Peterborough born singer songwriter Kayla Howran moved three times and finally overcame a serious case of writers block to record her sophomore CD “Spare Parts” with producer and songwriter Colin Cripps.
Howran and Dylan Ireland come to the Slice to play an early show beginning at 8 p.m., Wednesday, May 24 in support of the new CD.
“I was just there in October, but I only released it two weeks ago,” said Howran from a tour stop in Dauphin. Her last CD, “Pistol,” was released in 2013.
Working with Cripps, a well respected producer, who is also part of Blue Rodeo, was along time coming.
“We’ve been friends for years and started talking about doing a CD together four years, ago, but I wasn’t ready. I had horrible writer’s block and couldn’t come up with anything I wanted. When I was ready, i called him up and he was just as excited about it as he was back then,” she said.
“Saying it was very cool is an understatement,” she continued, adding Cripps plays all the lead guitar parts on the album.
“There was such a great vibe. He’s so professional. It was so neat to sit and watch him work. He’s so well put together. I’d play him a song and I’d watch him figuring out how it was going to work. He‘d explain it and I’d just get it, ” she enthused.
She noted the lyrics are mostly about heartbreak.
“It’s about relationships ending and not just romantic relationships,” she said.
Howran moved to Toronto from Peterborough when she was 20 and moved back to Peterborough when she was 27, just recently moving to a cabin near a village of Cordova Mines north of Havelock in Southeastern, Ontario.
“I moved from a small city to a big city then back to a small city and now a village. But It’s right on the river and I love to fish,“ she said.
“When I was living in Toronto, I saw the best players in the world. I was going out to see all of these players, but I never worked on my own music. Here there aren’t as many distractions, “ she observed,” adding she is glad to have overcome her writer’s block.
“My songs reflect more life experience and my musical style is changing.“Pistols” was pretty much straight ahead honky tonk, now it’s more alt country or some people are calling it folk roots rock,” she said, noting she is very pleased with the result.
She is used to playing with a full band, but she is excited to play as a stripped down duo.
Though we aren’t really a duo because we don’t write with each other. We each do our own sets and play on each other’s songs. I sing background vocals on Dylan’s songs and he plays kick drum and lead guitar and sings harmonies on my songs,” she said.
“I don’t know how to play solo. I started out playing in a band. With the duo, people pay more attention to the lyrics, ” she said.
She is excited to be back on the road.
“It‘s flooding in Southern Ontario. It’s grey and rainy, but ever since we started the tour, it’s been sunny day all the way,” she said.
Kayla Howran and Dylan Ireland play this early show at the Slice beginning at 8 p.m.
