Kyla talks with Unity Radio DJ, Steve0 about her original release ‘Do You Mind’, being a mother and how the new spotlight from Drake’s feature in ‘One Dance’ has impacted her life
Catch the full interview here:
Kyla
Kyla was born in Soltau, Germany, but was raised in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England. She is of Caribbean & American decent.
Kyla started singing at the age of 3 in front of friends and family, at parties and special events. In 1996 Kyla joined a girl group whilst in secondary school, as time went on she became more and more passionate for a career in singing and left the group to pursue life as a solo artist. In 1999 she started her solo career and enjoyed entering various competitions. She performed at many school talent shows such as Voice of Promise, from which she won £1000 for her school.
In 2001 she joined the Yvette Coker school in Buckben, Cambridgeshire and began to study dance and drama, whilst widening her skills in singing. During this time she performed at many different music venues, such as the Cambridge Corn Exchange, Burges Hall and also had the pleasure of switching the Christmas lights on in her local town of Huntingdon. Also, in 2001 Kyla entered the very first Pop Idol competition and got through to the second round.
In 2006 she joined a rock/pop band called Rumourz, but all the time continuing to pursue her solo career. Around this time she met producer in her local area and he helped Kyla to push out her music and assisted in arranging her live performances.
In 2006 Kyla put on an event at the BRJ Nightclub in Huntingdon, to raise money to fund her very first music video, the video was broadcast on popular urban music televison channel; Channel U on sky and cable. The video was spotted by successful record label owner and bassline producer; Paleface and he approached Kyla to work on some new music projects he had lined up.
Together they wrote number of songs, one of which was called do you mind. Do you mind was initially released as a Bassline track, (an urban dance genre, mostly popular in the north of england) and signed to the Ministry of Sound record label. Do you mind was later remixed by Crazy Cousinz and released on an independent label, this quickly became the biggest UK Funky track to date.
Kyla has recently shot her video for her latest single Daydreaming and reached chart positions of No. 1 on MTV Base, No. 4 on MTV Dance.
In 2010 Kyla will continue to release more singles and has an album penciled in for early next year.