Kayla Diamond feels precisely who she is when she’s behind a piano. Or playing a guitar. Or sitting at her computer talking to producers about music composition, or even teaching herself how to produce songs. After over a year of reflective consideration of who she wants to be, what music she wants to make, the pop swerve she gave us on her Dirty Laundry EP has now given way for the singer-songwriter to emerge, a moniker more authentic for Diamond to wear.
Diamond’s newest work, written over the past year, and produced in quarantine, still traverses traditional pop song pathways. Instead of adding electronic flourishes and elaborate production, Diamond has stripped down each track to its essential elements, allowing her vulnerability to shine through composition and lyrics.
[Her] newest tracks are exposing and tender, no matter if it’s a deep power ballad or funky blues romp. She’s done away with shining down the edges of her work to be pristine, preferring to center the rawness of the song.
This is Diamond’s first time co-producing all of her own songs, though she has executive produced in the past, and is tinkering with the form as much as she can. Nowhere else has Diamond grown so exponentially in her artistry than in the business and theoretical side of music. She’s fully invested into crafting her own songs and sound top to bottom, working fastidiously in each medium.