Kyd the Band Concludes Songbook Storyline with ‘Season 4: Series Finale’

Devin Guisande has no disillusions about life. He’s overcome homelessness, addiction—and an overdose—death, mental illness and embracing his own Filipino-Spanish heritage and self identity. Compartmentalizing his life into four seasons, his story, so far, comes to a close on Season 4: Series Finale.

Following up 2020 release S3: The Realization and story preludes S1: The Intro and S2: Character Development, a reflection of the things that shaped the singer-songwriter and producer, Season 4 is the grand finale, piercing through darker periods of life into a brighter aperture for the singer-songwriter and producer.

Opening on “Real Problems,” featuring Nashville artist TAELA (Taylor Mae LaCour), Guisande, who goes by the moniker Kyd the Band, exposes the pains and perseverance in the punching lyric, It took some real problems to make me stronger / And see the trauma that’s been holding me back / Every time I’ve fallen, I got up quicker and my skin’s thicker, slipping in lovesick slicks of “Small World” and “Somebody’s Song” through the closing uplift of “Glory.”

“‘Glory’ was the first one, to me, that was the reminder of why I do any of this,” says Guisande. “It’s about something that’s more than just me. It’s about the following and community that’s been able to find me because of my music. It’s about the passion that I have for music.”

Writing via Zoom from his home in Nashville and working throughout the pandemic, every Season for Guisande was written in the moment. Each EP is an arc of the story he wanted to share, which served as his lyrical guide.

“I had the structure and themes of the EPs, but I write it all in real time,” he says. “It takes a bit of time to go back to these times. It starts to make sense that was my problem then and what was going on in my head, connect the dots and reflect on where I am now.” 

For the season finale, Guisande wanted a sense of inclusion and an exclamation point stamp on the end. “I thought about it in terms of my career and my life,” he says, “and what I’ve learned along the way so far.’

Closing this songbook with Season 4, Guisande still has more stories to tell. “The more time and space you have from an experience in your life, you have just a different perspective,” he says. “A lot of times, when I write songs, it’s very much in the moment. Then, the next year, or two years down the road, I go to write a song about that same experience, and I feel like I’m seeing it from a different angle.”

Guisande adds, “For me, it’s personal. I’ll write for other artists, but when it’s for me it has to be personal, from a real place and an honest place. I’m super skeptical and analytical, especially with my own voice that I don’t believe or don’t feel is authentic, I hate it. I just want to feel something in my music, and if I don’t there’s no point.”