Artist Spotlight is a segment that we started to introduce our listeners to some deserving up and coming artists/ bands. They have made an impact on us for all of the right reasons. We think they kick ass and we hope you do too! Today, we’d like to shine the spotlight on Kayla Ludy!
Born and raised in the buckle of the Bible Belt known as the Texas Panhandle, young Kayla picked up an acoustic guitar and started writing songs as a way to transmute the terror and confusion of early life into something lucid. She is still conjuring up songs today and aims to share her raw and ethereal folk music with a wider audience- in the hopes of helping them heal some of their own pain- and to bring about peace through music.
Some people know it’s when they hear a classic album or see someone perform. Do you know when you were bitten by the music bug and knew this was your path?
When I was three years old I received a “Wee Sing Dinosaurs” cassette with a sing along book. I was GLUED to this thing for hours and days then weeks until the cassette died. I loved the feeling of singing to escape reality. I was IN THE ZONE. A few years later I started listening to the “oldies” when I was very young, while pretending to be a DJ by recording what the DJ was playing on radio, over to a cassette and then replaying it to my faux audience of paper dolls with my own DJ personality. I DREAMED of being a DJ and that was the beginning of that inspiration. I would also lay in bed at night dreaming of performing for thousands of people and that felt wonderful.
What was your first recording experience like?
I made friends with two older (I was 17, they were mid 20s to 30) brothers who were recording rap in their home studio. They asked if I would do hooks for some of their songs and really took me under their wing at that time in my life. They acted like brothers to me. Little did I know (until half way through this friendship and months into recording daily) that the house was actually a studio/drug dealing hotspot. WOW, am I glad I didn’t get mixed up into any trouble.
Does anyone else in your family have the music gene?
Mom and dad are both great singers and harmonizing duo and my mother plays the piano very well. My father also played keyboard in the pentecostal church we attended when I was very young. Brother seems to have no interest in music creation.
What’s the strangest job you’ve ever had?
When I was desperate and broke, needing money for a bus ride back home to Austin, TX from Dallas, TX I took a one day, 5 hour job for cash to help clean out cages at a warehouse of flying squirrels. It was a heart and gut wrenching experience and I found myself in yet another VERY shady situation due to my many bad choices as a young 20 something human.
If you could pick any musician (dead or alive) to sit down with and have a drink and chat, who would it be?
Likely Alanis Morisette
