Cheers queers on today's Big Gay Agenda.
Today we are talking with Kyle Richardson.
He is a singer-songwriter based in Vancouver.
Thanks for joining me today, Kyle.
Hey, thanks for having me. So how did you get started
singing and writing songs? Well, I started singing like
pretty young when I was in elementary school.
Just the music teacher noticed that I had.
A decent sense of pitch and stuff and started making me sing
at all of the high school or the elementary school assemblies and
like Christmas functions and stuff.
Then in high school I started singing more musical theater and
taking some voice lessons, and I joined a cover band with a bunch
of friends of mine. And we did like the coffee house
scene and some private parties and that kind of thing.
And then I eventually started wanting to write my own music.
So I started trying that, and then I reached out to some
people in Vancouver. I lived in the Okanogan at the
time, so I started coming down here and writing and recording
with some producers and songwriters.
Awesome. So you said you did musical
theater and he shows? Yeah, yeah.
So I was the Baker and Into the Woods in my high school
production, and I had a small part in Singing in the Rain
where I sang the song Beautiful Girl.
And yeah, there's a couple other smaller productions too, but
those are the bigger ones. Nice.
Yes. I always love when people stay
into the woods. I had to play the.
That's amazing. Yeah, I love that show.
So good, pretty fun. What once is your music?
Well, I'm a pop artist, so I love, like, pop singers from all
sorts of. Like genres and like styles, but
I like a lot of like singer songwriters and like belting pop
vocalist and like a little bit of a rock influence.
So some of my influences are Adam Lambert, just his crazy
vocals. And I like One Republic Sam
Smith, like John Legend, kind of soulful vocalist who write good
songs. Yeah, I believe I saw somewhere
that you would love to collab with Kelly Clarkson one day.
Yeah, she's like one of my all time favorite vocalists.
I love her. That's why I Yeah, she's
amazing. Amazing, Amazing.
Her new album is great chemistry.
Yeah. So your most recent single is
called anything. Can you talk a little bit about
what it is about and the process to write?
Yeah, yeah. Anything I wrote many years ago,
before I moved to Vancouver. One of the first songs I wrote
in full on my own, and it was kind of like a reminder to
myself to let the people I love know how much they mean to me.
And just by like taking smaller moments day-to-day to just show
that I care. And just to verbally say how
much these people mean to me and how I want to be there for them
like they've been there for me. So that's kind of the sentiment
behind the song. That's great.
Yeah. So you have a you have a couple
more songs out, but you also have a album coming out soon,
right? Yeah, yeah.
What has that whole process been like?
The process has been amazing, so I started recording it like
prior to the pandemic and I really wanted to just take my
time and do songs that showed off like my vocal range and
messages that were positive and uplifting.
So I kind of took it slow, just song by song, and we wrote like
me and my collaborators wrote in for a song a month and we just
wrote that, recorded it, got it as good as it could be and like
moved on to the next one. But yeah, all of the songs are
really positive, uplifting, kind of like hope fueled songs about
just getting through the hard times or being there for people
you love or just celebrating love and friendship.
I love that. So like you said, you seem to
make positivity a priority in your work.
Yeah. Why is that so important to you?
I just think over the last few years especially, there's been
so much division that I just wanted to make songs that had a
message of like unity and positivity just to, I don't
know, help strengthen the bond people have with each other
rather than cause any sort of conflict or.
You know any negative aspects, so positivity is always key to
me. What do you?
I'm a very hopeful person. Ohh, I mean you need to be like
that's that's great to be. Yeah, yeah, Because it's better
to be positive and hopeful than be like, ohh, nothing's ever
going to work 'cause then you're not going to get anywhere,
right? Exactly, Yeah.
Yeah. Also, people want to be around
positive people more. Yeah, I think so.
I think so. What do you want people to take
away from listening to your music?
I just want them to feel inspired.
I want them, if they're having a bad day, to be able to listen to
the music and put a smile on their face, or if they're having
a great time. I just want to amplify the mood.
Yeah, I just want it to be encouraging.
It's kind of like the most key aspect.
I feel like, yeah. So you've done a A.
So you've done quite a bit throughout the years, yeah.
What has been your favorite project or song to work on?
I think honestly it's involved with this album, but I think
there's a song called Keep the Faith, which I wrote again many
years ago, which is probably the most positive song on the album.
It's about getting through like harder times, and I wrote it a
long time ago, but during. The last few years I thought it
was a really great song to go back to because it's all about
holding on through the hard times and like, you know,
keeping the faith and pushing through like together.
And I just thought that that was such a good sentiment to have
behind a song on the album. And it's like the closing track
on the album. It's a really high impact song
and this giant key change at the end.
So it's really fun to sing. And yeah, I think that's my
favorite song, just because the space I was in when I wrote it.
I was actually convinced to write it by my mentor figure who
had a dream that you woke up from and called me and said I
just had a dream that you wrote a song called Keep the Faith and
it was like your most important song ever.
So I immediately started writing the song and it was just like
history from there. I was so excited about the song
and she loves it and it's probably one of my favorites on
the album. So basically you got a title and
then you wrote it from there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's not how I usually work either, but it was just.
I don't know when she said the words keep the faith.
I just was inspired and I got straight to writing it and it
turned out better than I could have hoped.
What is your process for writing songs usually?
It changes like song to song, like with anything.
I sat down with my acoustic guitar.
I'm not a great guitar player, but.
I wrote that song like super quick, probably within like half
an hour, and it was done. And it's been pretty much the
same structure ever since. With Keep the Faith.
