We all have those artists and songs we hear that strike the right chord and make us fall in love at first listen. They’re the reason we refresh social media pages, tour schedules, and Spotify profiles — because we can’t miss a single release. This is Love at First Listen — a new series introducing you to the emerging, and established, artists with new music guaranteed to upgrade your playlist.
Singer-songwriter Kristin Carter has been blossoming her whole life. Starting young and honing her skills as a choir singer, she first caught the attention of country listeners with her Top 20 Canadian radio single “Karma” and back-to-back semi-finalist nods in SiriusXM’s Top of the Country competition. Moving into the world of contemporary pop last year, Kristin teased a new era with “I’m Still Here” and “Euphoria,” which became the lead singles from her newly released debut album, ‘Full Bloom.’ The 12-track album, which was released on Friday (Apr. 5), is deeply introspective and simply stunning, covering universal themes like the ups and downs of love, self-doubt, female empowerment, and personal resilience.
The seeds have been planted, and with ‘Full Bloom’ out in the world, it’s time to sit in the garden and take it all in. Love at First Listen caught up with Kristin during album release week to chat all things ‘Full Bloom,’ attending circus school for a music video, and where this journey is taking her next.
For readers who are just about to love you at first listen, can you take us through the different seeds and stages of your musical journey that led to this ‘full bloom’?
I’ve been really excited to get these songs out to people. It’s been a labour of love for quite a while. For people who don’t know me, I was born and raised just outside of Vancouver, BC. Choir is where I learned how to sing, and I credit a lot of my choir teachers for instilling in me a real love for vocalization and really choir in general. That’s also where my musical heart lives because I felt so uplifted by people in that community and it felt really exciting and safe. So, anyone out there who wants to learn how to sing, join a choir—it’s a great way to do it.
Through the years, I started writing and performing more as a solo artist. Putting it all together and emulating different songs together that I felt were great expressions of my personal experiences over the last few years, we arrived at the album. So, I envisioned the songs like seeds that I’ve planted over the years, and now they’re finally bursting through to the surface.
You co-produced and co-wrote ‘Full Bloom’ and have described each flower, or song, as reflecting individual moments within the human experience. Which songs resonate with you most?
I really connect with “I’m Still Here” because it’s grounded in my choir background. There are no instrumentals and it’s just built off of a bunch of different layers of vocalization. I also had a really big hand in the recording process, which was new and exciting for me. So, in addition to the theme of the lyrics and the way that it sounds, it was such a joyful process for me to build it, and we made a really cool music video where I was made to look like a special effects statue. I got to connect with people in Vancouver in the film scene, and it was really exciting to be part of that community. I was really amazed at all the talent that’s out there. Like, knowing how to turn someone into a statue? I could never. I also really love “Lazy Sunday.” That’s the one that I go back through and play over and over for myself.
You have videos coming for both “Euphoria” and “Lazy Sunday.” What can you share about the visual treatments you gave both of those songs, and when should fans expect to see them?
The idea for “Euphoria” is two dueling versions of yourself. So, I have a non-confident version of myself going into a club, and then there’s a confident version of myself who’s all in neon and really dressed kind of amazing and all these things. It’s like Parent Trap in a club because I had a body double that we switched in and out and she was really fun to work with. It has a lot of special effects involved because there’s this neon light that burns through the whole thing, which represents confidence. That’s being worked on by the amazing team that we have, and I’m really excited to release it in the next few weeks. It’s definitely different visuals than I’ve normally done.
I’m also really looking forward to “Lazy Sunday” because I’ve currently been going to some training lessons on how to do acrobatic flying. The theme of that one is we’re going to a studio, and then the studio walls kind of melt away and then I kind of float up into the air. We’re filming it out at my fiancé’s family farm, and we’ll have these rigs that will fly me across the fields and potentially over water and things like that. It always blows my mind that when you participate in the arts and you’re in an artistic community, all these random opportunities pick up. I never thought I would be going to circus school in my life, but I’m excited to show this to everyone.
Were there any artists or albums you had on repeat as you made ‘Full Bloom’?
That’s a great question. I grew up with ABBA’s compilation album ‘Gold’ and they’ve been having such an amazing resurgence on social media and TikTok, so I really delved back into those songs. They’re so fun and upbeat and exciting, and I was really using that as a musical reference to try and pinpoint some of the sounds I wanted for my album. I listened to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ as well to really get in touch with a lot of the lyrical side of the album. I think the writers for those albums are incredibly talented and they have a way of portraying emotion through music.
As people start to “walk through the garden” with you, what message do you ultimately want fans new and old to take away from their ‘Full Bloom’ listening experience?
There’s such a diversity of experiences in life. Even though everything isn’t an amazingly positive experience all the time, you need the good and you need the bad in order to round out a full life. Musically, if you just had an album of positive energy, that could be super fun. But to put it back in the context of a garden, if you had just one type of flower in your garden, it wouldn’t be super interesting. All the other different ones in there maybe individually aren’t the ones you focus on, but things in the collective create that beautiful space because of all those different things. So, for me, that would be what I want people to walk away with—a gratitude for all their different experiences in life, and just reflecting on their own experience in that way and finding the beauty.
Now that you’ve “fully bloomed,” where do you hope this journey takes you next?
The biggest joy is when people listen to the music and write in to me about what it meant to them. So, where I hope it would take me next is to other places and different people that I haven’t had the chance to connect with. I got a message just a couple of days ago from someone in Austria, and they said, “I really like your stuff.” I wrote back and then I was like, I didn’t know my music could ever even reach there! I think it’s a great time that we’re living in right now with social media because you can essentially broadcast kind of anywhere, which is sometimes an intimidating thing but really exciting I think overall.
The album title inspires thoughts of flowers and sunshine and spring and summer, which of course leads us right into summer concert and festival season! Do you have any plans to take ‘Full Bloom’ on the road?
I really hope so! I’m super open to any of those opportunities as they come up, and I’m definitely looking for them, but no official dates in the calendar right now. I would love to travel around and have people in the room as I sing and share some of the thoughts behind the music. I would encourage people to follow my social media pages as things pop up.
Thank you, Kristin! Follow Kristin on Instagram to go behind the scenes of ‘Full Bloom’ and be the first to know about upcoming releases and live shows.
See you back here soon with another artist and music release for you to love at first listen! Have a suggestion or pitch? You know where to find me!
Happy listening xx
(Header photos courtesy of Liz Rosa Photography)
