Make The Sound, the eagerly-awaited sophomore album from Kansas City indie-roots-rock duo Katy Guillen & The Drive is with us at last.  It’s everything we expected – and more!

Release Date:  17th October 2025

Label: Are & Be Recordings

Format:  CD / Vinyl / Digital

EVERYTHING WE’VE EXPECTED – AND MORE

So.  Here it is, at last.  We’ve had lots of prior warning of this one.  The string of singles that culminated in September releases, Outcome and Goodbye Charlie from Kansas City indie-roots-rock duo Katy Guillen & The Drive stirred a growing sense of anticipation for their promised second album.  So: has Make That Sound been worth the wait?  The answer to that question is a resounding “Yes.”  Make That Sound is everything we’ve expected – and more.

Regular visitors to these pages will recall that Katy Guillen & The Drive are: Katy Guillen (vocals and guitar) and life-partner, Stephanie Williams (drums).  The pair came together in 2018 and their debut album, Another One Gained, was released in 2022.  Katy and Stephanie pride themselves in fostering empowered spaces for women in music, both onstage and off and their live performances showcase the group’s all-female powerhouse presence, technical prowess and chemistry.

THE POWER OF AN EXPRESS TRAIN

For Make That Sound, Katy and Stephanie have been joined by Megan McCormack who plays bass and lap steel – and, along with backing vocals also contributes to the songwriting.  She’s also the album’s producer.

The preview singles left us mightily impressed by the power and musicianship of Katy Guillen & The Drive. Indeed, we recently described Outcome – one of those singles and the album’s opening track – as “…a melodic, driving, rocker with the power of an express train.”  Hearing the song once again, our conviction to those words has, if anything, deepened.  Stephanie’s drums are the power behind the song, the guitars are gritty and Katy’s vocals are clear, with a hint of cynicism.  Katy’s spacy guitar solo takes no prisoners and the listener is left feeling breathless.

IMPROVES WITH EACH LISTEN…

Feel Good is a quieter song, but there’s no loss of passion or drive.  The lyrical message is a positive one: “I wanna do good, I wanna be part of the solution, not the problem,” sung to the accompaniment of Katy’s chiming guitar and a pared back drumbeat from Stephanie.

There’s a strong 1950s feel to Goodbye Charlie, the most recent of the album’s three singles, and there’s a clear Lucinda Willims tone to Katy’s voice as she sings the song’s opening lines: “Goodbye Charlie, Life’s a different hue.”  Megan’s solid bass is the anchor that allows Katy’s guitar to soar towards the stratosphere and the passion grows in Katy’s voice as she delivers the song’s “I’m getting there” payoff line.  It’s a great song that seems to improve with each successive listen.

A WIDE BREADTH OF EMOTION

Lead single, What If, is a slice of hard, heavy rock.  The distortion to the guitars – and to Katy’s voice – give the song a John Lennon kind of feel.  Katy’s vocal tones hint at a bitterness that isn’t really reflected in the song’s lyrics, but one does sense a f**k you attitude in there, and it comes across clearly.

And the contrast between What If and the warm, tender, Staying Awake typifies the breadth of emotion that’s on display on Make That Sound.  From heavy rock, Katy and Stephanie take us to a mood of gentle intimacy.  There’s a pulsing rhythm at work and Katy’s vocal styling is melodic and comforting, but the widescreen rock that can be sensed, lurking just below the surface throughout the song, can’t be held back and it bursts through as the song reaches its triumphal zenith.

FROM ANGUISH TO TENDERNESS

The quiet, reflective, mood is retained for the opening section of Love You For All Time.  Katy sings her lyrics to a choppy guitar lick but the sense that something dramatic is going to happen can’t be ignored.  Sure enough, the “Love you for all time” chorus heralds a change in direction; the guitars roar and Stephanie’s drums crash as the song’s simple message is repeated over, and over, again.

A quickfire rhythm of Stephanie’s hi-hat provides the intro to Can’t Live Without It, an uncompromising chunk of power-pop.  Katy’s voice switches from soothing to anguished – and back again as the riffs get faster and dirtier and the solos get shorter and punchier.  And all that makes the acoustic guitar that accompanies the delightful Take a Break all the more surprising.  It’s the album’s gentlest song, by quite some distance; Katy’s voice is soft and tender and Stephanie’s drums are wonderfully restrained on a song that encourages reflection and contemplation.

POIGNANCY

Make That Sound, the album’s title track is a slow-building epic.  The transformation from calm to strength is a slow, subtle one but, when the power chords eventually arrive, they do so in a blaze of glory, to accompany the song’s “Go on now – make that sound” coda.

On an album of such variety, it is, perhaps, telling that Katy and Stephanie have selected a dose of meaningful self-reflection to wrap things up.  True Madness is a song with intriguing lyrics and I found real poignancy in lines like: “…I found my ocean, I found my peace and I found my shore – true madness,” as Katy realizes that calm, contentment and a lack of sanity need not be mutually exclusive.  And Katy’s lovely, echo-y guitar solo is the perfect way to conclude an excellent album.

There are no two ways about it.  Make That Sound has been well-worth the wait!

Watch the official video to Outcome – one of the singles to preview the album – below:

Katy Guillen & The Drive online: Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / Bandcamp / Spotify

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