Kae Alayah (left) and Shane Dylan (right).
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
The first traces of Shane Dylan’s piano on he and Kae Alayah’s new EP, “Losing My Mind Over You,” are like an ocean mist on a hot summer day. The notes calmly wash over before steadying just in time for Kae’s sun-kissed vocals to gracefully emerge from the mist and embrace the listener with an ode to a love that never lost its “glitter and gold.”
That track, “I’m Yours,” is a tone-setter for the five-song project, which, across 20 minutes, deftly reflects both Dylan’s meticulously crafted jazz/R&B-style production and Alayah’s evocative songwriting and stately vocals.
The two artists are bonded by their admiration for each other’s music, which is clear from the way they answer questions about their collaborative process on their new project.
“Shane and I have performed together and always supported each other when it came to music,” said Alayah, a Boston-based artist. “So, when we started talking about a project, it was just off the strength of our genuine liking of one another’s music abilities.”
“[Alayah] is one of my favorite artists in the city,” said Dylan, a Boston native who now resides in Los Angeles. “Besides being a close friend personally, I felt like we had really good chemistry when it came to this project. We collaborated on every step of the process — from writing each of the four songs together, to recording together in the studio, to coming up with ideas for visuals.”
Dylan told Reminder Publishing that one of the goals of the project was to find ways to incorporate his live orchestrated elements, which are often very lush and vibrant, with the rawness of Alayah’s vocals.
That elegant meld foregrounds this project, along with Alayah’s emotive scriptures about loving herself, loving others and finding solace somewhere in between. The project is most moving when Alayah is ruminating on all three, like on the pensive piano ballad “Scared 2 Be Alone,” where the R&B singer treats the brain like an apple; peeling back its layers until she almost reaches the core of what she’s feeling — “Do I need someone to survive?/Or is it just a thing in my mind?/Overthinking each time.”
Dylan has spent the last several years lending his ornate orchestrations to some of the most prominent artists in the Boston area, including SeeFour, Tashawn Taylor, Kofi Lost and may more.
Here, he and Alayah enlist two of those locals, MonaVeli and Notebook P, for two of the songs on the project. The former joins Alayah on “Broken” to pit self-affirmation against the despair found in heartbreak. “I need more of me and less of us to grow,” they both sing at different points, setting standards for themselves before acquiescing to others and living on the same plane at different points in time.
The production encompasses a gorgeous evolution; first starting out as a quiet piano number before then uncorking itself and showering those listening with balmy synths and a fluttering trumpet solo courtesy of Alonzo Demetrius Ryan. By the time the song reaches its crescendo, it feels as if any wounds from prior pain are almost mended.
Similarly to “Broken,” all of these songs feel as if I am listening to them live at a concert, and that is mainly a testament to Dylan and Alayah’s ability to produce vocals, collaborations and live instrumentation that feel tangible. That is evident in the studio version of “I’m Yours,” which is filled with just as much verve and vibrancy as the live version on the EP.
It is also apparent on the track with Notebook P, “Forever and a Day,” where he and Alayah croon back-and-forth and together in unison in old-school R&B fashion. The approach, like with other songs on the album, feels instinctive, and therefore authentically woven together like a spider web.
“We spent a lot of time perfecting and adding to each song,” Dylan said. “Working with MonaVeli and Notebook P helped bring it to life as well — I love the combination of energy on the songs with them, and it was great getting to spotlight two other artists I admire too.”
“Shane and I would go into a session with a notebook, a mic, and a keyboard and just flow,” Alayah said. “I feel like I branched out musically with this album just because of the beauty that Shane brought to it. Different people bring out different things and it really showed we work well together — every time the flow just made sense.”
If you like a little jazz/R&B project, this is the one for you: https://tinyurl.com/2dddche6.
https://tinyurl.com/4tvewuem.
