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I wanted an all-encompassing word for my journey and my vision. It just felt very fitting, because at the end of the day it’s all about love’s journey. Whether it’s with another person or about some sort of
vibe you want to be a part of, or love within yourself.”
I definitely want to tour my own stuff. People
have asked me a lot, where I think I’ll be in five or ten years and honestly, I have never had that countdown of years vision for myself or for Pentatonix. We’ve always just wanted to do better, to keep growing and learning. We’ve been very fortunate to hit a lot of the goals we set very early on and it surpassed all of our plans, so I don’t really like making predictions. I just want to keep moving forward musically. I would love to tour, I’d love to open for someone and would love to be headlining one day. I do still have all those goals and dreams, so yeah, as long as I’m growing. I’m really blessed to be on two different sides of
this industry in a way. I get to fulfill two different passions of mine. One is more harmony/choir/geek- based in a way, that fulfills my kid side. (Laughs) Then in a personal way, what I want to say, the messages I want to send and the things that I want to talk about, that I might not always have been able to express in a group situation. From the outside, Pentatonix has always appeared like such a strong little family, you work together for the same purpose and now, you’re growing and evolving into individuals. That’s what healthy families do. They allow for exploration and move forward both as a group and as individuals. It’s like with anything, even a relationship with
two people. You can’t identify yourself based on the relationship, you have to identify yourself based on who you are as an individual. For me, this has been so encouraging and inspiring, because I never really took the time to identify who I was as an individual. In turn, I couldn’t be as helpful or as much of an asset to the group as I feel like I can be now, now that I have a better sense of who I am and what I like. That includes having a better sense of what I like as a
writer. It’s a confidence thing, for sure. I’m curious, when did you decide to start putting together a solo album? Was it always a goal? I started writing it early last year. We were on the
world tour at the time. Honestly, it’s kind of hard to put it into quantitative terms, because I was only home for a week here and there, five days here or two days there. It was all done in between the tour and shows. Your schedule has been pretty intense, I’d be exhausted. It was so much fun, though. This has sort of been
a break, from Pentatonix at least, though I’m not technically getting one. It’s a break creatively, I can still do what I love. When it’s something I’m passionate about it’s really not work for me. It’s the same with Pentatonix too, sometimes it doesn’t feel like work at all, because we’re just having fun. It’s impressive, how you’ve managed social media to not only promote yourselves both as a group, but individually as a way to connect with the people who love and listen to you. It’s part of what makes your fans so passionate, they feel like they know you. I feel like they know us, too. (Laughs) They sometimes say things like, “Were you okay the other day when this or that happened?” I’ll be like, “Oh my God, how did you know that?” In the beginning when we came off the reality show [Sing-Off], it was really important for us to connect with the people who listened to us. They are very attentive and I love that; it makes it so easy to want to talk to them. Let’s talk about why you choseL O V E for the album title. I wanted an all-encompassing word for my journey and my vision. It just felt very fitting, because at the end of the day it’s all about love’s
journey. Whether it’s with another person or about some sort of vibe you want to be a part of, or love within yourself. It’s all around finding oneself, so I thought it was appropriate. I’m always encouraging people, especially with all this crazy shit that’s happening these days, to focus on the love and spreading that more than adding to the hatefulness. It’s about cutting through the noise. Do you have a favorite track off the album? The ones that mean the most to me are “Break
a Little” and “Bad Weather.” They both speak to very important moments in my life that I had big realizations. I’m very proud of them both. In a way it’s kind of funny, because they are the complete opposite of each other. Especially in terms of general love for yourself, taking care of yourself and a personal outlook on life. “Bad Weather” has such a deep emotionality to it. A lot of what the album is about seems to be around being emotionally vulnerable, taking risks and dealing with what comes. I’m not trying to say I’m an expert or have any education around this and I don’t want anyone to take my words and use them verbatim. (Laughs) I just try to share my experiences and what I’ve learned from them. You have to learn from them and have to be accepting of yourself and yet still be an emotionally free, fun person. You can’t go about life always scared of what people are going to think or say. It’s good to hear what’s going on, but you don’t have to accept it…You have to just be who you are. Easier said than done I know, but it’s a learning journey we all have to go on.
Kirstin’s new EP,L O V E is out now.
To keep in touch with her, follow her on Twitter, @kirstin, on Facebook at
facebook.com/kirstinmaldonado
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RAGE monthly | SEPTEMBER 2017
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