Red Deer's Kayla Williams drops her new single, Stealing from My Youth, this Friday. (Photo Supplied)

By Sheldon Spackman

debuting this friday

Pandemic feelings inspired Red Deer singer-songwriter’s new single

Oct 21, 2020 | 7:00 PM

A Red Deer singer-songwriter is hoping to capture people’s hearts and their feelings of frustration and isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic through the release of her new single.

Kayla Williams will debut “Stealing from My Youth” live at a sold out event at Bo’s Bar & Stage this Friday. Oct. 23. The accompanying video shot near Sundre this past summer will also be unveiled.

Williams says her inspiration for the song began during the chaos of the pandemic, when everyone was largely housebound.

“I’m sure every artist and person in the industry felt it really hard because you couldn’t do anything,” says Williams. “Shows were gone, everything was gone and it was just heart-breaking for a while. So after about a month, I turned that into finally sitting down with music and wrote a song. And for me, that’s what the song is about, my feelings of isolation and the struggle of being away from all your friends and community and doing gigs.”

Williams, however, credits the pandemic for presenting her with the opportunity to work with JUNO Award winning producer Spencer Cheyne from OCL Studios in Calgary.

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“He’s amazing, and it ended up being this very doable way of doing remote tracking back and forth. I only had one day in the studio and that was in August.”

The song’s music according to Williams, perhaps offers the hope that she also feels about the future.

“It’s a fairly groovy song,” she explains. “I wouldn’t say it’s upbeat, like it’s not a dance hit, but it’s pretty groovy and has all these parts inspired by the 70’s, so live horns, really groovy bass and a nice beat in there.”

Williams, who began singing when she was three and song writing at 12, has always known she wanted to sing for a living. She says she’s super excited to be performing in front of a live audience once again, albeit with physically distanced patrons and health regulations in place.

“I’m blown away that it’s sold out already. The minute I actually picked my release date, was the minute I found out we could have live shows again. I think I’ll be lucky to do it and I don’t know how the live events are going to continue in this pandemic, especially over winter.”

Williams also notes the energy brought to a room from a live audience that you just can’t get from a live streamed event.

“It’s just going to feel incredibly special,” she anticipates. “I get to debut the song, my new music video, I get to play with my friends, in a band. The whole thing is just pretty special.”