Kayla L'ayton
If you are looking for an up and coming and exciting artist to check out this year then look no further than Kayla L'ayton.
The singer/songwriter is back with her terrific new single Don't Let Me Go and EP Uninhibited and she is set to make a name for herself over the next twelve months.
We caught up with her to chat about the new record, working with some great producers and what lies ahead.
- Don't Let Me Go is your new single so what can fans expect from the new track?
It is a very honest account of what I was going through when I wrote the song last summer. I wrote it as I was at the height of the low emotions as I was going through a break-up. I was almost feeling emotionally vulnerable and I wanted to regain control of my emotions again.
I was almost overwhelmed by everything. You want the person that you were in love with to fight for you but also wanting to have the strength to overcome it all and get back to me again.
So it was going through that feeling and putting pen to paper and putting a bit of my heart into the song. So there is a lot of truth in it and there is also a lot of me in the song as well.
- The track sees you work with producer Picasso so how did that collaboration come about? And how did you find working together?
I have known Picasso since I was fourteen as we both went to the Brits School together; we both did music but he was the year above me. We have always kept in distant contact over the years and worked together.
We just decided we were going to get together over the summer and have a go at it. Originally it was just going to be a little jam but then we decided that we wanted to set up a little project together and see how that would work.
So for all of last summer we were locked away in the studio and chucking a few ideas out there and coming up with quite a few songs.
I think it was the best summer of my life because it was free and creative and we were both doing the thing that we love the most. We just did it completely freely and so it was organic and it came from a really good place in both of us.
Working with him allowed me to make the kind of music that I wanted to make and say the things that I wanted to say and not what people expected me to.
- Don't Let Me Go is the first single to lifted from your new EP Uninhibited so how does this track introduce us to the rest of that record?
What Uninhibited is for me is a snapshot of where I was at that time. So Don’t Let Me Go is a page or bit out of the diary of my life from what was going in my life in the months before and thereafter.
I think people can find in Uninhibited an honest account of what I have been through and what I have felt; people will be able to relate to it.
I have tried to keep the songs relatively ambiguous in terms of what the subject is so it can mean different things to different people. Making sure that songs are open enough for people to relate is the most important thing to me about music.
- Is Picasso the only producer you have on the EP or have you brought other people on board as well?
Picasso made five of the other songs with me. There is another song on the EP called Had Enough which was written by myself and a gentleman called Rob Harvey; Rob is part of a group called the DOT with Mike Skinner.
He in his own right has spent the last eight or ten years, prior to the DOT, working in a very successful band called The Music; they were signed to quite a large record label in the States and were very successful.
So we got working together in terms of writing and we have penned lots of songs together. Had Enough was one of the songs that really stood out and it just seemed like it had a perfect place on the EP.
- You have worked with a whole host of people for this record so how much do you enjoy the co-writing experience? I talk to a lot of musicians and some would rather work on their own while others only write in a group. So where do you stand on that?
To be honest I am quite an open book. I feel that there is a lot to be gained from working with different people and being in a co-write situation. Especially writing with Rob he brings a completely different dynamic to the situation and it creatively forces me in a different direction and it encourages me to go somewhere else.
Whenever Rob and I write together we have a chat about what it is we are deciding we are talking about. We will literally have a long conversation and somewhere in that conversation there will be something that is said that we will use as an idea and go from there.
When you co-write different people bring different things out of you. As a writer there are many layers to what you are capable of but certain situations will encourage or inspire those things to come to the forefront; that is what I enjoy the most about co-writing.
In terms of writing by myself I also really enjoy the honesty that I can bring forward. So I can take what is in my mind and really put pen to paper.
So I really do sit in the middle and I don’t think I have a favourite as I think both can produce some really amazing things.
- Have you hand in the producing side of this EP? And if so how much is that something that you enjoy?
In terms of production it is a work in progress for me as I would love to be far more experienced and adept at it. So while I don’t have the skills that some producers have but I do have an interest.
I am aware of the way that the process work and so I will have an input in terms of melody and so I will say ‘try this’ or ‘try that’. If a producer understands what I am trying to say then they can implement what it is I am recommending.
In terms of the process of building all of the songs on the EP each of us have had an equal say in both sides of things. In terms of the writing the words and the phrasing come mainly from me but the growth of the track involves everyone.
- How have you found the response to Don't Let Me Go and the rest of the EP so far - it seems to be going down quite well?
Do you know what? It really is. I think it would be naive of me not to prepare myself for those people who might not like it; being a musician in any respect as soon a you put music out there there is that fear that people aren’t going to like it. But I have so fortunate so far as I have not had one piece of negative feedback.
