KYLA CHARTER’S DEBUT ALBUM, EDIBLE FLOWERS, SET FOR RELEASE APRIL 8, 2022
WATCH / SHARE “QWYN” HERE
BUY / STREAM “QWYN” HERE
Photo Credit : Noelia Ruiz // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Kyla Charter is set to unveil her debut album, Edible Flowers, out this coming April. For the LP, Charter teamed up production team Safe Spaceship (Chino De Villa (Jessie Reyez, Justin Nozuka, Charlotte Day Wilson), Scott McCannell (Claire Davis, Aphrose) and Ben MacDonald), to bring her unique brand of soulful vocals to her astonishing debut album.
Earlier, Charter released her debut single “Doubts”, a meditative odyssey that boasts the singer’s vocal range, with operatic harmonies weaving in and out of more cyclical and foundational melodies. Having lent her voice to the backgrounds of tracks and performances from July Talk, Alessia Cara, and Zaki Ibrahim, to Rich Aucoin and Patrick Watson, “Doubts” marked the first official solo release for the celebrated Toronto musician.
Today, she returns with “Qwyn”, another new single from the album and ode to her sister.
“My sister Qwyn has been my best friend and co-conspirator since we were fresh out the womb,” says Charter. “I started writing this song about 10 years ago when we thought we might lose her. I put the song to bed unfinished until recently when I realised I’ve been mourning her in a different way. I think the mark of any healthy long term relationship is the ability to love a person as they grow and change; and my sister and I have definitely done so. I gave myself space to mourn the loss of the comfort and familiarity of our old ways, and in doing so made way for a love and appreciation of the people we are now. You can also hear some words of wisdom hidden at the end of the song from my auntie Rosemarie Sears.
“Mary Lou Williams was a huge inspiration for the vocal arrangements in this song. She was an incredible black composer and pianist whose work has truly stood the test of time. I was introduced to Mary Lou through one of my producers, Ben MacDonald of Safe Spaceship, who can be heard calling the song “a vignette” in the recording.”
On the video for “Qwyn”, which was revealed yesterday on Long Winter TV, Charter says, "There is a shelf in my grandma's house filled with old VHS tapes. Truly shelves upon shelves of VHS tapes, taken by my late grandad (a musician himself), who was determined to immortalize every christmas, birthday, and thanksgiving for a decade or so. No one was able to watch them until a few years ago when my sister digitized a small handful of tapes as a present. He wasn't Federico Fellini, my grandad, but he was an incredible man and it's absolutely wild to have these relics that he made and cherished, brought to me by my sister, whom I wrote this song about."
WATCH / SHARE “QWYN” HERE
BUY / STREAM “QWYN” HERE
“Qwyn” Single Art // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
MORE ABOUT EDIBLE FLOWERS
Following album opener “Doubts”, “Bach To The Future” is a further amalgamation of Jazz, Soul, and Hip-Hop all melting together into a truly original blend that is idiosyncratic and a direct sonic manifestation of Kyla’s creativity.
The tempo steps down and hits a mellow stride on “Hey Mama” a slow jam laced with sharp snares, crunchy drums, distant keys and an angelic falsetto. Each track on Edible Flowers is emotive and infused with individuality that gives it a life of its own. Rarely do the tracks stay still, expanding and contorting with bridges, extensions, distortions, sonic glitches and effects to further bring you into the experience. “Breaking Dishes” boasts some of the LP's most experimental choices with beautifully ominous vocals and an altered drum break that pops in and out of time.
LISTEN / SHARE “DOUBTS” HERE
BUY / STREAM “DOUBTS” HERE
Written in the heat of summer 2020, Charter along with her team of producers Safe SpaceShip sought to capture a series of vignettes that served as a way of processing the times.
“I truly could not focus on anything” the songwriter recounts, “I couldn’t watch movies, follow storylines, listen to new music, nothing. I was so overwhelmed by the world that I could only focus on one thought at a time. My songwriting process is usually having the seed of an idea and building it outwards. For this record, and in working with Safe Spaceship, I was able to do away with traditional song structures… to get really avante with it, haha!”
Kyla’s talents are evident in every aspect of her album, with production exclusively handled by Safe Spaceship and Charter herself, each track displaying its own dynamic sound. “Qwyn”'s soft somber tone is juxtaposed against the more Neo-Soul influenced “The After Party” further detailing the extent of the songwriter’s musical range. The human voice is used most as an instrument on the album closer “Another Name”, with just hand claps and humming as the bed for lyrics of grief and mourning. Edible Flowers is truly a breath of fresh air, aglow with creativity, originality and vision.
MORE ABOUT KYLA CHARTER
A graduate of Humber College Jazz and Contemporary Music Program for Vocal Performance, Kyla was invited to sing with July Talk at Field Trip Festival by her good friend James Baley. The performance was the beginning of a beautiful working relationship and the start of her professional career. Over the years Kyla has lent her vocals to artists that include Alessia Cara, Zaki Ibrahim, Rich Aucoin, and most recently Patrick Watson. After singing together for a CBC First Play Live session in the fall of 2019, Patrick invited Kyla to accompany him on a last minute trip to Paris to play France Inter, and subsequently to open for him on the European leg of his tour for 2019’s Wave.
The tour began in February of 2020 and was cut short by COVID-19 but the singer was excited to come home and continue working on her first album. As restrictions eased in the summer of 2020 Kyla began working full force on her first body of work.
