"So tell me again, how did this work?" GayCalgary asks, still amazed by the meteoric arrival of the Ottawa country music sensation, Kira Isabella. Derek Hauser, the Sony Music Promotions Rep for the young minstrel, enlightens us.
"Kira had a friend who signed with Universal, and Kira would rehearse with them. [A Sony manager] heard her singing there, and thought I need to take this to labels and, within a week of them hearing it, we had a deal signed with her. Because they heard her voice and said This is a voice that doesn’t need a lot [of development]. She is already there."
And at just 15 years old.
"Kira has been singing since she was seven," Hauser notes.
Three years later, after releasing her first album, Kira was nominated as the Canadian Country Music Association’s Rising Star in 2012, their Female Artist of the Year the following year, and has been nominated again this year for that same award.
Despite her youth, Kira’s outlook is surprisingly unaffected. In a typically down-to-earth Isabellism, Kira says that having had a fairly linear touring season, a few bumps in the road were bound to happen.
"We got into Edmonton, and we rented an SUV and drove from [there] to Red Deer, but on the way there a rock flew off the back of a truck, and the sunroof exploded!" she describes. "Thankfully there was a screen, and none of the glass fell on us... Then, on our way from Red Deer to Calgary (in a new rental), the vehicle started to die. So we had to turn around, go back to Red Deer, switch vehicles again, and finally made it to Calgary." Does that sound like a 20-year-old country music sensation?
How about when we ask her the ‘Steve Polyak $50 GC Question’ (a challenge for a new singer in this historically conservative genre): Do you have anything you want to say to your gay fans?
"I don’t categorize them like that! They’re just my fans! I don’t like putting them in a group like that... Is there a difference? Not really... My arms are open to everybody. I don’t really give a damn about anything like that."
Kira seems so young in some ways, and wise in others. How does she write or record songs like "Gone Enough", which is about the defiant end of a painful relationship?
"You know, I have been on the road since I was 15, so I think I do have a little bit more life experience than the average 20-year-old. I have also prided myself on being empathetic: I have always found it easy to imagine myself in someone else’s shoes, and really empathize with someone else’s story, to the point where people ask if this has happened to me. I think it’s an important part of being a writer and a musician."
Kira mentions that the last song – "Heaven" on her new album "Caffeine & Big Dreams" – made her mom cry on first hearing it. She could relate it to Kira’s dad’s military life, with his long absences.
"It’s really, really hard to be away from the people you love like that," she says. "I’ve been on the road since I was 15/16. It’s really hard, sometimes, to be alone and be like this all the time. And so, I’m not ready to go (to heaven); I’m not ready to say goodbye. I have felt that really deeply."
GC mentions that her album seems to be divided between the really secular party life of "Shake It If Ya Got It" and the more sacred side of "Make a Sinner Out of Me" that talks about gazing at a cross while in a church, and the consequences of a relationship.
She is enthralled that we noticed.
"I think that, being an artist, and being a performer, is a constant struggle between wanting to show people things, and being afraid to... I remember doing this test in high school, Are you an introvert, or are you an extrovert? And my teacher pulled me aside after class and said I’ve never seen anybody get 50/50: literally, a line right down the middle."
"I have this part of me that loves to get out there and rock out onstage, and be the centre of attention, and have that spotlight on me. But if you asked my parents, or pretty much anybody that knows me, I sit at home with a book in my little cocoon.
"When people hear the title "Caffeine & Big Dreams", their response is What? It’s not a conventional album name, but it is a running theme in my life. I have had a serious caffeine addiction since I was 16 or so. And the big dreams part is kind of obvious."
Kira gets serious for a moment. "It’s a line in the song "Coke Can": We were running on caffeine and big dreams/I would have given you my life. I didn’t actually write that song, and I think that’s why it hit me so hard. I went through this relationship, when I was touring the first album, that was really unhealthy. I wasn’t sleeping very much, and it was kind of painful. It was a big learning lesson for me and it helped me be a stronger person, and helped propel me forward.
"It helped make me want to grow as a writer, and grow as an artist. And realize that it’s okay to be vulnerable, and it’s okay to show people that sometimes. My father told me at the time, Smart people learn from their mistakes: smarter people learn from other people’s mistakes."
Which she, as an 18 year-old girl, of course ignored.
"Now I tell him, Dad, I think that there really are some mistakes that you have to make for yourself, or you will not learn from them. It has made me a much stronger person, and I’m thankful for it... I wouldn’t have half the songs on this record if it weren’t for that relationship."
Despite this revelation, Kira says that she’s not "pulling a Taylor Swift" and writing her love life on her musical sleeve. These events catalyze stories, but are not the stories themselves.
For example, the first single from this album is "Quarterback", a challenging story of date rape by the town football hero, and the difficulties the victim has in seeking justice. Not exactly standard hit-factory material for a young artist in any genre, let alone country. GC asks why a song like "Country’s Written All Over Me" wasn’t the first single, with its anthemic title and good time tone.
"’Quarterback’ was definitely inspired by [current events], but I try to draw away from that, and look at the bigger picture." She points to country music’s current focus on drinking and partying as the goal for all of its listeners. "More and more beer" until it has gone too far.
"The party is great, but nobody talks about what can happen afterwards. I think that country music is the perfect platform for this. I always refer to the Brad Paisley song "This Is Country Music". So many other genres are afraid to touch on these things, but this is country, and we will talk about it... We knew we needed to put ["Quarterback"] out there right away."
She mentions offhandedly a gay actor in one of her videos trying to redirect her interest in him to his straight brother, but she replied saying "But I like you! I like your soul; your heart!"
We like your heart Kira!
