FEATURE:
Spotlight
Kaleah Lee
_________
I will come to some interviews…
with the amazing Kaleah Lee. This is a Canadian artist who I am new to. I am keen to know more about. I think that this year is going to be a very busy year for her. Late last year, Pitch Perfect PR shared some biography about this wonderful artist. Someone who I hope gets to tour in the U.K. and bring her music over here:
“Vancouver-based artist Kaleah Lee shares “Where’d The Time Go?,” her first new single from a forthcoming project out next year. Hushed and organic, it’s an intimate glimpse at her artistic prowess that extends from poetic field recordings to tender folk. Written and produced by Lee herself, “Where’d The Time Go?” began as a poem which she then set to an intricate guitar-picking pattern. “Noticed the hollowing out of your cheeks // How you’ve grown up to desire nights quiet and meek,” Kaleah sings. “How you welcome the tears // How did you switch to tea?”
“I initially wrote ‘Where’d The Time Go?’ when I had a few moments to myself on my birthday this year,” says Kaleah. “For me, birthdays are a strange and bittersweet thing, being a day when the reality of getting older is scarily magnified. The song is a sort of meditation on not only being hit with the fact that I’m getting older, but also that my parents and loved ones are getting older too. Time is so, so precious, and all the change that comes with each passing year seems to become more and more obvious, whether I want it to or not. ‘Where’d The Time Go?’ feels like a time capsule for me, and I know that I’ll appreciate looking back at it being such a candid and specific representation of how I felt on that day.”
Raised in suburban Vancouver, Kaleah began playing music at her church, eventually focusing on piano and guitar as she got older. She wrote her first original music in 2020, and was encouraged by her sister to release it. Kaleah started turning heads with her original songs on TikTok, amassing over 20 million views, 85k followers, and receiving the attention of Taylor Swift, Bon Iver, Maggie Rogers, Gracie Abrams, and more. That buzz turned into high demand for more new music; Kaleah responded in 2022 with a string of singles, including her debut, “Heavy Handed,” resulting in over 4 million streams, playlist covers on Spotify’s coveted “Fresh Finds” and Tidal’s “Rising,” and spots in Spotify’s “Fresh Finds Class of 2022” and Tidal’s “Rising Best of 2022”.
At the start of last year, Lyrical Lemonade spent some time getting to know better Kaleah Lee. At that point, Out of Body was her new single. One of her best to that point. With so many interesting and talented rising artists round, it can be easy missing some of them. Make sure Kaleah Lee is someone you check out and investigate right away:
“Sam: I love that. Okay, so you were born and raised around Vancouver right? What was it like growing up there?
Kaleah: Yeah, so I live technically not in Downtown Vancouver, I live in the suburbs like 20 minutes away. It’s really quiet here, sort of in the middle of nowhere and a little removed from a lot of action, but it’s nice; very quiet and lots of nature, so that’s been a very nice thing to grow up around. The actual city though, I really enjoy spending time there. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s much different from where I am normally, but I love it. There are a lot of different things to do…A lot of demographics of people, so it’s always interesting. A lot of different food and experiences.
Sam: When it comes to your family in Canada, did you grow up in a musical home? Did anyone sing or play instruments?
Kaleah: Not really, no. Most of my family were athletes. That’s what I did most of my life too, but I have an uncle who is a musician, but I wasn’t around that growing up. Half of my family is filipino and they love music so much, but it was never anything that was super serious; and actually, no one knew that I could sing until maybe a few years ago, but yeah I grew up with instruments though. I played the piano which I would play by ear, so my parents got me lessons…But overall, music wasn’t anything that anyone took very seriously.
Sam: Okay, so with that, what is your creative process like? How do you take an idea and turn it into a full fledged song so seamlessly?
Kaleah: It’s very strange. Sorry that’s a word I use a lot and it’s so hard to explain it, because it’s never the same I would say. Sometimes I have the notes app or my journal and I’ll just write random things or if I think of a line, I’ll jot it down to revisit later; or sometimes it’s like a zone I’ll get into, but I’ll just be playing chords and start writing simultaneously whatever I feel and whatever comes to mind, but yeah, it’s always different every time. It is mostly very emotional and feelings based for the most part. Maybe I’ll re-read a journal entry and try to make something out of it. But at the same time, it’s not always me trying to make something…It kind of just happens.
