Kyla Charter is stepping out in front with her new single “Doubts”. 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, the new single marks the first official solo release for the celebrated Toronto musician. Working together with production team Safe Spaceship (Chino De Villa (Jessie Reyez, Justin Nozuka, Charlotte Day Wilson), Scott McCannell (Claire Davis, Aphrose) and Ben MacDonald), “Doubts” was written in lockdown, after her tour opening for Patrick Watson was cut short due to the pandemic in early 2020.
“I had a moment, in the dark days of lockdown, where I was forced to face myself and all the ways in which I had been self-sabotaging,” says Charter on “Doubts”. “I truly asked myself why…There were no good answers. I realized, the ‘me’ that was having those thoughts was an unreliable narrator. I allowed myself to question those thoughts, challenge those thoughts, and ‘have my doubts’ about those thoughts as they told me what I did and didn’t deserve. In writing this song, I got to explore the exorcism of that kind of thinking.”
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.
Kyla has been sharing some of her new songs with audiences from Mariposa Festival to the City of Toronto YYZ Live Online series. She is currently getting ready to open for Patrick Watson at Massey Hall on December 15th, and release her first EP in February of 2022.
