Cyn, courtesy.

Cynthia Nabozny’s music career was gaining momentum at the end of the last decade. The Michigan-born, L.A.-based artist, who goes by Cyn, signed with Katy Perry’s label imprint, released an EP, toured with Perry and Børns and had her songs featured in several films.

When everything changed in 2020, her life took some diversions.

“I fell in love. I became pregnant. I got married—this is the actual order,” she said in a video call last week. “I had another baby [in 2023], and in the meantime, I had just been very much in my own world, in my own bubble, doing the only thing I know how to do, which is write.”

While she’s released a handful of singles in that time—“Drinks” landed on the soundtrack for Oscar-winning film “Promising Young Woman,” while she contributed others to HBO’s “Moonshot,” Netflix’s “He’s All That” and “To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You,” and Warner Brothers film “Birds of Prey”—Cyn mostly focused on her new family during this time.

Her long-awaited full-length debut is Valley Girl, which she ended up releasing in two parts this fall after facing several business-side complications over the last couple of years, and this week as a full version with several extra tracks.

Now, she’s putting all her effort and free time (raising two young kids is demanding) into putting the music in front of as many people as possible. That includes spending hours creating social media content for listeners and for industry reps for other artists. She’s got showcase shows scheduled for January in L.A. and New York, and the goal is to get a gig opening for someone else on a longer tour.

“When agents and artists go to check out my stuff, they’ll see that I could be a great addition to their tour,” she said. “In my mind, it’s a network game. There could be someone looking for someone like me.”

Nabozny is married to screen producer and filmmaker Kyle Newman, known for movies like 2009’s “Fanboys,” and music videos for Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey. The two met through mutual friends during the pandemic; Cyn said her music industry lawyer and he watch soccer together.

She said her life and music career are now intertwined, with one forming the basis for the other.

“Every great thing in my marriage is finding its way into my music,” she said. “Also, all of the themes and the love, and the obstacles I face in being a mom. They all lend itself to the art. There’s really not a lot of separation yet. It’s really not the kind of artist I am.”

The biggest change to her job is that she has less time for it. Her studio sessions before would run 10 hours at a time. Now they last closer to six hours, and she has to keep herself and her collaborators more focused. While she brought her son to the studio as a newborn, she stopped when he became mobile.

“I would come out, and I would breastfeed, and then I would go back in,” she said. “I even had him sleeping in the booth with the sound machine at one point in a little nest on the floor. It was very cute, but … when they start moving around, they want more freedom. They want to be in the grass and stuff.”

The other reason she wants to keep her kids away from her work is because she doesn’t want them to start thinking of it as a chore. She’s considering signing her son up for piano lessons, but in a way that appeals to him. Currently, that’s with the music of “Blippi.”

“I wanna present the music in a way that’s gonna be a lot of fun for them. So that way, they do have a natural liking to it,” she said.

Motherhood has evolved her songwriting in some ways, Cyn said. She pays more attention to what she wants to say and said she has a more well-rounded view of the world. Witnessing life from the very start gave her a broader perspective.

“I appreciate so much more, and I value so much more: the characters in my music, myself as a character, my journey; things have become more profound,” she said, with the caveat that parts of her songwriting have not changed.

When she goes to write, she explained, she gets to revisit a version of herself from before she had monumental responsibilities. She could just squirrel herself away in her bedroom and in her imagination.

“I also know and hope that even if I’m saying something silly or crass, that my children, one day when they’re older, they’ll understand my sense of humor and that I’m also just another gal out here in this world,” she said.

Newman directed a couple of Cyn’s videos, for “House With a View” and “Losing Sleep,” and she said the collaboration is beneficial both personally and professionally. She said her husband is an incredible storyteller and filmmaker who upholds artists’ visions. He never says “no” to her plans. And because of his connections, making videos is more affordable.

The two call the San Fernando Valley home, from which she drew some inspiration for Valley Girl. She released the first part of the record, Lost on Laurel, in September, and the second part, Los Angeles, No Offense, earlier in November. The complete LP version included three new tracks and is highlighted by nostalgic song, “The Smiths,” which sonically references the iconic band.

Personally, she was inspired by her husband’s love for Morrissey and company.

“Certain things really take you back. There’s a sensory experience attached to smells, movies, places and albums,” Cyn said. “The Smiths mean so much for so many people. … People who love The Smiths are a type. I mean that in a loving way. … It’s like in a rom-com movie when the girl dates a guy who turns her on to all this music she had no idea of. And that’s really what it is. I really wasn’t into Britpop, or British punk or whatever. So he really just opened my eyes to that world.”

Angsty post-break-up tunes “Sweet” and “Sink Your Teeth In Your Tongue” were the final additions to the album. The latter tells a story of one of Cyn’s exes texting her husband-to-be.

“I don’t know which ex it was. Could have been a crazy stalker, too, ‘cause I had one of those once,” she said. “I was like, ‘All right, all I need is a drop of inspiration; I’m running with it, and I’m writing a song!’”

Now that the album is out, Cyn is focusing her efforts on promoting it and the showcase shows.

“I’m working with small rooms … but I want people to come in and feel like they’re having an experience and not just staring at a girl on stage singing into a mic,” she said. “I’m thinking about stories I can tell in fun, maybe rhyming ways, some outfits that would really wow an audience, maybe even the set piece or two. Maybe monologuing? Oh, my God; how cringe is that?

“I’m also working on a Valley Girl zine. I’m doing it because it moves me,” she said. “With people loving an album on vinyl, there could be a chance that people love a handmade zine by the artist. I’ve been gathering some stories, some poetry, some art. I do a lot of collage art. It’s a bit nerdy, but I love it. I only spend a couple of hours a day, because I love giving my children my full attention. I just can’t deny them. I never say, ‘hold on.’”

Contact editor Roman Gokhman at RomiTheWriter.bsky.social.