Sam: You’re amazing. Talking to you really shines a light on why your music is so good. I’m so Inspired by you…Okay, final question. It’s almost the end of the first month of the year. What are you excited about and looking forward to in 2023?
Kaleah: I’m excited to just keep doing what I’m doing and see how it can progress and grow. Interacting with people has been really cool. People have been making little group chats and adding me to them and I just get to see the community that’s forming and that’s been really cool to watch, so I’m excited to be able to watch that grow and see how I can be more a part of the people who are listening to me”.
Prior to moving to a current feature around Kaleah Lee, there is another interview from last year that I am keen to get to. No Multiple Faces spent some time with an artist they were very fond on. Someone baring her soul and connecting with an online audience. Even though I have just discovered her music, I am now truly a fan of this wonderful artist. I know that we will get a lot of awesome new music from Kaleah Lee this year:
“Ahead of the release of her new single ‘All At Once’ on March 29th, and on the back of her last single ‘Out of Body’, I spoke with Kaleah about her music, the community that she has built online, and her role as a rising star in the music industry.
With a proven talent to draw people towards her and her artistry, I asked Kaleah:
The community that you have built on social media has played a big role in your journey in music so far, and you seem to really facilitate this sense of belonging and community amongst your fans. Do you find there to be a certain type of person that gravitates towards you and your music?
The community that’s forming has been one of the most rewarding parts of all of this. This is interesting because it’s something that I’ve thought of a lot and noticed myself! I’m not sure I’d say there's a specific type of person that gravitates toward my music. They vary so much in age and whatnot, but they do all seem to share the commonality that the music resonates in some way. It’s like talking to different versions of myself at different stages and walks of life which sounds crazy, but it’s made me feel so much less alone and hopefully them too. I think that collective understanding and connection is a big part of why there's a community in the first place. They've all been so supportive and so special in their own way!
What is the storytelling process that you take through your music?
Most, if not all of what I write is based on an experience or feeling that I’ve had, and it’s a way that I cope with literally anything. I’d say the storytelling process I take is a cathartic one. It can start with a thought or emotion I’m experiencing at that current moment, revisiting a journal entry, playing around with a chord progression, or all three at the same time. Usually, when I’m at the point of making anything a song, the “story” has been fleshed out somehow, most likely written in my journal or just something that’s happened that has been living in the back of my mind, so connecting it to music is like the last piece. I try to express the experiences I’ve had as candidly and acutely as possible.
Social media likes to box people into certain aesthetics (soft girl, sad girl, etc...). Do you feel this, and is there any inclination in you to lean into any box to appease the categorization features of internet culture?
I’m aware that these aesthetics exist, but I wouldn’t say that I personally try to pursue any particular one. I make what I feel is right for me to make and if someone feels the need to fit it somewhere, maybe to help them identify how the music makes them feel or if it’s how they express their connection to the music, that’s great! But I also think that if it’s taken too seriously, being limited to creating on one plane of space can be restricting to the growth of an artist or person in general. It’s definitely not a goal or really even an interest of mine to be placed in any one particular place at all or to place others in one particular place at all. It’s important to make what you want to make!”
Where do you draw the majority of your inspiration from? And what is the source of inspiration that people may be surprised by?
The majority of my inspiration comes from my personal experiences. I use writing to express the things I feel because it seems to be the only way I’m able to articulate myself exactly how I want to…I’m terrible at talking about how I feel hahaha. I’m not sure if this is surprising, but I also get a lot of inspiration from nature and its interconnectedness and how everything I experience seems to be intertwined with it or can be represented through it.
Is there something specific that you'd like to represent or stand for as a rising star in the music world? Personal or on a wider scale.
