Possessed of the sort of voice that instantly sends shivers down the spine, Kyla Brox has been earning a fantastic reputation as one of the UK’s finest blues and soul singers. Raised in a musical environment from an early age and on the stage regularly with her father, the renowned Victor Brox, from the age of twelve, Kyla struck out on her own, forging a musical identity that came to fruition with 2003’s Window and which has only grown with the release of 2016’s Throw Away Your Blues and 2019’s Pain and Glory.
With a major slot looming at the Ealing Blues festival (see below for details), we were lucky enough to catch up with Kyla to discuss her career to date, her formation as an artist and her experiences on the UK and European Blues Challenge (from which Kyla emerged as the winner).
As I understand it, you started touring with your father, I think, when you were about twelve, but your musical interest dates back to when you were about three or four, is that right?
Yeah, that’s correct. I was lucky enough to grow up in a very musical family, so I was fairly confident that I wanted to be a singer by the time I was about three. It was my career path of choice. Yeah, I basically sang as often as I could, from being a small girl. I took every musical opportunity that there was – in choirs, etc. etc. until I finally joined my dad’s band when I was twelve.
Singing in a choir is a really great way to get into music because you learn a lot about breath control, scales and the value of warming up I guess…
Absolutely, and just the fact of singing with other voices really helps you to find your own I think – finding yourself within a group of other voices and understanding where your voice fits is really, really key I think to developing as a singer.
So was that a school choir you were in, or outside of school?
Both – I did everything I could basically. So, I sang in school choirs, I sang outside of school in a local choir. Then I joined a performing arts group and, yeah, I did everything I could. I also started playing the flute, which I love, and that helped also with the breath control and stuff like that. Eventually, I ended up having singing lessons with an opera singer at the Royal Northern College of Music. So, I did that classical training as well as everything else, which was amazing actually, and finding a whole new area of my voice that I didn’t know existed – this whole high range that I’d never explored before, so that was great too.
It must be really challenging to do the vocal lessons in that style because classical singing lessons are almost like a work out!
Definitely and that’s almost exactly what happened! I walked into my first ever lesson with her and we started off doing scales right from the bottom of my voice and it just sort of gradually went up and up and up the octaves until I was really reaching for some notes that I didn’t know existed before in my voice and definitely I would describe it as a real work out.
One of the things that I understand is that starting really low is actually the more challenging and, if you can work on the low notes, the high notes will come easier – singing controlled and low is really hard!
Interesting enough, when I was performing with the choirs, because I had such a deep voice as a child I was often given, even the tenor parts to sing, which is probably why I didn’t realise I had the high register. So, yeah, I’d worked quite a lot on that bottom part of my voice before I started to have those singing lessons, so yeah, you could be right there.
So, you were doing loads of musical stuff at school and outside – at what point did you feel confident enough to join up with your dad’s band?
Basically, I was just in the audience one day at the Band on the Wall, which is quite and iconic music club in Manchester, my Auntie had taken me down and I was in the audience. My sisters were on stage doing backing vocals for my dad and I just thought “you know what, I can do that!” So, I just got up, no fear, I got on stage with them – didn’t know any of the words or anything – I followed their lead and yeah, that was it. From that moment, I was in the band!
The band got the nickname “the child slavery band” around that time?
That was the nickname, yeah, eventually! Not at that point, but later on as my brother got involved in the band as well, playing guitar. Then my (now) husband, Danny, started playing bass and he was very young as well and we had a really young drummer too, Phil, and that was when my dad started to nickname it the child slavery band, because we were all teenagers apart from him.
One of the things that always attracted me to the blues genre was that sense of community, so to have that family aspect to the band must have been really cool to grow up alongside…
Yeah, I’ve always counted my blessings in that respect, definitely. And just to have that introduction to performing live and that “dog-eat-dog” sort of area of live music and making a living out of performing. And then, to be embraced by the bleus community, on top of that, was really great for me. And having performed with my dad, it was a really great way to forge my own career, because I was already know a little bit on the scene beforehand.
Growing up, was it always blues and soul for you? Did you have other interests, or did you fix on that early on?
Um, Well I listen to all sorts. I went through a phase of listening to heavy rock and metal music and all sorts, but I think… I started writing songs when I was very young and I think it’s always had that blues / soul edge, to be honest. That’s where my passion as a performer lies and I think that’s where my voice sits, naturally.
