Kayla Kavanagh is a solo artist with a difference. The Yorkshire-based Singer/Songwriter plays nine instruments, writes and performs her own original music and has toured the UK with her ‘one-woman band’ show at venues across the UK including three years at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Kayla has launched her debut album Stranger than Fiction, featuring twelve original songs with her trademark fusion of the traditional and modern - an eclectic mix of electronica pop/rock with hints of Imogen Heap, Eva Cassidy and Sarah McLachlan.

Kayla moved from Ireland to Yorkshire to study an MA in Digital Performance in 2006, where she began introducing ‘live looping’ into her performances, allowing her to play numerous instruments simultaneously.

Her live stage shows feature piano, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, looping pedal, hammered dulcimer, electric violin, flute, tin whistle, vocoder and Eigenharp Pico/Alpha.

Working with local Barnsley Engineer/Producer Nigel Pease, the energy and diversity of Kayla’s vocal and instrumental music from her shows has been captured in the studio release. Kayla’s album is the world’s first to feature the Eigenharp, a new electronic device which plays and loops multiple software instrument sounds.

Hidden behind the music lies Kayla’s life with a mental health condition called Borderline Personality Disorder - a mental illness that affects around 2-3% of the population, characterised by a chronic instability in self-image, emotions and relationships. Kayla has become an ambassador for awareness of illnesses such as BPD, and has been interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour about how music has provided a positive outlet for the overwhelming emotions associated with living with a mental health condition. Kayla also works with Emergence, a nationwide organisation supporting people with a lived experience of Personality Disorder. Stranger than Fiction has now sold in four continents since the launch, and is available on the music page. Kayla's second album is now being recorded following successful crowdsourced funding through PledgeMusic, and is set for release in May 2012.

Uncovered Magazine April 2011

Independent Article October 2010

BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour March 2010