Kiley Baxter’s first original song “While Everyone Sleeps” is finally here! This song is all about the best parts of the beginning of a relationship, describing the best moments of a love-at-first-sight moment. Kiley paints a beautiful scene at the beginning of the song: walking the beach with someone at midnight, feeling like a mess but somehow perfect in their presence. She says she feels out of place, yet she feels that it’s the right place for her. Kiley says “I’m thinking of you, are you thinking of me” and asks them to give her a second to breathe after they talk. In the chorus, she says that this moment is fleeting fast, and to just imagine a free life like that. She can tell this person is scared, but she tells them to just “take [her] hand baby/we’ll be gone/on the run/while everyone sleeps.” Kiley senses some doubt, but in the heat of the moment, she doesn’t want them to look back. In the second verse, Kiley plans their “escape,” telling the person to “climb out [her] back window” and meet her across the street. She develops this story beautifully, and perfectly describes how if you’re in love with someone, you’re willing to take a huge chance on them to savor a wonderful moment.
The production on “While Everyone Sleeps” perfectly encapsulates the message of the lyrics. I can imagine being on a late night drive with someone near the beach, standing out of the sun roof, letting the wind mess up my hair. The instrumentation perfectly builds into the electric and catchy chorus, with the gaps in between the synth punches highlight Kiley’s amazing vocals. She effortlessly shows off her beautiful voice at the end of the song with some impressive riffs. Her harmonies as well are amazingly built, and they sound so ethereal and angelic. Overall, “While Everyone Sleeps” exudes a feeling of exhilaration and freedom, and even though we’re a couple months out from summer, this song is certainly a “song of the summer” contender.
Kiley Baxter is a 19 year old singer-songwriter from Bridgewater, New Jersey. From a very young age, she’s had a strong passion for music. At only 4 years old, she would walk around her house with a tape recorder, singing whatever melodies come to her mind. As she grew older, she grew more interested in musical theater, performing in her middle and high school plays and musicals, and took classical voice lessons along with many dance classes. Kiley grew an affinity for some of the greatest singers of all time, such as Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey, and studied their technique throughout high school. She started performing with Meatloaf’s live band, The Neverland Express, in 2022 and toured the US and the UK with them. With over 140k followers on Instagram to date, her singing videos regularly reach over 100k views, which feature her doing covers of famous songs. Even though “While Everyone Sleeps” marks her first original release, she published a cover of Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” in 2023, which first went viral on her Instagram. It will be very exciting to see what direction Kiley’s music will take in the future, but it is sure to impress everyone over and over again.
Written By Lauren DiGiovanni
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