- Wed, 2012-07-18 13:24
Hello, I'm Kyla la Grange, I'm a musician/songwriter and I mainly like songs about sad things and sad people so apologies to those who were after some cheery content, although I was tempted just to put in loads of photos of dogs wearing suits (which is a genre of photo I'm really into). Instead I've chosen a fairly new track, an older album, and a video that I recently stumbled across - they're all things I could listen to/watch obsessively many many times over. Hope you enjoy them. I'm currently trying to ration myself to only two plays of the MSMR single per day - I always overplay songs and then kill them so am trying to hold back.
My band and I are about to head off to play a big music festival in Switzerland next week, and then two gigs in Germany. After that we're doing some instores in London and Bristol to celebrate the album being released on 30th of July. Am looking forward to the release - feels like I will finally be able to close the book I have been reading for the past five years.
Click the play button below to launch the pop-out player and stream Kyla La Grange's playlist, then scroll down to read her features...
The first day I listened to this I just kept pressing repeat, over and over. I love everything about it: it feels so empty and sad but in a way that almost makes me feel uplifted - there's something really powerful about the loneliness of it all. The beat feels like it should be too jaunty for the sentiment but weirdly it works so brilliantly and pulls the whole thing together. Her voice just gets inside me too. Would love to see them live.
It took me a while to get into this album, but once I was in, fell completely in love with it. Lyrically it's one of my favourite albums ever. This, from While You Were Sleeping, is my favourite verse:
"While you were sleeping the money died
machines were harmless and the earth sighed
through the wind you slept sound and gravity caught my love around
the ocean rose, sang about decay
while witches flew and the mermaids stayed
full of dreams, you overslept,
in keeping with the quiet, through the walls I crept."
Pekins' mother was on one of the planes that crashed into the world trade centre on September 11th, and though I didn't know that when I first started listening to the album, once I did know it brought an extra weight every time I listened - it's impossible not to hear the influence of that event in the songs. His voice has a fragility to it that reminds me at times of Elliott Smith, and the instrumentation is often quite minimal, allowing the songs to speak for themselves.
I'm not sure how I came across this video, I think it just popped up as a suggested video on youtube, but it completely transfixed me. We had just shot our video for Walk Through Walls, which also involved super slow motion movement, but this video takes it to another level! I don't even know how they managed to get the bodies so contorted in some of the shots - it looks like they must be floating in water or hanging from invisible threads. The colours are incredible - deep blues and greys and dirty whites, and there is a kind of creepy Victorian feel to the whole thing (in a good way). I particularly love the black smoke that disappears on the sea shore, and the woman flying backwards.
Possessed of both the bombastic attitude of a rock and roller and the melodic finesse of a gifted pop writer, Kyla La Grange has been building up an impressive momentum since releasing her debut single in 2011. With a couple more warmly received singles under her belt since then, the time has come for her to release her debut album Ashes, packed full of anthemic and dramatic guitar-pop.
Find out more about Kyla at www.kylalagrange.com and keep an eye out for her album online and in stores from July 30th.