But it’s good to have those other interests, because if you have other genres that you’re on speaking terms with, it brings something new to the musical language that you have…
I think that’s absolutely true and, particularly at the moment with the new album, Pain and Glory, when I listen back to it, I think it has so many influences from every style of music that I’ve loved in the past, I can hear it all in there, so yeah, you’re right, it just adds to the palette.
When it comes to writing music, do you take a lead role, or do you work with your band and jam things out in the studio? How do the songs come together?
It varies really. So, some of the songs on the new album, they started off life from me writing with guitar and voice and doing the majority of the structure and then I took it ot the rest of the band to flesh it out. Others begin with my husband Dan, Danny Blomely, he can sometimes be sitting there playing guitar and I’ll hear a riff that I like and we’ll go from there. Other times we’ll sit down and think we’re going to write a song and we’ll pluck something (I don’t know where it comes from… where does it come from? Who knows!) it’s that creative spark, it just happens and all of a sudden you’ve got a song. And also, we have been working more with Paul Farr, our guitarist, and I’ve been writing with him more over the past two albums that we’ve done, so that’s been good because Danny and I have been writing together for getting on twenty years now, so it’s been nice to add another voice to that with Paul’s guitar skills.
The act of creation like that is exciting, but sitting down and intentionally trying to write a song, sometimes that’s the hardest thing to do…
It can be and I think “oh god, I’m not going to be able to come up with anything” but, for some reason, you can… I don’t know. Danny and I have got two kids, and when we first started writing songs it was a much more organic process and, whenever the urge took us, we would just start writing. But, of course, when you’re a parent as well, you have to schedule things a little bit more, so it di take us a while to get used to that schedules song-writing, but I think we’re pretty good at it now.
One of the things I know some bands like to do is to take a recorder down to the rehearsal room and capture some of the stuff that comes out of sessions – do you ever try anything like that, or is it more song-writing and then rehearsing what you’ve got?
Usually it’s just that. We don’t tend to jam it out in the rehearsal room but, on the other hand, we did write a few songs kind of like that. We had a day off, one time on the tour, and it was just me, Dan and Paul and we sat around and wrote quite a few songs which actually did end up on the album… but it’s not really the jamming kind of thing, no.
Last year, particularly, you had some really heavy touring and, in particular, you did the ladies of the blues tour, that was an amazing line up, did you find that that tour helped to inspire because you’re all artists in the same genre, but approaching it from different angles?
Yeah, it was great, actually, that tour. It was fantastic and one of the best bits about it was to be with other females on tour, because I’m usually always just with my band who just happen to be male, so it was really nice, to be with strong, supportive females, all, as you say, in the same genre, but coming at it from different angles. Yeah, so that was really good, and we actually did that tour not long before we went into the studio, I think it was only a couple of weeks before we started recording Pain and Glory, so yeah, I think there was a little bit of inspiration there, definitely.
And then, the other thing that, I think, started last year and came through into this year, was the UK Blues Challenge, which then went through to the European Blues challenge, which you won… it’s a fantastic achievement – going through that process, was there a sense of pressure attached to that, because in some genres I can imagine such a challenge getting very, very competitive, and we were talking earlier about that sense of blues community – so I was wondering how the competition went…
It was really strange, actually, because we didn’t put ourselves forward for it. It’s like an open vote, really, where six or seven hundred blues aficionados are asked who they would like to take part in the UK Blues Challenge. So, we were asked as one of the bands who people wanted to take part, and I just thought it would be a great opportunity to play to new people and it wasn’t really until we actually arrived at the challenge where we were going to perform and be judged that it hit me what we were doing – we were putting ourselves up against our peers, whom we’ve always got along with so well, and it was quite strange actually, that feeling. I just had to try and think of it as any other gig and, I have to say, the camaraderie and support was fabulous. There was no hint of diva behaviour or back stabbing or anything like that. As you say, the blues community is generally so supportive and very close knit, so, in some ways, that made it harder because we get along very well with the other bands involved, but in other ways it also made it easier because we knew that, whatever happened, we were all going to be on good terms and we’d all be pleased for whoever came out as the winner on the night. And, in actual fact, that carried on right through to the European and the international – all the bands involved seemed to be very supportive and just all coming at it from a very positive place.
That sounds really cool… that kind of recognition, have you noticed more interest in your catalogue and performances as a result?