Yeah, I was given a song title and challenged to write a song
and I did it that way. But usually for the stuff on the
album, I've gotten together with another songwriter or two, and
either I'll go in with like a little snippet of a lyrical idea
or a melody. Or we'll go in and just kind of
talk about what's going on in our lives and what we want to
write about and just build a track up and a song from there.
But it's usually based around guitar and vocal or piano and
vocal and then we build it up kind of from that bass.
Awesome. Yeah.
I do not know anything about songwriting.
So it's always fascinating to me how people can figure something
out and it not have be like a complete copy of a song you just
had in your head that you just heard somewhere so.
Well, that happens too. But yeah, that happens too.
And then you have to be like, wait, where have I heard this
song before? And then kind of wait, now
that's a little too close to something.
I've heard like that. We know.
But yeah, it's a fun process though.
I I mean, as long as you're having fun.
Yeah, yeah, of course. What would a dream project or
collaboration be? I know we already talked about
Kelly Clarkson, but if you could, like, do anything in the
world. Anything, you know?
I think it'd be fun to make a soundtrack or even just a song
for like a big animated movie, 'cause I'm a huge fan of
animation and like Pixar, Disney, DreamWorks, like all the
big animation studios, I'm always there for those movies
and I think it'd be so fun to have a song on those like.
If we're all happy or something like that, I think that'd be an
amazing thing to be a part of that.
Yeah, that would be cool. And you just have like, a bunch
of little kids, just like singing around.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just it's music for
everybody. Yeah, yeah.
So this kind of goes with that being a songwriter.
Is there a film or TV show that you love the score for?
Yeah, there's so many. Growing up, I think one of my
absolute favorite movies was always the two sister act movies
with Whoopi Goldberg. And I just love, I don't know,
the music is so fun and upbeat and inspiring and like soulful
and it's just such a good time. But those are always Those are
like my comfort food movies I go back to all the time.
Definitely seems right up your alley.
Yeah, yeah, they're great. Is there any other media you're
currently obsessed with? Yeah, yeah.
I've been binging the after party on Apple TV, which is like
a murder mystery comedy show, which is really cool.
There's like a different genre every episode.
So like, one episode will be a musical, one episode will be
animation, one episode will be like a 50s thriller.
Like they're all just completely different.
And I love a good like. True crime kind of thing or like
murder mystery vibe. It's always fun to me.
And similarly I've been watching only Murders in the building
with Selena Gomez and yeah, Steve Martin.
It's amazing. That show is so great.
Yeah, yeah, I've been watching those every episode as they
drop. But yeah, those are two of my
favorites right now. Cool.
Yeah. So now that you're you're based
in Vancouver, yeah, yeah. What is your favorite place to
visit there? My favorite place.
I get out. I get out.
But something I do like weekly as I go to the local theater,
right next to like pretty close to where I live.
I go out to see the new release movies pretty much every week.
So that's like one of my favorite things to do when I'm
out and about what's the last movie you saw?
The last movie, Well, I know the next movie I'm going to see is
The Nun. The Nun 2.
The horror movie, which I'm pretty excited for, yeah.
And the last No, no, not a horror fan.
The most recent movie I saw was the R rated comedy Strays, which
is like Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx with The Talking Animals.
But that was great. That was a good time.
Did you like it? Yeah, it was.
I mean, I love dogs. So if you put dogs on.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I know, I know, I I miss having
pets so much. So yeah, that was a good a good
time. If it's playing near you at all,
I recommend watching bottoms. Yeah, yeah, it is.
It is. I've been meaning to go check it
out. It's it's a good time.
It is. I've heard it's like, absurd and
amazing. Yeah, yeah, that's on.
That's on my list for sure. And I heard the soundtrack is
really good on it. Ohh yeah.
It's just everything about. It's just it's great, yeah.
I mean, nice, yeah. I love a good, like, high school
comedy drum. Yeah, but also just like getting
more representation out there. Yeah, yeah, something more
lacking how, Yeah, for sure. Has have you seen like
representation in like the music industry been?
I think it's getting stronger. Like year by year especially.
Yeah, like new or like albums I've been listening to by like
queer artists, like Kim Petras's new album, Amazing.
Sam Smith, Amazing. Always.
I didn't go to see his concert that was just here, But everyone
that I know that once said it was amazing.
And yeah, Adam Lambert artists like that.
Have been just like really paving the way for more queer
artists to come forward and just like be themselves and be who
they are. So I think, I think, yeah, it's
getting stronger year by year, but there's always room for
growth and for us to be bigger and louder and yeah make our
statement that's great. I rooting for you and.
Thank you. Thanks.
Yeah, it's been fun. So that's all the questions I
had. Is there anything else that you
would like to talk about? Any final words for the
listeners at home? Well, what I wanna talk about.
I have a new single coming out on September 15th called Fight
the Good Fight with the music video and everything so that
it's gonna be another big like empowering song about fighting
the good fight and just like banding together and.
Conquering our fears and stuff. So I'm really excited for that.
It's really upbeat, like high energy kind of song, Probably
the most like impactful song I'm I've put out yet, which I'm very
excited for. And then the album's going to be
out October 13th, Louder Than Words, so I'm really hyped to
put that out. It's my first ever full album.
I've done singles before, but this is the first time I'm
putting out a full body of work, so I'm really excited for that.
That's so cool. I'm very excited to listen to
all of it. Thank you.
Thank you, Kyle. It has been a delight getting to
know you better and thank you so much for talking to me today.
Yeah. Thank you so much to everyone at
whom listening. Make sure to check out Kyle's
music on Spotify and the music video and his album coming out.
He's doing so much, so go check out all the things.
Until next time, hydrate for lesbian Jesus and gay it up all
over the place. Bye.
All right. See ya.
Hello and welcome to Big Gay Energy.
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