So far people really love Don’t Let Me Go and people really love the EP. I have tried to identify the favourites from the EP but, at the moment, there doesn’t seem to be a clear front runner. The favourite songs at the moment are Release Me, Inside Out and Don’t Let Me Go, but I don’t think I could pick one out.
- This is your second EP - the first being This Is Me back in 2012 - so how would you say you have developed as a singer and a writer between that release and this?
This Is Me was my first independent release and I worked with a producer called Dan Dare on that record. This one showed my growth because as a writer I was able to better understand what it was that I wanted.
With This is Me I think I was just scratching the surface of what I was capable of doing and I was rediscovering myself and what I was vocally capable of - it was a springboard for me.
This time Uninhibited is every honest and personal.
This Is Me introduced me and showed what I was capable of musically and through that I gained the confidence to say ‘you have seen what I can start to do, here is a piece of me. And here is me exploring some different genres’.
I think it opened up the spectrum in terms of genres as it wasn’t as fixed as This Is Me. I think this record is a bit more open and more people can enjoy the music on there.
- You are not signed to a label at the moment so how difficult has it been getting your music out there without that kind of backing?
It is really difficult but that is almost the part that I enjoy the most; I enjoy the graft that goes into having to get it out there.
You have to build up your fan base and you have got to build up a network of people and ensure that you get it heard by enough people for it make a bit enough impact. The first EP opened doors for me and this EP has reopened those doors as well as some brand new ones.
I do enjoy the graft that comes with it as it is all very organic at the moment and any success is off the back of the hard work that I am doing.
If a label was to step in god only knows how far things could go - I would be optimistic to think that it would go a hell of a lot further than anything that I could do. But I am enjoying the organic approach but hopefully someone else will pick it up and spread it out more.
- Are you now on the hunt for a label?
I wouldn’t necessarily say that I was on the hunt. If it comes up it… for any artist it is important to look for a major signing at some point because you need them to expand the audience and the marketing and the PR; doing an independent release you are limited to an extent.
It would be nice if I could be signed but I would be looking for the right deal - it is not a case of desperation.
I am in this for the music as I love making music, I love writing and I love performing and if there is a label that will allow me to continue to be creative and expand my audience then I am all for it.
- You are a big user of social media so how vital have the likes of Twitter and Facebook been in getting yourself and your music out there?
Hugely vital; I don’t think I would have got the quarter of the audience that I have without it. Social media is hugely important, but not just for an independent release but it is important for everybody.
Most of the things that happen musically now are done virally. If I want to watch a video of one of my favourite artists I can go onto YouTube so I don’t often watch it on TV; I don’t know how many people continue to watch it as actively as they use to on TV. On the internet everything is at the tip of your fingertips.
Going by the stats that I have seen about how the video has been shared most of it has been through mobile devices; so it is massively important to spread the word.
- I was reading that you started writing and performing at the age of nine so where did you love of music come from? And was this the career always what you wanted?
Yes, it was. I pretty much came out of the womb singing so this is always what I wanted. As a kid I would stand in front of the TV and I would perform and I would rally people in the household to watch the performance.
I was always very academic in school and if I had wanted to I could have gone the academic route; at one point I considered that I could try and be a doctor if music didn’t work out. I always wanted to try the Oxford of Cambridge route.
Even though I was academic the creative side of me was where the strength was and where my heart called to. So I think no matter what my options were I was always going to do this.
- You also spent some time at BRIT School so how would you sum up you time there when you look back on it now? And what were you able to take from it as you have moved forward with your career?
To be honest, even to this day, the BRIT School were the best years of my life. I had gone to a normal state school originally but then I went into the BRIT School and it was ok to be whoever you wanted to be.
Everyone in the school came from such different backgrounds and so culturally it was a massive awakening for me. At the age of fourteen it was massively important for me to be a part of such a creative group of people because it allowed me to explore creativity.
We would spend a good chunk of the day working on the academic stuff and then we would spend half a day on our vocation; mine was music.
I took from that experience the focus and the drive and the commitment and I learnt what it required to build yourself up as a musician; they taught us everything from world music to music theory, we were taught an instrument and we had to put on shows.
So you were challenged constantly and for me that is what really set me up. Obviously being surrounded by people who have the same dream you are all moving in the same direction.
- Finally what's next for you throughout the rest of this year?
My hope would be that we release another one of two singles from the EP - or however many singles people demand. I hope before the end of the year to be signed by a major label and working on a main studio album - I am already working on material for an album so an album will come out.
It would be nice to release that album through a label and have the resources of lots of different producers and live musicians at my disposal.
So I hope to tour a lot more and by the end of the year be a lot more established as an artist and have a bigger following. I hope to have a more solid stance in the music industry and that I am more well known amongst my peers and then some.