Kate Sykes is in two worlds but owns both.

Tucked into Kate Sykes's Instagram bio is the line, "Gruntry Western." It's more than tongue-in-cheek wordplay; it's the opening hook to her story. Her voice carries twang, but it's honeyed with grit. Sykes's sound moves from grungy rock to psychedelic across her catalog, with her storytelling remaining the throughline. She exists in two worlds, drawing from Jane's Addiction and Alice in Chains as readily as she does from Waylon Jennings. She carries reverence for both sides.

Her story starts surrounded by music. Her grandfather was a bluegrass and country musician who played guitar and banjo. She fell in love with Jane's Addiction in her dad's pickup truck at a young age — life-changing, she says. That love carried through her formative years, leading to her first guitar and summers at music camp.

In her early teens, she was discovered and went into modeling. For the next decade, she worked with major brands, traveling the world in what seemed like a dream. What it gave her, she says, was "thick skin and perspective," something that shows up in her music in both sound and lyric. But deep down, the desire to make music never left.
She walked away from the security of modeling to attend Berklee College of Music, splitting time between LA and Nashville while working on music constantly. After graduating, she determined LA wasn't the right fit and moved to Nashville full-time, where she found it a much better place to collaborate and write. The Nashville scene welcomed her in, and she writes regularly with other artists.

She followed her passion, walking away from modeling and diving headfirst into music. What she creates bends genres, drawing powerfully from influences most artists wouldn't handily reconcile.

All of this is just the beginning. Palo Santo keenly and nonchalantly speaks to exes past, like a conversation you have with a close friend. "Watch them go up in smoke, I need Palo Santo" drives the feeling home. Palo Santo, driven by psychedelic undertones, accelerates everything her lyrics make you feel. Penny Lane is vibrant and open sonically, capturing the exact moment of falling for someone. It captures her confidence, only gained through thick skin and perspective.