Definitely. Definitely, particularly the European Blues Challenge, because I think there were something like twenty-three nations taking part in that, so you literally had people from all over the blues world there. So, we definitely got to perform in front of a massive amount of new fans and new bookers, new promoters, new journalists who may never have seen us before, so we’ve definitely had more interest and it’s definitely raised our profile, so we’re really pleased we decided to go ahead… even though it was nerve-wracking!
The other really big thing is putting the album itself out… I’m a huge physical music nerd, so when I see artists go to a lot of trouble with the cover art, I always think that’s really cool, and you have a great cover on this album which was… Daren Newman, is that right?
Yeah, he’s incredibly talented. When we asked him to get involved – we didn’t really realise how incredible it was going to turn out to be because he does all that lettering and I think that we had it in our heads that we’d give him some photos and he’d put them all together with some of his hand-drawn lettering. I didn’t actually realise he’d make such incredible drawings of me and, you know, everything else that he put into it… flowers and so on, it’s just incredible – we were absolutely over the moon with it.
It’s really important I think, because although an album cover doesn’t make an album de facto great, but if you’ve got a really good album and then the cover art as well, it’s the icing on the cake, so to speak…
I absolutely agree, and I think that there’s no point in putting out some great music without a nice cover. And I think that the album we did previously, Throw Away The Blues, that cover was fabulous as well, in my opinion. So many people commented on it that we realised we really needed to make the new album just as good, if not better.
When it comes to putting the album together – how do you approach the recording – do you track live with the band, or do you separate things out?
Nearly always just tracking live with the band. Yeah, so I’ll do guide vocal, which sometimes actually turns out to be the finished track, as it did with the song Pain and Glory, which is completely live apart from, maybe, some of the keys which were added afterwards. That’s the original vocal and everything on that track and a few of the others as well. So, although we try to separate out the instruments so that the sound is separate, we are actually all playing at the same time generally.
I think probably the two areas that are the hardest in that respect are the vocals and lead guitar, because those are the two that require so much concentration and it’s very easy to slip a lyric or flub a note.
Yeah, definitely, so I’ll always be in a separate booth so I can redo anything that needs to be done… and the same with the other instruments, but we do try to keep it as close to the original as possible.
The other thing that the blues has a strong history of is doing covers – paying tribute to those artists that have gone before, but it’s also important to make them your own, otherwise it just kinda becomes redundant – how do you approach choosing and performing a cover?
I don’t know really. When I choose to sing someone else’s song, it has to really mean something to me, otherwise there’s no point in trying to recreate it. And, because I choose songs that really mean something to me, I try to connect to it in an emotional way and that’s how I try to make it my own, I guess, and I think that once you’ve played something a few times, it just becomes your own. One thing I try not to do is to listen to the original too much once I’ve started to sing it, because then it does become my own.
It’s always interesting to hear how different people approach covers, but I like that idea of not listening too much to the original, that makes a lot of sense.
Hmmm, yeah, because you don’t want to just do a carbon copy, otherwise what’s the point.
You’ve got a fairly major gig coming up next week at the Ealing Blues festival – how do you approach festival gigs? The same as your own shows, or do you change things up a little?
Broadly the same set, but I very rarely actually have a set list, so I’m usually trying to judge the crowd when I’m then. I have a broad idea of what I’m going to play but, depending on how the crowd seems, I always change it up a little bit. I’m really looking forward to doing Ealing Blues festival. I’ve never actually been before, so it’s going to be a great experience I think. I’ve heard really good things about it.
In general, as you said, you have two children and you and Danny are both in the band – how difficult is it to balance the responsibilities of parenthood and the needs of being in a major band?
It’s extremely challenging! It’s really difficult and it was much easier when they were smaller and they could come everywhere with us, although even that had its challenges. Yeah, so, it’s difficult. We’re always having to rejig everything because kids grow up and their needs change, so it’s a constant battle to keep on top of what they need, so we rely quite heavily on our family and friends to help us out. And we’ve got great kids, as well, who are very understanding, luckily. I think that they appreciate the fact that we’re making a living out of what we love and, to be perfectly honest, they probably get more of our time than if we had standard jobs because most of the time we’re with them and then, some of the time, we have to be away when we’re touring, so they get the best of both worlds. They’ve been literally all over the world, they’ve had fantastic education in travel and geography so, I think they have a good life, but it is very difficult. I think most working parents have that battle of guilt, though, but it is hard to leave them when we have to.
Thinking a little bit to the future, I know that different artists approach things in different ways, but I was speaking to an artist recently who said that they start writing pretty much the second they finish an album to maintain that creative spark, so I was wondering if you were already thinking to a new recording, or if you were focusing on what you have at the moment.
