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Las Vegan Kat Kalling prepares to unleash personal new songs on ‘Eberly’

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Kat Kalling
Photo: Christopher DeVargas

It’s “an ode to feminism,” explains Las Vegas singer-songwriter Kat Kalling. She’s talking about her stage name, chosen as a way to own the unwanted—and all-too-common and act of cat-calling, by claiming the power away from misogynists.

“I grew up in a troubled, abusive home,” the 30-year-old Kalling says candidly over the phone, her voice warm and inviting. On her upcoming EP, Eberly, that voice transforms into a different kind of call—a call to action, a reckoning.

“I had a psychotic breakdown when I wrote these songs,” Kalling says. She had also been in a severe car accident with a semitruck. “I’m a chaos magnet,” she laughs.

“I discovered I’m autistic through therapy, which explains a lot of my behavior problems; drinking myself to death.” The song “Breathe” is partially about that, she says. Another track, “Quicksand,” deals with the tendency to self-sabotage. “I started digging into therapy and uncovering these things,” Kalling says. “I’m developing who I am.”

Originally from Wyoming, Kalling has played guitar and written songs since age 13. Eventually, she moved to Minneapolis, where she fronted the band Attention, Whore, before landing in Las Vegas in 2014 on the heels of a rocky relationship. “I was just trying to find a way to reinvent myself and get my steps back,” she says.

“I made a really big point of always sharing and being very vulnerable with who I am,” Kalling says, mostly because she “always felt very alone” in her struggles. “I’m very open about my mother’s abuse. … I try to be almost to the point of oversharing with people. What you see is what you get.”

Vocally and instrumentally, Kalling’s music echoes the gritty sweetness of Paramore, using pop-punk power chords to frame emotional storytelling. That’s not by accident. Kalling says she’s a big fan of Hayley Williams, along with country stars like LeAnn Rimes. Those two genres coalesce on Eberly, which will be released over the next few months, beginning with “Quicksand” on January 18. “I’m trying to marry those genres a bit, because they’re the same, lyrically,” Kalling says. “Those two things are my lifeblood.”

Though she’s been playing music since she was a teen—and she released a single in 2020—Eberly is the singer’s true solo debut as a Las Vegan. “I’ve been sitting on these songs for a little bit and decided there’s really no better time to release them,” she says. “Everyone’s sitting at home and they’re not able to go to shows. People need music right now.

“I really hope that people like it, and if it helps someone get through something, that’s great,” she says, then pauses. “I don’t know that I have an expectation. I just want to create and keep doing it.”

KAT KALLING Facebook.com/katkalling

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