As she began to write her latest set of songs, her music took on a new form. The electric guitars became jagged and distorted, the synthesizers danceable, the vocals simultaneously tuneful and hollering. Bursting with hard-hitting rock arrangements and hook-laden pop melodies (interspersed with the occasional down-tempo number), this is music that carries a slap-you-across-the-face immediacy.

"For the last year, I've been writing in seclusion, really far away," she says of her exploratory creative burst. "The music has evolved so much from where it was."

The 12 songs that make up Rykka's debut album, Kodiak, were penned in the European farmhouse where she composed for much of 2011. Sessions subsequently took place in Vancouver's Mushroom Studios and District Four Recordings with input from engineer Sean Penner (You Say Party! We Say Die!), mixer Warne Livesey (Matthew Good Band, 54:40), and producer Ryan Guldemond (Mother Mother, Hannah Georgas).

"Ryan has a really strong vision," Rykka notes. "I wanted to