How does your cultural background influence your daily life and decision-making?
I’m from the island of Newfoundland in Canada, which is kind of a remote island in the North Atlantic. It has a pretty harsh climate and that has led to a culture that is sort of a weird mix of socialism and individualism with a great appreciation for the arts. I’m sure I would be a very different person if I’d grown up anywhere else. You have to be okay with isolation to live here, but you also need to be ready to accept help, and lend a hand yourself. And because so much of the work here traditionally has been seasonal, there’s not much else to do in the winters but make art and music.
What does wellness mean to you, and how do you prioritize it in your daily life?
I prioritize health and wellness. I walk or run and exercise daily, I make sure I get enough sleep, and I make sure I have down time by keeping a free day each week. I eat a pretty healthy diet, but it is hard to get things like fresh fruit and vegetables where I live, so we do depend on frozen and preserved foods and I take vitamins as a result.
Are there specific wellness rituals or practices that you swear by for maintaining balance and harmony?
Getting enough sleep. Sleep is what’s most important. I also have what I call Sunday Souls Day, which started when I realized I tended to have something on every single night of the week for months on end. It’s called Sunday Souls Day because I started refusing to have any obligations on Sundays and would instead spend my Sundays playing Dark Souls for 12 – 14 hours. It was a life saver. Unless I’m on tour, Sundays are Kyla’s day to chill on the couch and play video games. I’ve managed to maintain this for several years now.
Describe your relationship with food. Are you a foodie, a health enthusiast, or a bit of both?
I don’t really care about food. I’m not remotely interested in it’s preparation. I don’t understand why people like cooking shows.
I like to eat hot meat and hot vegetables served with some kind of starch. I don’t really like sweets or junk food. I would be totally fine with replacing all meals with a pill. I do like eating, and I enjoy my husband’s cooking the best, but left to my own devices, I frequently forget to eat.
Do you have a favorite cuisine or dish that holds a special place in your heart?
I like curries and stir-frys the best. Steak and kidney pie is another favourite. Hot meat. Hot Vegetables. Some kind of starch. I’m happy.
Are you a sports enthusiast, and if so, which sports do you follow or participate in?
I love sports! I follow Hockey, (NHL and PWHL mostly) Figure Skating, American Football(CFL and NFL), Sumo Wrestling, Snooker, Weight Lifting, Biathlon, Breakdancing, and I love American Ninja Warrior! I play softball with a fun little rec league, I am an avid long distance runner, and I’ve been practising Tai Chi for several years now.
I can get very emotionally invested in a tournament with very little knowledge of the sport or the players before hand.
Do you have a favorite sports team or athlete that you passionately support?
Because of my time in Montreal, I do support the Habs and the PWHL Montreal team (who I hope gets a proper name next season), but I am more interested in sports to see the world’s best do their thing. I love an underdog, and I love a completely dominant display of mastery. Marie-Philip Poulin and Jesse Eldridge are two hockey players I’m particularly fond of. I keep a youtube playlist of moments of mastery that I watch whenever I need motivation to do my best. I have some music on it, but there are a lot of sports moments. I’ve got things like Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot’s gold medal skate at the PyeongChange olympics, Ronnie O’Sullivan pulling off a 147 in competition, and I’ve just added Teronofuji simply picking up Kirishima and throwing him out of the ring at the last Sumo Tournament.
What’s your all-time favorite movie, and what about it resonates with you?
SALUTE OF THE JUGGERS!!! (Aka Blood of Heroes) starring Rutger Hauer and Joan Chen. It’s a post apocalyptic sports movie. It’s about working hard and achieving your goals! I watch it every January! My two favourite things about it are that it displays a future where people work together to make the best of a bad situation, and no one has any hang-ups about sex. I wrote a song about it (The League) that’s on my album Bloom & Grow.
Do you have a preferred movie genre, or do you enjoy exploring a variety of genres?
I like martial arts movies best. I realized recently that if a movie doesn’t have a fight choreographer in the credits I’m kind of not interested in watching it. I particularly enjoy films that are about becoming Number 1 in the Martial Arts world. I like dance and movement and a well choreographed martial arts film pushes all those buttons.
Can you recall a film that has had a significant influence on your perspective or outlook on life?
The original Conan the Barbarian. There is a wonderful message in that film about carving your own path, and the importance of love. This is another film that I watch every few Januarys to pump myself up for the year ahead. The decisions of every protagonist in that film are motivated by love, which I think is really beautiful. I also frequently listen to the soundtrack in the morning to pump myself up for a big day.
What is your favorite album of all time?
That is far too difficult a question. I’ll give you a short list. Pink Floyd’s Animals, Jethro Tull’s Songs from the Wood, King Crimson’s Red, Morbid Angel’s Domination, Steeleye Span’s Below the Salt.
Tell us about your latest project
This EP grew out of ‘Untitled Song About Driving’ which I wrote after finding myself mesmerized by a program on TV that was simply showing dash cam footage of someone driving through the Canadian province of Quebec. It made me think of all the long drives I have taken on Canadian highways, and the hypnosis that occurs after several hundred kilometres of trees and rocks broken by the occasional white cross on the side of the road, or declaration of love spray painted on an overpass.
To capture those meditative qualities the song structure is very repetitive, which is quite a departure for me and my progressive rock background. I wrote the song live in front of my audience on Twitch, and it soon became a crowd favourite. Since it was such an anomaly for me, I decided that in order to release it, I would write two songs to bookend it on an EP. First came ‘Red Twist’ which is about that feeling of spotting the twisted red neon ‘Vacancy’ sign on a roadside motel, and pulling over to crash after a long day of driving. Then I went back to write ‘Packing the Car’. There’s a very specific early morning feeling, before the rest of the world wakes up, that I wanted to capture here. The fuzziness in your brain before you’ve had your coffee, the haze and mist in the sky before the sun fully rises. Also, no matter how well prepared you are, there’s always that little voice of doubt wondering if you did all the things you were supposed to do, and packed all the things you were supposed to bring. And maybe the weather won’t cooperate.
