During the course of the her college career, Kally Hall dove deep into music and video.

Hall grew up in West Virginia, diving in to visual art in high school. Music videos helped her shape a passion for both video and music.

When Hall went to New York University, she started taking film classes. “Suddenly, coming to New York, it was like everyone was doing film,” Hall said. “[We had] access to cameras and equipment, and so I just started making films, making music videos, and then I just never stopped. It became something that I fell in love with.”

Hall recently released a music video for her song “Darkstar.” The long-form video aspect encompasses the storytelling Hall wanted to tell.

With deep blue light, cinematic storytelling, and a setting involving a young woman struggling with financials, Hall creates a relatable narrative. But it’s not the fairytale our culture expects— it’s the dark side of ambition, fame, and drama.

Hall draws inspiration from Ti West’s horror movie, Pearl. “I thought it was so interesting… a character who is so desperate for success that they would do anything for it,” Hall said. “Once I had the music down, I leaned into this idea—’What if fame was a person, an antagonist?’ I call her MX Fame.”

Carrying symbolism with it, the music video earned Hall a Collaborative Arts Grant from NYU in 2023.

A small, delicate star necklace is at the center of it all. “It’s both a character item and a story device,” Hall said. “Fame is like swallowing the necklace, but it’s also the main character being consumer. She’s gone—no more.”

Hall has always had a passion for music since she was young, as she recalls writing lyrics at the age of as young as five. She also experimented with her own unique sounds.

“When I was a teenager, like 14 or 15, I would record sounds from my Yamaha keyboard and put them into Audacity, change the pitches to make weird, funky, tracks… I went to college, and I had access to Ableton and digital audio workstation software to actually kind of experiment a little more with messing with sounds,” Hall said. “Everything on the EP that I’ve put out so far, I’ve produced myself.”

Her sound is unique, and blends together a variety of pop and electronic elements. “It’s all very artificial sounds—kind of electronic instruments. I like the electrical vibe for this project,” Hall said. “I’m [not] super attached to any particular genre when I’m talking about my music to people, but I usually say it’s like electronic or ambient or experimental.”

Hall draws inspiration from DeathbyRomy and Lady Gaga. “Lady Gaga is such a big personal inspiration—especially for ‘Darkstar’—because she has the [2009 VMAs] performance where she’s performing ‘Paparazzi’ and she’s bleeding out on stage, which was a huge reference for ‘Darkstar,’” Hall said.

Hall is working on her EP called Be Not Afraid and expects to release it sometime next year, 2026. To keep up-to-date on all of her music and posts, you can visit her website, Instagram, Spotify, and/or YouTube.

Photos courtesy of Kally Hall