PROFILE
Kayla Diamond
By Andrew Leyenhorst
For an extended conversation with Diamond , listen to the November 23 , 2021 episode of the Professional Sound Podcast
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ONLINE READERS CLICK HERE never actually intended to be in this business . I was supposed to be a lawyer ,” recounts Toronto ’ s Kayla Diamond , a Billboard-charting singer-songwriter-turned-
“ I producer who has become one of Canada ’ s
foremost pop talents – on both sides of the glass .
“ I was in law school , loving law school , I took the LSAT ; like , really thriving ,” she continues . Having always been very musical , but keeping it to a mere hobby , around this time she wrote and recorded a simple piano and vocal song called “ Crazy ,” “ and I just put it up on YouTube for fun , not really thinking anything of it . But people were messaging me like ‘ Woah , you ’ ve gotta pursue this , this is great !’, and my head is like ,‘ If it ’ s not stable , don ’ t do it .’ Like ,‘ Never do something that ’ s not guaranteed stability ,’” Diamond explains . “ So , I would respond with , like , ‘ I am in no way getting involved with the music business , and in no way am I more special than someone else .”
Fatefully , a friend of Diamond would send her a link to register for Slaight Music ’ s It ’ s Your Shot competition , to which she would submit her video for “ Crazy ”. In August of 2015 , after finishing her last first semester exam , Diamond received a phone call from Slaight Music . “ I was like , ‘ Who is this ?’ and they say ‘ We just want to let you know that you won It ’ s Your Shot . You beat out like a thousand contestants from Canada .’” She laughingly remembers forgetting that she ’ d entered , and briefly assumed this was a crank call before a moment of clarity in which she finally did recall submitting her song , and another upon realizing that she ’ d just won a record deal . She remembers the subsequent meeting in Toronto with Slaight , who asked if she was going to leave law school in order to fulfill the deal on the table .
“ I was like ,‘ Are you crazy ? I ’ ll do this over the summer when I have time ,’ thinking that ’ s the responsible thing to do .” Upon returning to law school , sitting in property class being inundated with “ boring-ass shit ,” as she amusingly calls it , she began to have a change of heart . “ All I ’ m thinking about is ,‘ Oh my God , I have a record deal . What am I doing here ? I ’ ve gotta go make music and exercise this to the fullest .’ An honest meeting with the dean would ultimately give Diamond the reassurance she needed to chase her true dream of a music career .
“[ The dean ] looks at me and she goes ,‘ I need to tell you to do the responsible thing here . I need to tell you that when I was your age , I was offered a spot in the New York City Ballet , and I turned it down . I went to law school , and now for 20 years I ’ ve been wondering ‘ what if ?’ I was shocked by that .” The dean promised that Diamond would be able to return to her education if she so chose , and staunchly advocated for her to make the most of the record deal .“ She was like , ‘ Go do this ,’ and my parents were supportive , my family was super supportive , and I had a top-30 single by the next summer .”
That first single , “ Carnival Hearts ”, would be the precursor to Diamond ’ s debut EP , Beautiful Chaos , released in 2017 ; for which the recording process working with producer Craig McConnell made her realize the depth of her affinity for production and arrangement ,
noticing that for most of her life up to this point , she had been the one making executive decisions even with other musicians in the room . “ In my early days of being a recording artist , I would backseat produce . I ’ d be like , ‘ Do me a favour , can you put a riser there ?’ as if the producer didn ’ t know to put a fucking riser there ,” she chuckles .
However , McConnell in particular was very receptive to her selfdescribed backseat producing , and she would watch and absorb as much as possible during their sessions in terms of both production itself , as well as the engineering and mixing dimensions . That said , it wasn ’ t completely unfamiliar territory , as even before realizing it was its own discipline , she ’ d spent most of her life producing and composing songs in GarageBand , as well as developing an ear for harmony and texture through many years of childhood choral experience .
Since 2017 , through her own discography ( including 2019 ’ s follow-up EP Dirty Laundry ) as well as songs she ’ s produced and cowritten for artists including Kiso , Anevo , Crystal Knives , and others , Diamond ’ s work has amassed millions of streams , and she ’ s remained focused on continuing to develop her production skillset throughout the pandemic . “ I couldn ’ t get in the room with anybody , so I was just like , ‘ Alright , I ’ m doing it all myself now ,’” she explains . “ I really dove headfirst into there and learned everything I could at the top of 2020 .”
During the pandemic as well , Diamond would also experience another major life event as she and now-wife Talia Hershon-Diamond , who is the owner and director of Montreal ’ s Studio 95 Dance Complex , celebrated both their faith and union with an Orthodox Jewish wedding that also happened to include a live string trio playing Metallica and Train .
Coincidentally , I spoke to Diamond just after the release of her latest single , “ Oh Hannukah ”, on Nov . 5 , 2021 — a song further celebrating her faith , delivered with a slick pop sensibility . “ It ’ s about time we had a new Hanukkah song to replace Adam Sandler ’ s !” she jokes .
Andrew Leyenhorst is a Niagara-based freelance producer , engineer , mixer , and the Assistant Editor of Professional Sound .
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