The award-winning singer-songwriter unfurled new music for Local Spins on WYCE, which also debuted tracks by Desmond Jones, The Skinny Limbs, Rachel Brooke and other Michigan artists.
Porter Kenyon: Building his audience, enhancing his sound and performing at Rockford’s Got Talent. (Photo/Ray Nard Imagemaker)
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Porter Kenyon embraces change, at least when it comes to his songwriting, bolstering production of his songs and finding better ways to showcase his music.
“I think if you go back to my older stuff … you’d notice a pretty substantial difference between the songs and my new EP,” said the singer-songwriter who also happens to be a mechanical engineering major at Central Michigan University.
“Every time you write a song, you’re going to get a little better at it, and I definitely see that improvement with lyrics, music and the sound. … In my newer music, you’ll hear a bigger variety of instruments. That’s just for me kind of gaining an understanding of the audio recording software that I’m using.”
The New EP
With a big boost from producer Joel Ferguson at Rockford’s Planet Sunday Studios – who “elevates the tracks a lot” – Kenyon recently released a four-song EP, “Don’t Drown in the Gold” that dynamically displays the keyboardist and singer’s singular indie-pop approach. Scroll down to listen to two tracks from that release as part of the March 8 edition of Local Spins on WYCE.
Kenyon, a Cedar Springs native and past winner of the Rockford’s Got Talent competition, aims to extend his family’s legacy as a songwriter: His late great-grandfather, George Donoho, also was a tunesmith whose country songs recently were digitized and found their way into two TV shows, Peacock’s “Poker Face” and Apple TV’s “The Big Door Prize.”
Kenyon hopes to find similar placements for his own music in the future, as well as striking up collaborations with other songwriters and building on his own performances by eventually forming a band to play festivals and other events.
PLAYING CEDAR SPRINGS BREWING, BUILDING HIS FAN BASE
“I’ll hopefully bring on a couple band members, like a guitarist and a drummer. I think that’d be really cool to play with some other people because that’s something I’ve never done,” he said. “I think it can really elevate the live energy.”
For now, however, Kenyon is playing solo, with his next performance at 12:30 p.m. Sunday (March 10) at Cedar Springs Brewing in downtown Cedar Springs.
He’s also juggling his studies at CMU with work on new music.
“There is a bit of a balance that goes on between college and music. College usually does come first,” Porter conceded, though he noted he does have recording equipment in his Mount Pleasant apartment to help construct tracks and write new material in his free time.
Balancing Music and Studies: Kenyon (Photo/Ray Nard Imagemaker)
He then takes those tracks to Planet Sunday Studios where he records his vocals, with Ferguson polishing and finishing the songs.
“I mean, every time I finish writing a song and producing it myself, I’m constantly learning stuff. There’s a lot of tricks and tweaking song structures just to make it a little better,” he said. “There’s always new things that I’m looking forward to learning when it comes to producing and designing the software and vocal engineering. And I’m always learning slowly how to get better at that. It’s a big learning process.”
Studies aside, music will remain a driving force for Kenyon.
“I always kind of say that no matter what happens, I’m going to be writing, I’m going to be sharing my music with others and that’s probably always going to be happening because I enjoy it so much and I love doing it,” he said, adding that he’s eager to continue growing his audience.
“I’ve definitely seen some improvement in feedback from others – from my older stuff to my newer EP – so that’s always really awesome to see.” (Enrique Olmos contributed to this story.)
In addition to spotlighting music by Porter, this week’s edition of Local Spins on WYCE – which showcases tracks by Michigan artists at 11 a.m. Fridays on WYCE 88.1 FM and online at wyce.org – also featured new songs by several local and regional artists, including Rachel Brooke, Inaudible Darling, Rip Smidgeon, The Skinny Limbs, The Cosmoknights, Samil, Megan Dooley, Pretoria, Desmond Jones and Folias Duo. Listen to the show here.
PODCAST: Local Spins on WYCE (3/8/24)
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