Meet Kyns (Marie Jenkins): Artist, Producer, & Songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kyns (Marie Jenkins) and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kyns, how do you think about risk?
I always enjoy talking to people about this because most of my life has been a constant battle between wanting to feel super safe and comfortable in my routines, but also wanting to live a full life. I am such a creature of habit, always have been, and I have always liked maintaining a sense of control. And control leaves no room for risk taking.

But now, I’d argue to say “control” is an illusion. We don’t really, truly have control over much at all. Rather, “maintaining control” has just been the story I’ve been telling myself to keep myself from feeling uncomfortable.

I heard someone say that “you can never achieve something you’ve never had without doing things you’ve never done.” And once I realized this, once I realized I had spent all my time and energy my whole life just trying to avoid feeling uncomfortable, I decided to take that time and energy and put it into something I’m passionate about instead. I feel like I have more hours in the day now that I spend more time just doing what I love and taking risks for that passion, vs before when I spent my life grueling over how to navigate around my fears.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I started writing terrible little songs back in middle school, back before I could even identify a chorus in a song. I say that because I can still distinctly remember listening to The Beatles “Hey Jude” and thinking, what the heck? Aren’t the titles the chorus? Don’t those go in the middle? And then the “na na na na na na na” hit and I was all kinds of confused.

Needless to say, I didn’t know what I was doing for a long, long time. My mom started me in piano at 4 years old, but I quit around 13, so I had enough musical background to carry a tune but not enough skill or discipline to work with. It wasn’t until right after high school, when I started taking some courses at the local community college that I started using their piano rooms to write actual “full” songs. I’m sure I have those voice notes on an old phone somewhere. Guaranteed terrible little ditties haha. But they felt good to write, and so I continued.

Throughout my twenties, I’ve taken a few singing lessons, a year or so of songwriting coaching, dabbled in guitar lessons, took some courses on audio engineering, and interned at an indie label, but have only recently combined all of those interests to create my solo indie project “Kyns”, which I’m now releasing music as. It’s never been my goal to play gigs or tour, or to even really be the face of anything. My love has always been with composing music and songwriting. But I realized that breaking into the industry as the artist, singing and producing my own music, would be the most streamlined way to get things done. So that’s what I spent lockdown 2020 doing — producing and writing my debut singles and recording them in my bedroom.

It wasn’t easy to get to this point of feeling comfortable with taking up space and letting people hear what I have to say. I’ve struggled with self-doubt and imposter syndrome my whole life. But along with many other lessons, 2020 taught me that life is too short to not try your hardest to be happy. So “Kyns” is my journey of trying to be just that.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I wish I knew the area! But given I haven’t had a chance to explore and all I’ve been doing for about a year and a half now is within the confines of my apartment, I’d settle for a home cooked meal indoors and to catch up about life. I finally learned how to cook during lockdown haha so I’d love to show those skills off to my besties. Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to Sarah Sexton of OIM Records for giving me my first internship in the music industry and being by my side since day one.

Website: www.kynsmusic.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kynsmusic

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/kynsmusic

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kynsmusic

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/kynsmusic

Other: Tiktok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMJ5aQnen/