Talking to: Kayleigh Noble
Kayleigh Noble is a 24 year old emerging singer hailing from Dublin. Her electro-pop sound and honest, heartfelt lyrics on her debut album Just A Girl charts the emotional rollercoaster that comes with painful breakups. Her second single (Am I Asleep?), due to be released at the end of February, takes a different turn and sees her explore her newfound singledom. With her warm and bold personality, Kayleigh is shaping up to be an exciting new voice on the European pop scene. We sat down with her to chat about therapy, female empowerment and Charli xcx.
Your sound combines mainstream pop with underground electronic music, and you mentioned in a previous interview that your parents were 90s ravers. What kind of music did they play when you were growing up?
That’s a great question! They would always play music around the house, mostly club music. It makes me think that it was a very early influence on my own sound.
Are there any specific artists that have stuck with you?
There was a certain radio station my parents would play, which they still do now, and that’s always been how I listened to music growing up. I also had a lot of Now… Cds. Do you remember them?
I loved them!
Yeah, I had a lot of Dance Hits of the 90s as well. One artist that I remember being played a lot was Tony Di Bart. The Real Thing was me and my mom’s song. We’d play in the car a lot.
A lot of your themes deal with breakups, not only with romantic partners but with friends as well, which I think is quite rare.
I feel like people don’t really talk about how friendship breakups are just as bad, and maybe even worse, than romantic breakups. I write songs to help process what I’m dealing with, which could be about the past partner I’ve had but also a friend and how they hurt me as well. I feel like people think I only write about breakups! Don’t get me wrong, I do, but not all the time.
The only song that comes to mind recently about friendship breakups is [Charli xcx’s song] Girl, So Confusing, which I guess is more of a reconciliation song.
That’s a great reference actually, since we’ve all seen people fall out of and fall back into friendships. But it’s also hard when it’s a childhood friend as well. I remember my first breakup was with someone who I grew up with, so it’s even worse when it’s someone who you hung out with as a kid and have already had all these experiences with.
You’ve also mentioned that music is like a form of therapy to you. Can you elaborate on that a little more?
I actually started going to therapy for the first time about three weeks ago and before that I’d always used writing music as a way to get my feelings out and it just happened naturally. I was always so afraid that when I started therapy I’d lose the ability to do all that, but it’s actually not true at all. I love therapy because I’m writing even more now and I’m able to articulate myself better with how I’m feeling and understand myself more when I write music. Even when I was working on a track yesterday, I feel like it has much more depth than any of my previous songs. Also, it’s not about anyone, it’s about myself which feels really new and fresh to me. I feel like whether you’re in therapy or not, music can still be your therapy.
It’s like you become stronger in your life and that shows through your art.
So true! It was kind of scary at first because I was like “oh no, what if I lose some of my personality”, but it’s actually made me understand myself better and still keep my personality, which is nice. Everyone should go!
Speaking of Charli xcx, she’s a big influence on your music. Who else is inspiring and motivating you these days?
She definitely is! I love Khalia, Shygirl, Tommy Genesis. Banks would be an early influence as well. I’d also say Sega Bodega. His sound is very weird and kind of dreamy, and emotionally deep but quite twisted and cool.
I actually went to see Charli xcx in Ibiza for her Boiler Room set, which was so good. But what I really loved was that she had Shygirl doing her Club Shy in a separate room. I think it’s really cool that she keeps all these artists together [on the Brat remixes alone Charli xcx has worked with artists such as Caroline Polachek, Lorde, Robyn and Troye Sivan]. It’s not like “I’m the only one doing this” it’s “all of us are doing this, and we’re all great and we should celebrate each other” which is so important.
Your upcoming single, Am I Asleep? feels like it’ll have a completely different vibe from your debut, Just A Girl.
Yeah, with Just A Girl, it was my first proper album, and at that time I thought about albums that I love which would always have a storyline and growth in them. It felt like the right time to do Just A Girl because it made sense. I was writing about a situation from beginning to end. So the album started with what I was going through and ended like a chapter closing. Whereas now, the theme is different but there’s still growth but not really a storyline. Because there’s not so much of a consistent thing happening as there was with the last album. Do you know what I mean?
I do! The video also gave me a 4am after a night out vibe.
The whole vibe switch is also my growth as well, because I’ve been single for the last two years now, but before that I’ve always been in relationships. So it’s like I’m just discovering the single me, being an artist and just doing stuff alone as well, which is hard. I’m discovering a new sort of experience as myself, who I am on my own and all the ups and downs, you know?
Just A Girl had a creative team that was exclusively all women, right?
Yeah, and I love working with women because I feel like we’re not represented enough and that it’s very easy for men to take up all the space, and a lot of women are overlooked. So it’s really great to highlight that, you know?
Finally, what is one thing that people can take away from your music?
That women can do it! And that we can take up space and we can all support each other.
Am I Asleep? is available to stream on Spotify, YouTube and Apple Music
Instagram: @kayleighnoble
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