Pitted to be the UK’s next big female soloist, Kyla La-Grange has already been compared to a young Marianne Faithful and shot in Glamour magazine. Bel Trew grabs her between recording sessions.
‘The first instrument I ever played was probably a kazoo’, says singer-songwriter Kyla La-Grange. Recently featured in Glamour magazine as hot new talent, Kyla has just recorded her latest track ‘Courage’ and thankfully the kazoo is not present.
Part South-African and part Zimbabwean, Kyla grew up in London (mind you there’s not much Watford in her music). Her Indie-Folk-Rock-Pop (it’s hard to put a label on it) is putting some glorious oomph into the world of female vocalists.
Kyla’s voice is what sets her apart. It’s odd. It doesn’t seep out of your stereo into a syrupy puddle at your eardrum. Her voice has all the gritty, awkward vulnerabilities of a major Folk-singer with a smoky punch of Blues. Her music has drama with intimate starts, large choruses and smashing beats. Vampire Smile, her first recorded song, surges towards a kind of delicious bacchanalian rally-cry at the end.
Courage, her latest offering, takes a more decisive step towards a vast folk symphony. ‘We’re building up these big walls of sound’ explains Kyla, ‘with thick layered guitar bars and vocal harmonies’ and a mixture of female and male voices. Kyla is also demonstrating the real versatility of her voice.
There is definitely something of Elliott Smith in her delivery and Leonard Cohen in her lyrics – both icons of hers. Courage is based on a friend: ‘It’s about wanting to be brave enough to walk away from someone because you know they don’t love you as much as you love them,’ before adding, ‘I’ve never been brave enough to do that and I’m amazed by people who can.’
Kyla has played at Glastonbury but some her favourite gigs are little acoustic ones ‘where everyone is so quiet you could hear a pin drop’. The Flowerpot and the Troubadour in London, she says, are the best places to hear and play music.
Despite doing well, Kyla admits its hard making music: ‘You can get caught up in that dilemma between writing for yourself and writing for an audience’. It’s also not an industry that promotes self-esteem, something she bizarrely lacks. ‘But,’ she jokes ‘I think it gives me a lot too. Patience. Callouses on my fingertips.’
Kyla is irritatingly talented. A Cambridge University Philosophy graduate, she’s good at sports, astonishingly beautiful and, of course, a bloody good singer. When I asked her for any more hidden talents, it turns out she can even speak to her dog.
So she’s busy recording her album at the moment in London. ‘No one has really heard the new stuff yet so it’s exciting to be at the point where I know these songs are the blueprint for how I want the album to sound.’ If her previous efforts are anything to go by, the album is set to be gutsy and beautiful. When will it be ready? Soon. Watch this (my)space.
