Features : Singer Kayleigh Walker Brings Psychedelia To Her Sound

Gabby Cast, Publicist August 17, 2023
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ESSEX, ENGLAND—Singer Kayleigh Walker has spent years honing her sound, starting in a cover band to branching out as a solo artist—and then scrapping all of that for a brand new sound.

That’s where her debut track “Psychedelic” comes in, meeting together both Walker’s world and her spirituality and inner self, escapism of music and the reality to the unknown, moving from a strictly pop sound to the psychedelic element of the track—and leaning towards psych-pop and rock bands such as the bass riffs and rhythms such as Tame Impala.

“I studied a lot of meditation. So going through meditation and being in tune with my psyche I was visualizing colors and it was a bit like a kaleidoscope,” explains Walker. “And then I was realizing how life is a kaleidoscope and also it's kind of a bit trippy and can come across quite psychedelic with regards to being in tune with your body and having that connection with your higher self. I wanted that to come through when I was writing this song, how life is a journey and how music turns around all the time.”

Walker says she was listening to a lot of Jimi Hendrix while envisioning “Psychedelic” while improvising in the studio with a production team and a backing band she hopes to bring on tour with her.

“With the production, it was kind of experimental. We were just thinking outside the box. And, and when you're in that moment, it's hard to explain to people about the production side because it's like, okay, let's try this, let's try that. It's one of those creative moments where I was in the studio and you just walked away thinking where did that come from?”

The music video for the track essentially takes viewers into Walker’s mind, taking aesthetics from ‘60s Hollywood counterculture and mod, working with production group The Lennox Brothers to visualize it, directed and starring Siren actress Eline Powell.

 “My love of the sixties—from the fashion of the sixties to the way that women presented themselves and the music sound element of that—that was kind of a cryptic part with regards to "Psychedelic." So it was kind of like finding myself, but also reflecting a part of the past in music and mixing the two.”

Walker is in the studio currently writing an album, continuing to meld her sound into an ideal vision.

“I’ve had to really find myself, and I had gone down a route that I wasn't happy with, and I've decided I'm going to do something that I like and where my presence sits and I'm hoping that other people might see that everyone can do something if they put their mind to it. And you don't have to be so harsh yourself and make music or do anything in life that makes you happy because that's the most important thing. If you're happy, other people are going to be happy that are around you. And yeah, I really wanted to put that into the songs that I'm creating.”

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