Khalia ADD

Stay True, Khalia! The Interview

10/31/2023 by Gardy Stein

Born and raised in a quiet rural community in Westmoreland, Jamaica, Khalia moved to London with her mother at age six, absorbing the musical diversity as she grew up there. Fast forward to 2016 (when she had already put her voice to the test in some fast-paced Dancehall productions), she met Shaggy and made him listen to some of her works. Intrigued by her vocal talent, he introduced the young singer to Grammy-winning producer Tony Kelly - and the rest is history.

Becoming the first act signed to Kelly's K-Licious Music label, Khalia started to develop into a serious artist, releasing a string of singles with fellow singers such as I-Octane, Dre Island or Gyptian. She now presents her debut EP Stay True, and of course Reggaeville had to ask her about its creation. On the day of the release, the young lady took the time to tell us about team work, vintage riddims, and the perfect day off:

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us on the release day of your EP Stay True! How do you feel on this special occasion?

It's kind of surreal, to be honest! It's been two years in the making, so, for the day to finally be here, that people can listen to it, enjoy the music… I'm just really excited!

Will there be a release party?

Yes, we will do the EP launch on Friday, November 3^rd. We gonna present the EP in a live band setting, so there will be different energy to hear it with a live performance.

In the press release, you are quoted as follows: "Battling with what the world wants me to be and who I truly am". Who is Khalia, truly?

(laughs) I would say I am a multi-layered artist, I have many things going on, and it took me a while to kind of sit with that. When I first started working with K-Licious in Jamaica, we would do strictly Dancehall, and then I dabbled into Reggae and then back and forth. For me, I always say my home is Reggae, but it's ok for me to explore other things, because I grew up listening to so many different genres of music, so of course I'm heavily influenced by that. And me as a person, I just always want to bring good vibes to people, positive vibes, because I feel like what you give is what you get. So, yeah that's me!

I see your T-shirt saying Flowers, so let's talk about that cover song you did with Silly Walks…

(laughs) I didn't even notice that's what it says! (laughs)

Oh, I thought it's some kind of promo shirt for that single! (laughs) I see now, it says Flower Boy…

No, it's from another artist I think. Yeah, so, Silly Walks reached out to me, they were in Jamaica for a while and they wanted to do a cover of that Miley Cyrus song, and they were like, "We think your voice would be good for it!" so I was like, "I'm down, I love the song anyway!" They contacted me on Tuesday, and I think by Friday we had like shot the video and everything. It happened really quickly, and now it has like over a million streams on Spotify and it's doing well in all the places, so… yeah, I'm happy that they reached out and we made it happen!

Nice! We get to hear it a lot here in Hamburg. But anyway, we are here today to talk about your new EP Stay True, so, can you tell us first about the meaning behind the title?

Yeah! Stay True is the title track of the EP, but again it's like a double meaning to me. Staying true to myself during this process and during life… when you are growing up you can be swayed by different things, maybe going down the wrong path, you know what I mean, you feel like that's the right thing to do. Especially a female artist as well, you might think that, 'Oh, ok, let me do this cause this seems to be working for this other person!', so staying true to yourself is just keeping your core beliefs, your values, what you stand for and not wavering, which is not easy for people to do. Definitely there is pressures from outside, so I'd say apart from it being the title of one of the songs, that's really what it means to me.

In the song itself you mention a girl called Lisa and a boy called Johnny, so who are Lisa and Johnny?

(laughs) The names are just for rhyming reasons, but their stories are definitely stories that I've heard about, that I know to be true. People who are friends with people who don't mean them well, I've been in situations where people have betrayed me, so while their names are fictional, I'm sure people can resonate with the story because all of us have had someone in our lives that we trusted and that betrayed that trust.

It's a beautiful song, really. Before we talk about other individual tracks, can you say something about the producers, the musicians who were involved, the team behind?

Yes! Stay True, in that song, you hear some guitars on there, a lot of it was actually played live, big up OJ and Shack who played the guitar on there! Tony Kelly produced the majority of the tracks on the EP, along with Lionel De La O, and Troy McLean produced Didn't I. In terms of the team, I'm really happy that the team I'm working with, Ineffable Records who put this out, they've worked super hard behind the scenes, it's been a labor of love I wanna call it. They've been so supportive! As much as I believed in the project, I think they believed in it more than me, which is a blessing to have a team like that behind you, so big up Adam, Diego, Jay, Maggie, every single time for their support on it!

Now, apart from the musicians and producers of course there are some amazing features on the EP as well. Tell us how did you link up with the male part, with Blvk H3ro, Shaggy, Mortimer, how did these connections come about?

Well, Shaggy I'd met in 2016, he actually introduced me to Tony. I think this is like a full circle moment, cause I would say I kind of have him to thank for my career and where it is right now, so it made sense for my first body of work that he was a feature on it. Blvk H3ro, we actually recorded this song in 2021 and we were gonna put it out, but… I don't even know why, we just decided against it, and while we were picking songs and recorded stuff, I decided, this song has to go on the EP!

