Exclusive Premiere: Kendoll Previews ‘Acid Party’ And Talks Action Sports, Representation For Women In Dance Music And More

Looking to get down to experimental and bass-heavy music? Kendoll is the one to turn to.

The artist, legally known as Kendall Wyman, is one to watch within the bassline house music scene. She has performed at Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, Beyond Wonderland and Nocturnal Wonderland. The genre-defying producer has also released tracks on Night Bass, Insomniac Records, Bite This!, Dim Mak, Prescription Records, Psycho Disco! and DND Recs. In addition, she has graced the stages with acclaimed names such as AC Slater, Dr. Fresch, Slushii, Wax Motif, Marshmello, Redlight, Anna Lunoe and Destructo. Indeed, Wyman has an impressive resume to date.

The tastemaker shows no signs of slowing down, and her latest release, “Acid Party,” proves just so. The track is out on May 5, and Forbes received an exclusive premiere of it on May 4.

The song boasts UK basslines and the original styles of acid music. The bouncy basslines, percolating and snarling synths, throbbing drops and old-school ‘90s beats are sure to get people grooving on the dancefloor. “Acid Party” also has the sounds of underground music, making it perfect for any warehouse rave.

“I’m trying to break the boundaries, meet some of those together and see what different sub-genres go well together,” Wyman says. “That’s the whole experimental aspect of it.”

The Seattle-bred producer is also known to incorporate drum’n’bass, breaks, UK garage, bassline acid house and techno into her sets. Wyman transcends stylistic borders, and this need for creativity led her to launch her label, Dollhouse Records. She did this because she felt she was stuck “in a rut” having to make the same music time after time, which is what labels tend to expect of artists as they seek consistency.

“I wanted to impose this freedom aspect of artists kind of expressing themselves however they want to—no matter what the genre is,” she says. “I’ll toss tracks to certain labels and then it’ll be like, ‘Okay well, let’s do an EP and make three more tracks like it.’ Then you have to tailor your music and your creative flow to that said genre, [which] has a very specific type of music that they’re putting out.”

Wyman is known for more than her music as she is also a champion of women in the scene. She is using her imprint to have artists curate compilations for various genres that will include burgeoning female producers. Her goal is to have these artists on Dollhouse Records show new talent that they’ve been listening to lately since it can be difficult to find up-and-coming producers because of how much music is released nowadays.

“I’m trying to make it as much of a community aspect as possible,” she says. “I’ve wanted to create this label for a super long time [to release] the music that I wanted to get out this year, and then start putting artists on to build a very non-exclusive community [of] different artists. There’re so many women producers that I know that are just absolutely killing it.”

While some female artists feel that there is more inclusivity for women in the scene at this time, Wyman believes it has gone down recently.

“The pendulum was swinging so far one way of supporting women producers that it’s kind of swinging back,” she says. “Not much was solved. It was like, ‘Let’s funnel as many women producers as we can into our lineups.’ It just wasn’t very sustainable for a lot of companies, I feel. They didn’t really keep that going.”

The label boss adds that there is a consistent narrative from mostly male listeners that women don’t make their own music so they don’t deserve to be on festival lineup. She adds that she has ghost produced for male artists before, but this storyline continues and has been going on since she started making music.

Wyman’s passions extend outside of music as she’s also fond of action sports. Her father, Dave Wyman, is a former Seahawks linebacker and a current 710 ESPN Seattle sports-radio analyst. He fostered her love for multiple sports, but she was mostly drawn to skateboarding and snowboarding—adding that she engaged in the two her whole life. The adrenaline of landing a trick and “that free-flowing action of extreme sports” is what attracts her to them.

When she was 18 years old, she came to a crossroads of deciding whether to pursue becoming a professional snowboarder or continue making music—she was deejaying at local Seattle venues at the time. Then, Wyman got into a serious snowboarding accident where she broke her collarbone and was on bed rest for three months. She decided that was where she wanted to end her professional snowboarding career and continue with music, although she still snowboards and skateboards as hobbies. Due to her love for action sports, Monster Energy reached out to her to sponsor her as an artist.

The biggest hurdle she has faced in life is being in the music industry. She notes that it’s important to prioritize mental health, give oneself affirmations and be proud of their success since social media can make one question themselves. Wyman adds that social media has now become an important yet frustrating part of one’s career, saying that “[she] never signed up to be a content creator or a social media influencer—that just, unfortunately, came with a job.” The tastemaker believes that many producers may not gain traction due to not having a strong social media presence, and they may even quit over having to take on that role. For her, she does what she feels comfortable doing, which is posting her picture alongside funny memes and making comical reels of her eating and snowboarding. She thinks this can draw the audience closer to an artist.

As for the future of Dollhouse Records, Wyman plans to foster a sense of community by throwing consistent events in different places that showcase art, streetwear brands in Los Angeles and graffiti. She also plans to drop new merchandise, adding that she recently did a collaboration with Blvcklist, for which she designed the apparel. In addition to her love for streetwear, art and graffiti, Wyman is also passionate about animal charities.

Wyman demonstrates that she is a complex creative through her genre-bending music, passion for action sports and love for street arts. Indeed, she proves to be one to watch.