Kylie Cantrall wants to reintroduce herself.

Which isn’t to say that she’s “reinventing” herself, or attempting a bold, dramatic leap from Disney Channel star to edgy pop artist. Rather, she simply wants to expand her audience and show what she’s capable of outside of the cherry red wig she’s become known for through her portrayal of Red in the Descendants series. And she manages to do just that with her new EP, Valley Girl Problems, out now.

“I think of this EP as serving as a bridge from where I’ve been to where I’m going,” Cantrall explains. “I think that’s what being a 20-year-old is about. You’re right at the precipice of adulthood, but you’ve also only ever been a teenager up until this point. So, it’s that weird in-between space, and I feel like this project is that coming-of-age kind of thing.”

Cantrall leans into that sense of youthful introspection throughout the record, striking a balance between of-the-moment pop sweetness and a subtle sense of nostalgia. The opening track, “GRWM,” a self-aware introduction that plays off the popular “Get Ready With Me” social media trend, captures the feeling of being a young adult in the 2020s while stylistically sounding like it could have been lifted from a late-’90s or early-2000s Mariah Carey record. That blend of retro and current remains throughout the EP, with songs like lead single “Carrie Bradshaw” paying homage to the timeless relatability of Sex and the City.

“With ‘Carrie Bradshaw’ being the lead single, that also is a very perfect kind of symbolism,” Cantrall says. “I feel like it captures the overarching theme of this project. I feel like everyone discovers Sex and the City when you’re coming of age and going through your first real heartbreaks, going through friendship troubles, figuring out who you are. I think that Carrie is that depiction of that sort of thing. So, it felt like the perfect lead single to introduce this new era.”

While the fashion references appear throughout Valley Girl Problems, they’re meant to be more than just aesthetic choices. For Cantrall, style becomes another way of expressing the emotional themes running beneath the surface of the record. For instance, on “Carrie Bradshaw,” lines like “these tears are designer, my baggage is vintage” wrap heartbreak in polished imagery, reflecting the way she approaches songwriting as a whole.”I think making pain look pretty and finding beauty in pain is very much a theme,” she says. “I’m always trying to find the good in every situation, even the ones that are really hard and painful. I think there’s still beauty in it.”

That balance is reflected in the EP’s title as well. Valley Girl Problems initially sounds playful, but Cantrall says it’s intentionally more layered than it first appears. The bubbly production and catchy melodies invite listeners in before the lyrics gradually become more vulnerable as the record unfolds.

“I realized the first half of the EP feels like the Valley Girl origin,” she says. “‘GRWM’ is fun, and ‘Valley Girl Problems,’ the title track, is very bubbly with the production, but then the things I’m saying are getting kind of vulnerable. Then the second half is where the problems start. Lyrically, this is by far the most vulnerable I’ve ever been on anything I’ve ever written.”

That honesty didn’t come easily. Several of the EP’s songs, including “Girls Like U,” “Yuck!” and “Space Between,” were written while Cantrall was actively living through the emotions they describe. Rather than reflecting on those experiences months or years later, she was documenting them in real time. “I was processing all these emotions while I was writing,” she says. “It was very much spilling exactly how I felt in the moment. It’s the perfect documentation of exactly how I felt when these things were going on.”

For someone who has spent much of her life growing up in front of an audience, allowing listeners to see that side of herself meant letting go of some of the curation that naturally comes with maintaining a public image.”I always want to create and make things seem okay and pretty on the surface,” she says. “But this was really me just peeling back the veil.” 

That same authenticity has become something of a guiding principle as she navigates the next phase of her career. While many fans know Cantrall through Descendants, she’s also built a growing audience through her music, leaving her balancing two very different expectations. “I have fans that are so young that know me as Red, and then I have this other side of my fan base that just knows me for my music,” she says. “I still want to be a role model to the younger fans, so I feel like I’m juggling this balance between the two worlds.”

But in a move that reflects confidence and wisdom beyond the average 20 year old, she’s not trying to tailor herself to either audience. Rather, she’s choosing to trust that the people meant to connect with her music will find it. “I made this rule for myself that I’m just going to be as authentic as I can be,” she says. “I can’t control how people are going to perceive me, and I can’t be everything to everyone. I really just tried to be as true as possible, and hopefully the right people are going to find it and resonate with it.”

That approach also shaped the creative process behind the EP. Working with collaborators including Grammy winning producer Tricky Stewart and singer Tayla Parx encouraged Cantrall to push herself further, both as a songwriter and vocalist, while signing with Republic Records gave her the opportunity to fully realize her vision.”[Republic has] given me so much creative liberty to do what I want to do, from everything to the visuals, the music videos, the title for the EP, the order of the songs,” she says. “I really was steering the ship in every aspect.”

Looking back years from now, Cantrall hopes Valley Girl Problems will do what her favorite albums have always done for her: preserve a moment in time.

“I think that’s the cool thing about music. It serves as a time capsule,” she says. “I’ll be able to hear this EP and immediately go back to those feelings that I had when I was going through these first-time heartaches. I was experiencing it, going to the studio the next day, spilling my guts. Everything was just so genuine and real because it was all happening at once.”

While Valley Girl Problems may mark the beginning of a new musical era for Cantrall, it goes beyond being a career milestone, and simulatenously serves as a record that captures exactly where she is now, with all the uncertainty, excitement and growing pains that come with stepping into adulthood. And if the EP succeeds in reintroducing her, it’s because she never tries to become someone else. She simply allows listeners to meet the version of herself that’s here now.

_{Photos by Edwig Henson}