And Mortimer, I always adored Mortimer! Whenever I see him about, I tell him I'm a big fan, I tell everybody I'm a fan, and we decided to do this collaboration. I had written the song and recorded my verse, and we were at rehearsals for a show we were doing together, and we had him listen to it and he said yeah, he was down, so that's how that one came about.

Beautiful, it's really great work, all three of them. Tanya Stephens now, she's featured on the track No Answer, and, listening to it, hearing that bassline in the beginning, I realized that it's actually a version of the Answer riddim… whose idea was that?

So, Tony produced the track and… I think he wrote the hook actually, he came up with the concept of it, to use the Answer riddim and call the song No Answer. I was like, "Ok, what do we not have an answer to?", and I wrote my verse, and I was like, "Who can we put on this for a feature?" We wanted Tanya to do something for the EP, so we had two songs for her to choose from, it was this one and another one, but to be honest, when I listened back to the other one, I was like, "Why did we even have that?" (laughs) It made so much sense to do this track with her, she did amazing, what you'd expected from Tanya Stephens and more, so I'm eternally grateful.

Yes, it's a great track, and great video too! Who are the girls who perform for you, cause and Tanya you are not really in the video, who are they?

They are Emille and Ariana. They are actors we casted, I wanted them to be able to show a little bit of the swag that me and Tanya would show, to give that energy, so when we were casting and I saw them, immediately I was like, "Yeah, that's them!"

How was the day? Where in Jamaica did you shoot?

It was shot in Kingston, Jacques Road Community, a very very hot day, extremely humid. Usually I direct my music videos and I'm in them, so this one was a little bit easier because I was only directing, but you can still see me, for like two seconds, I'm in it, Tanya is in it. She's in it on a poster, we let those in there as little Easter eggs. I'm the shop keeper in the beginning, you'll see…

Such a great idea! And the girls slay it, it's so beautiful.

Yes, perfect! And they are only like 11 and 12, so they are really young, and they came and were ready to work!

Riddims like this one, like the Answer riddim, would you say they are still relevant in your generation, or even the younger generation, are they still up to date about these foundation riddims?

Yes, I'd say so! I mean, the real core Reggae fans definitely, and even if they are not deep Roots Reggae fans, they will recognize it, they might think, 'What is that?', they may not know the name of it, but they've surely heard it growing up. Maybe their parents played it in the house on Sundays and stuff like that, so, yeah, it's still there!

Give thanks to musicians like you who carry them on!

I'd say there is nothing new under this sun, and why not brig back this into a new generation when it's such a timeless piece… I mean, that bassline is just something different!

Are there videos planned for some of the other songs as well?

Yeah, we will definitely do one for Didn't I and I also wanna do a video for Tings And Time with Mortimer as well, so be on the lookout for those!

In general, do you feel at home more when you are in studio, recording, or on stage, bringing it out?

Definitely on stage! 100%, cause I feel like, the energy that you put out into the studio is not really… it's bounced back, so… I love the song, I'm jamming to it and everything, but to feel that connection with real people! Everybody interprets music differently, so whereas something might be a love song to someone, it might bear a slightly different meaning to somebody else, and just to have that energy exchanged between you and the crowd, it's unmatched!

Where can people catch you live in the next weeks or months?

Well, as I said we have the EP launch coming up, at Dubwise Café in Kingston on Friday, and then just look out for more dates and stuff! I can't say anything yet, but follow me on IG @khalia100 and all the updates will be there.

Apart from music I saw that you are also involved in fundraising for a school in Jamaica, the Content Primary School, can you tell us about that project?

I was born in Westmoreland and I grew up there til I was about six, so I did end up going to school there a little bit. I feel like no child should be left behind, in terms of schooling. Usually people think about books and food, I mean, food is obviously important, but I wanted to focus on technology, because they are in a deep rural area and so they didn't have that. When I moved to London, I think by the age of nine, we were learning how to use computers, and so right now I'm very literate in how to use a computer, so if I was to get a job where I needed to use the computer, that wouldn't be an issue for me. But there, I saw that they were in primary school and they didn't have access to it, which is like… I mean, at the time it was 2017, so I felt it was important for them to have access to technology so that when they are older, it's not brand new to them and they are not behind their peers when they are in college or whatever. So, yeah, I fundraised to get them some computers and have people teach them how to use it and so.

Will you perform at their school?

I did! I did perform at their school, they had a pageant once and I did a little performance for them.

What is your perfect day off, what would you do if you had nothing on your schedule?

The beach! The beach, I've been trying to go for the past… (laughs) for a long time! I said to myself that two weeks after this EP is out, no matter what, I will just take the day off to go, be alone, be one with the water. I love the water, I'm a water baby, I'm a cancer, so me and water are like… yeah, best friends, even though I can't swim that well, but I love it!

Is there anything you'd like to add, anything you want to send out?

I just wanna say thank you, to everybody who is supporting, from the fans, DJs, yourself, journalists, people who actually are supporting the music! As an artist, I do this for the love of it, I've been doing that for a really long time, and putting out the music is one thing, but to have that support behind you and to know that people are appreciating the music, that's what helps me to continue to go and to feel good about it. So, give thanks every time!