I feel like there are so many things I could say but something I stand for, and I’m choosing this one because it has become important to me now more than ever, is taking care of yourself. Especially on an emotional level. I’ve recently come to terms with the fact that I can’t fully be the person I’d like to be for others until I find ways to get help for myself first! It can feel daunting to reach out for help, and might even feel weird to do things for yourself, but it's scary how easy it can be to neglect your own needs with others in mind. Having a healthy relationship with yourself first is so, so important not only for you but for the people in your life that you love as well”.
It has been quite a ride for Kaleah lee so far. Her cover versions are amazing. Whether interpreting boygenius, SZA, Taylor Swift or Billy Joel, the stripped back and affectionate versions have done won a lot of attention and love online. Music is definitely her calling. After studying Interior Design at college and then dripping out during COVID-19 when everything went online, Kaleah Lee has not looked back. The Line of Best Fit recently spoke with an artist whose music is very lyric-driven. Someone who grew up on the music of artists like Bon Iver and Lorde, it is no wonder that her own music has that same sort of attention to words. A debut E.P. is due later this year. Rotting Fruit is the first taste of it. After taking herself out of college, things have been pretty busy for the Canadian artist:
“Since then, Lee has toured with Leith Ross across the West Coast, from Canada to LA. “That was huge for me, playing shows in general,” she tells me. “I think that's the one thing I was really scared of and I'm sort of still nervous when I do it, but getting kind of thrown into that, where I had to do it for a few nights was a great way for me to get out of my shell in that way. And it also just helped me feel more comfortable to share what I'm making with a direct audience.”
It’s certainly a jump from performing at home: “I only just play in my room for the most part, and that's super comforting,” she says. “So to be able to kind of pivot and do that elsewhere feels comforting as well. But, yeah, I think the start of making music too, I was really scared to add production to stuff because I was just so used to how stripped down acoustic stuff was, and it was comforting. I think it's just always been a safe space for me.”
Even her music videos reflect the safe space that home represents for her.. Snippets of rivers and rocks and tree roots appear as she wanders through the vast expanse in the visual for “All at Once.”
“I'm very affected by my environment and I guess a lot of the things I write about are more personal topics and more emotional-based things. So that's honestly directly influenced by my surroundings,” she explains. “So definitely the rain and all of that is a huge thing. Just as a person, too, kind of the same thing. I’m very influenced by what I'm around.” It's no surprise that this carries through in her writing to today given that she is still in Vancouver, hometown based and adjacent to the elements that offer so much solace.
The likes of Swift and Cyrus continue to influence Lee and have laid the foundation for her own songs, where she’s making space for the emotions of young women and validating them in her own self-expression, ushering in fresh lyricism that comes from her own vulnerability.
The perspective of her work is rooted in the experiences of her adolescence and what it is to navigate this time in her life as she comes of age. “I would say ‘Rotten Fruit’ is probably one of the most emotionally liberating things I have written,” she tells me. “And it's sort of about as you get older, you start to form your own opinions and your own belief systems, and I think it was weird at first to realise, like an out of body, third person kind of watching yourself thing. It was strange to navigate, but once I was able to sort of surrender to the feelings, like maybe things I believe now don't align with what I used to believe or what I was taught growing up, it became super liberating. That's sort of what the song is about, just navigating those feelings.”
@kaleahvl didnt cry on my bday but i wrote this and idk whats worse
♬ original sound - Kaleah Lee
Even as she builds upon the production in her music and moves away from the purely acoustic sound she has come to be known for, the themes stay constant. “I just always will find some kind of comparison to relate it back to nature. It feels like a safer way for me to express things. Not super directly, but through something that's comfortable.”
She wants to get out of Vancouver soon, but being a product of her environment bodes well for Lee. It’s this perspective and observation that has gotten her this far already. “The nature will always find its way in,” she says”.
If you have not discovered Kaleah Lee, then I would suggest that you do so. She is a tremendous young artist with a bright future. Definitely standing our from her peers, we are going to be hearing a lot more from this amazing artist. I hope that we get to see her in the U.K. From a personally selfish place, it would be good to see her on the stage. I know there is a lot of support for her here. For those searching for an artist that will stick in the mind and they will return to time and time again, then the magnificent Kaleah Lee if for you. She is an artist you will…
NOT want to miss out on.
___________
Follow Kaleah Lee
