KAYLAH (twitter.com/kaylahmarin)

Kaylah Marin (www.kaylahmarin.com) wrote “Loving Life,” the soulful and soaring title track to her recently released breakthrough album, as a tribute to the artistic group of friends she grew up with in the Bay Area who were finally living their dreams of having a family, making music and dancing onstage in New York. Considering the great fortune that’s been coming her way, the alt-R&B/neo-soul singer/songwriter, who recently relocated from her hometown of San Francisco to Los Angeles, can’t help but Loving Life these days. After years of applying her multitude of creative talents to a series of wildly diverse creative endeavors—from being lead singer in a techno band, The Riots, to co-founding the non-profit dance, music and theatre company The Butterfly Project—Kaylah is relishing the opportunity to at last pursue her career as a solo artist. “The eleven songs on the album emerged from a long year of not knowing what direction to take my creative life in, and finally having the opportunity to do what I was meant to do and truly live my art,” she says. After recording preliminary tracks for the album with producers Jeff Watson (guitarist for Night Ranger) and Joey P. (engineer for Ludacris), Kaylah hooked up with five time Grammy award winning producer Narada Michael Walden to refashion eight of her songs and start three more from the ground up. Walden, who has scored 1 hits with legendary divas Whitney Houston (“How Will I Know”), Mariah Carey (“I Don’t Wanna Cry”) and Aretha Franklin (“Freeway of Love”), added what Kayla calls “soul and rhythm and helped me grow as a vocalist” as the two worked on “Loving Life,” “Oh Baby Please (Make Love To Me On The Floor)” and the collection’s first single “Green Caddie.” “Green Caddie,” an old school brassy funk tune inspired by Kaylah’s late uncle who drove a green Cadillac, is quickly becoming a hit on the FMQB AC40 airplay chart, where it recently climbed fomr 89 to 64 in a single week on the strength of a 97 spin increase. It was one of the most added tracks that week alongside cuts by Colbie Caillat, Jason Mraz, Taylor Swift and Pink. Walden says, “Kaylah is my Sista with a poetic license to sing her heart out and make believers in this new world of Freedom and Obama Nation lovers. I feel very happy I have had the opportunity to work with Kaylah. We didn’t fight once. We laughed a lot and even wrote a couple of smashes!” Beyond having the chance to work with the legendary producer and make a quick splash at radio, there are many other reasons for Kaylah to be Loving Life these days. She worked with French filmmaker Laurent LeGall to produce her first video for “Loving Life,” an inspirational clip that was chosen as one of three (of the hundreds made) for inclusion in the sanctioned documentary of President Barack Obama’s race for the White House. Kaylah is working with Billboard’s 1 DJ , The Perry Twins (Kristine W, Expose's Gioia Bruno, and Erin Hamilton) to create thumping house remixes of her track “On The Floor”, with additional mixes from Josh Harris (The Killers, JoJo, Madonna, and Seal) Rod Carrillo (Rihanna, Kaci Battaglia) and Tracy Young (Madonna, Stevie Nicks, Christina Aguilera, and Britney Spears) for the club and dance radio airwaves due this fall. The singer also scored music for the award winning documentary “Texas Gold” and did the voiceover and score for “Just Children,” winner of four international film festival awards, in addition to composing an original song for inclusion in “Eye of The Storm,” a CD that raised funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina victims. “I know it’s almost a given for performers that come out of the San Francisco scene to be political in their songs,” Kaylah says, “but my goal is always to write songs that are poppy and fun to listen to, simple and palatable but come from a deeper place inside me. I know I’ve written a good song when the lyric lines fit perfectly with the melody and my original concept, and when I can hum the melody and still feel the feeling of the line. But I really know it’s working when I perform it and people are moved. I’m at my best creatively when I keep myself open, and that’s why I love collaborating with other writers and producers. It’s fun being part of that collective energy.”