Ears Wide Open: Kristiane

Chris Arey on April 28th, 2022

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Singer-songwriter Kristiane — full name, Kristiane Alfson — crafts coming-of-age vignettes that sparkle with self-realization. The 23-year-old Los Angeles native emerged last year with a run of singles leading up to her debut EP, “I Miss Myself, Sometimes,” and she’s continued the momentum with the single “Cry Baby,” another song that tackles hard emotions with a soft touch.

She’s earned comparisons to a number of ’90s and turn-of-the-millennium confessionalists, and, indeed, from the second “Cry Baby” starts, the song recalls those fuzzy years around Y2K. Its forward guitars and Kristiane’s poignant voice take center stage throughout.

“Cry Baby,” produced by Cooper Holzman, explores the give and takes associated with love. The track “is a celebration of love in a lot of ways,” Kristiane says, adding that it “is a testament to letting love in, the nuances included. There’s an isolating part of love that I don’t think is talked about enough, where it is difficult to relate to other people when you are in the throes of your own universe with another person.”

It’s Kristiane’s first release since her debut EP, which came out last fall via FADER. The blend of alternative rock and pop heard in “Cry Baby” is in abundance in Kristiane’s earlier singles “Home” and “Wish I Could Be Your Girl.”

All in all, Kristiane’s music hovers somewhere between light-heartedness and melancholy. It’s a carefully crafted balance that likely draws inspiration from having grown up in L.A. and never really having a place to call home.

||| Watch: The video for “Cry Baby”