Kinley Dowling transforms unsent messages into songs on her solo album

Letters Never Sent is quite a literal title for Kinley Dowling's solo album. The Hey Rosetta! member has written seven songs, each addressing someone or something in her life with a message she never got to give them. 

These songs range from love letters, like "Golden Days" and its ode to Dowling's home of Prince Edward Island, to letters of anger, like "Microphone," which is directed at the man who raped Dowling 15 years ago. 

"I thought about it for years," Dowling says, of the latter song which has gotten quite a lot of attention since the album's October release. "One morning I was like, I really need to say this, I need to write this down: if you come to my show/I think you should know/I'm going to call you out/for the rest of my life you're smeared on my mind/but I've got a microphone." 

Dowling says her story has encouraged many others to open up about their experiences with rape or sexual assault and she's glad that she has created this opportunity for others. She describes that feeling as "amazing because I felt so much stronger as soon as I wrote this song."