Introducing Kyla La Grange

Kyla La Grange is a small lady with a big voice who manages to straddle the divide between the belting witch-pop likes of Florence + the Machine and more intimate, acoustic folk.

The 25 year old has released a string of singles to date, and is currently just putting the finishing touches to her debut album, due this June.

La Grange grew up in Watford and began writing and performing from a young age, “It was just something I gravitated towards," she says.

"I wasn’t very sociable as a child so I’d spend a lot of time on my own just making things and writing songs, and then I’d make my parents listen to them!"

After leaving home and heading to Cambridge to study philosophy, Kyla's newly found anonymity help improve her confidence.

"It was nice to go somewhere where no one knows you, when I was growing up in Watford – if you picked up a guitar and tried to sing songs about your feelings in front of your friends they’d all just take the piss out of you!"

Inspired by life's frustrations and emotional blows, La Grange's muse often seems to carry a darkness, and she sees writing as a necessary, cathartic process, saying:

"There’s something about being creative with your unhappiness that makes you feel a bit better. It’s definitely a release, a compulsion. I'm not nearly as miserable a person as I can appear in my music, but I can never write when I’m happy - so it’s only really anger and sadness that come out in my songs."

La Grange's singles to date has drawn on the more bombastic side of her work, but live she also reveals a delicate, folky aspect, which will be reflected more on her forthcoming long-player.

"The album is going to be a combination of the two sorts of music, half with the sadder, more stripped down intimate acoustic stuff and half with the more angry songs.

"I seem to write mainly when I’m either angry or sad, so the angry ones become the ones that I end up blasting out with a full band, while the sadder ones end up more folky and acoustic, with lots of harmonies and so on.

"They’re the two main elements of my music and I wouldn’t want to pursue one at the expense of the other."

We're tipping Kyla as definitely one to watch this year, and recommend you try and catch one of her Spring dates below.

Kyla La Grange's new single Vampire Smile is out now, and her headlining tour will see her play the following venues:

15 Apr - The Jericho Tavern, Oxford
16 Apr - Waterfront, Norwich
17 Apr - Cornerhouse, Cambridge
18 Apr - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
20 Apr - Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh
21 Apr - Static Gallery, Liverpool
22 Apr - Head Of Steam, Newcastle
23 Apr - The Musician, Leicester
29 May - Village Underground, London

Ticket details for all of these shows can be found on Kyla's official website