creatives wanting to become singer-songwriters etc.
Fall in love with the “fear” - whether its fear of failure, success, being seen, mistakes. Whatever it is, it’s a bridge to innovation, finding your sound. I also love this statement a teacher said to me; “live a life worth making music about”.