I’m thinking of a new recording… but I haven’t actually written anything towards it yet. I’m very much the type of person who gets into a writing mode, so I’ll feel it coming on me, almost like a tingly sort of feeling, then I’ll this creativity for the next few months or whatever, where the writing just flows. So, at the moment I’m not there, but I’ve got an idea of where the next album is going to go, and I think we’re going to do a more acoustic album next. Danny’s an amazing acoustic guitarist and it’s been a while since we did an acoustic album, so I think that is possibly going ot be the next recording.
It’s nice when you take that acoustic approach because not only does the guitar get to shine, but also the vocals can really come to the fore as well, so it’ll be really interesting to hear…
Yeah, definitely and I think, also, that you have to have the songs. If you’re stripping it right back, the songs have got to be great, so we’ll see what we can come up with.
Yeah, I think there can be a real temptation, when you have the backline roaring, to rely on that power and energy to take you through, so the acoustic approach can be more challenging in that respect.
Definitely – yeah, I agree.
So, I think that’s all the questions, but do you have any final words?
I’m really looking forward to doing Ealing and just thank you very much for your time and for the questions.
The Ealing Blues Festival
20–21 July 2019
Walpole Park, London
Tickets on sale here
Ealing Blues Festival’s full line-up features the cult beatbox bluesman Son of Dave as one of its headline acts alongside the award-winning Kyla Brox.
The Canadian-born Son of Dave has built a reputation through his prolific, eclectic musical style. Often reflective and melancholic, featuring Southern-inspired harmonicas, his songs are roaringly upbeat and tongue-in-cheek. Previously part of the Grammy-nominated rock band Crash Test Dummies, Son of Dave has released seven albums over his prodigious 20 year career, including collaborations with production legend Steve Albini (Nirvana, Pixies, The Breeders). Alongside fellow headliner Nick Lowe, the festival’s main stage will truly showcase guitar music in rude health.
Meanwhile, Kyla Brox will be showing off her smooth, soaring vocals backed by the rolling rhythms of her seasoned band, which features long-time collaborator Danny Blomeley. The daughter of blues royalty Victor Brox, she was the winner of the 2018 UKBlues Challenge and represented the UK in January’s 2019 International Blues Challenge in Tennessee. In April, Kyla and her band went on to beat artists from 22 countries to win the European Blues Challenge, coolly illustrating her unmissable talent.
Also on the bill are South London’s Bad Influence, led by the guitar shredding Richard Hayes and captivating frontwoman Val Cowell. The pair have been playing together for 30 years and have supported rock gods Status Quo on tour. Festival regulars Robert Hokum Revue will be returning to Walpole Park along with rock and roll revelers Geoff Garbow Band and The Paul Cook Blues Band, the latter featuring the extraordinary emotive vocals of Emma Wilson.
With its complete line-up, Ealing Blues Festival continues to be true to the borough’s iconic musical heritage, where the careers of The Rolling Stones, The Who and CREAM members Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton were born. Now ready to rock Walpole Park, Ealing Blues Festival will surely be one of the sun-soaked highlights of the summer for R&B and soul fans across the UK.
Ealing Blues Festival details
Saturday 20 – Sunday 21 July
12:00 pm – 10:30pm
Walpole Park, London, W5 5HS
Tickets available via this link: https://www.ticketline.co.uk/ealing-blues-festival#bio
Advance tickets £5 for the day + booking fees; £10 for the weekend; tickets on the day are £7 before 3pm and £10 thereafter, or £12 for the weekend; children aged 12 and under go free.
Ealing Summer Festivals
Website: https://www.ealingsummerfestivals.com
Twitter: @Ealing_Summer
Facebook: /EalingSummer
Full line-up:
Nick Lowe
Son of Dave
Kyla Brox
Who’s Next
The Cosimo Matassa Project
Bad Influence
Big Mamma’s Door
Paul Cook Blues Band ft. Emma Wilson
MACK feat Tommy Hare
Winnie and The Rockettes
Robert Hokum Revue
Near Death Experience
Geoff Garbow Band
Nicole Skeltys & The Disenchanted
Neil Stout’s Old
Tommy Allen’s Trafficker
Crossfire Blues Band
Marky Dawson
The Frisco’s
Stiff Joints Duo
Johnny G
Lewis Cohen
Tim Staffell & Paul Stewart Band
The Eel Pie All-Stars
Great West Groove
Andy Twyman
