With a distinctive voice and undeniable hooks, North Carolina songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rachel Kiel combines a strong pop sensibility with a track record of creative reinvention. Each successive album finds Kiel exploring new genres and instruments -- but although her methods shift, her songs remain unmistakably her own, full of wit and generous vulnerability.

After releasing her catchy and emotionally direct debut album (Table Manners, 2008), Kiel dove into banjo-driven alt-country (Television Waltz, 2012) and then jangly underground pop (Shot from a Cannon, 2017).

Dream Logic (2020), Kiel’s fourth album, finds her at a new creative peak as a songwriter and artist. With Jeff Crawford (The Dead Tongues, Mandolin Orange) engineering and co-producing, the record features an all-star cast of musicians, including Mitch Easter (R.E.M., Let’s Active), Chris Stamey (The dB's), Robert Sledge (Ben Folds Five), Laura King (Superchunk, Bat Fangs), Carter Gaj (The Love Language), Charles Cleaver (Big Star’s Third Live), Daniel Faust (H.C. McEntire) and more.

The record's stylistic reach spans from synth, art, and dream pop to droning guitar psychedelia, to punchy garage rock. Layers of strings, keyboards, percussion, brass, guitar and vocals create lush textures; lyrical material drawn from dreams of all kinds gives the album a surreal and immediate quality. Dream Logic pulls off something both bold and delicate: Kiel invites the listener into her dreams, and more fully into their own.

Praise for Dream Logic:

"The interplay between the usual and the unusual…is where Kiel truly shines" - Audiofemme

“Recalls Neko Case at her most power-pop-perfect moments” — MXDWN

“Lush, lilting instrumentation and infectious hooks.…Kiel is a gifted songwriter” — Indy Week

“Gleaming synths, chiming guitars…and a cinematic sense of scale” — Bandcamp

Praise for Shot from a Cannon:

"The opening title track is a tour de force of crashing harmonies, surprise melodic twists, and yearning vocals that brings to mind Big Star's 'O My Soul'...." — Indy Week

"Sharp, jangly pop that sits just about halfway between the Breeders and the early Bangles"— Bandcamp

"Thirty-some years ago, the Southeast was America’s hippest musical zone, especially R.E.M.’s North Carolina associates like the dB’s and Let’s Active. Carrboro singer-songwriter Kiel’s 'Shot From a Cannon' recalls that era’s underground-pop glories" — The News & Observer