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Kississippi On World Cafe

Zoe Reynolds, also known as Kississippi.
Courtesy of the artist
Zoe Reynolds, also known as Kississippi.

For an emerging artist putting out a debut album, recording a session for this show, which airs across the country, could be a nerve-racking experience. Especially if your album features a full electric band, you planned to play with them for the session and on the day, one of the members gets sick and you had to go it alone in front of a live audience. That could be extra nerve-racking.

But apparently not for today's guest, Kississippi. That's the name Zoe Reynolds goes by when she makes music and she's as steady a performer as someone who's been doing this for longer than Zoe herself has been alive.

When she was young, Reynolds wanted to be a pop star like Britney Spears, then she discovered the singer-songwriter style of Liz Phair, and got inspired by bands like Dashboard Confessional. The members of Dashboard Confessional would later invite Reynolds to open up for them on tour this year.

Kississippi's debut full length album is called Sunset Blush. It comes after some ups and downs including lineup changes, and a record deal that fell through before the album was released. When that happened, Reynolds persisted and put it out independently.

Reynolds showed up at World Cafe wielding a cotton candy pink electric guitar that looks like it has doughnut sprinkles on it. She put them on herself. As Kississippi, Reynolds started off with a live performance of the song "Mirror Kisser" from Sunset Blush. Listen to the performance and the conversation in the player.

Copyright 2018 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.