After many years of sporadic singles, being an in-demand producer, DJ, and radio personality, KLP has delivered her long-awaited debut album, Giver. Within twelve songs, KLP conveys pure emotion, raw vulnerability, and emits intense power.
To support this new release, KLP is also currently on tour and giving this album the attention it deserves by parading it around nationally.
In addition to all of her hard work with Giver, KLP has been praised for her efforts with Ricochet SONGS, her female and non-binary songwriting workshop, and the exciting Ricochet BALL which is a netball competition all in the sake of raising money for charity.
Check out ‘Giver’ by KLP:
On top of releasing tons of great singles, working with Ricochet, touring, and becoming a first-time mother, KLP notes that she had to do a lot of planning and organising to be able to include her album Giver in this year’s long list of achievements.
“It’s kind of crazy,” KLP expresses. “I have to plan a lot. I have lots of schedules going on. I sit down every month and every week and plan out things with my partner and I have lots of help around as well. But, yeah, lots of lists… lots of planning.”
From KLP’s immense success with being a singer-songwriter to a multitude of singles, KLP explains that the process of sitting down to write an album was an entirely different experience from what she’s worked on in the past.
“I set out to do an album. I wanted to write for a collection of music, so I had a bunch of songs to cull down. But, I think it was really nice to go through this process because I’ve released lots of music in the past, but it’s been seperate singles, and there wasn’t so much consistency with the styles.”
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“This was a really good way to refine what my sound was right now and to create a body of work that could be a bit of a statement about who I was as an artist, and the different sides there are to KLP musically.”
Lyrically, Giver articulates many heavy topics, but still throws some light and humour around, too, making it a very well rounded album. Throughout the songwriting process, KLP made intentions to keep it all very down to Earth with gathering inspirations from real-life experiences.
“I guess it’s all just come from real life — the things that have happened to me or the things that have happened to people around me. I almost use it as self therapy to write about it and put it in a song. Sometimes things get heightened, and you use a little bit of creativity and extend ideas a little bit, but it all comes from real stuff that happened.”
Check out KLP’s ‘Push’:
For an interesting twist to writing and recording an album, KLP set out to many countries around the world to seek out certain international artists to collaborate with, as well as pulling inspiration from every country she wrote in.
With stating that the difference between writing in Australia and writing overseas is really chocked up to not having to meet everyones demands of what music should be, KLP commented that having that freedom was very liberating.
“It was kind of really refreshing to just go and be no-one, and just write with no specific purpose, besides creating a vibe and energy in the room at that time. Going to somewhere like Berlin, for example, where they’re just so into weird electronic dance music — it was so refreshing to go there and not have to write a pop hit, or something with normal structure, and to play around with sounds and grooves a little bit more.”
From working with German duo Kilian and Jo to writing with Swedish artist Natali Noor, KLP explained that the energy in the room and the entire process was so entirely different to the typical process she’s participated in throughout the years.
“A lot of the time when you go into a session, there’s a bit of chit-chat that goes on for a while where you play each others songs, and talk about your feelings, and who you are, but we just got in there and started jamming straight away.”
“We kind of bonded and got to know each other through the music, and just playing sounds, and it was created so easily. We were done, and I was just like, ‘whoa, that was crazy and easy’. So, that was a really good experience.”
Check out KLP’s ‘Heater’:
Then, whilst writing the song ‘Avalanche’, KLP’s experience was described as nearly magical.
“It was all females in the room which is kind of crazy that out of all of these years, it was the first time I’d been in the room with all women, and it was just unlike anything I’d every experienced before. It was really empowering and fun! That was the first time I had experienced that, and it was really enjoyable.”
From the writing the record to having it now released, KLP has felt completely humbled and floored by the amount of support she’s received.
“The reaction has been so overwhelmingly good. I think it has been really nice for people to hear a collection of music at once to really understand who I am as an artist. Different people connect with different songs, which is great because you get so close to something that it’s hard to find some distance.”
“When someone comes along and says, ‘hey, my favourite song is ‘Ghost’, and I just love this part, and I connect to it because a similar thing happened to my friend,’ — it just brings new life to the song, and you kind of remember why you’re making it…for other people to listen to it and hopefully enjoy.”
As for playing it on her current national tour, KLP was astonished to see how keen people have been on Giver, noting that initially she felt as if she should sacrifice her own sound, and play only what she felt others would want to hear, instead of staying true to herself.
“I’ve fallen into that trap a few times. I actually had an interesting experience at the start of the tour where I was kind of doing that, and playing what I thought they wanted to hear, and one girl came up to the front and just yelled at me, ‘when are you playing your songs?! Play your songs!’ and it was just weird. I was just like, ‘oh my gosh, you actually want to hear my songs in a set now,’ which is crazy that I’d even question that.”
Check out KLP’s ‘Until I Find You’:
https://youtu.be/CxgQoL-Qh7Q
Besides completely crushing it in the world of music, KLP has been working diligently through Ricochet SONGS. Having now put on three songwriting sessions for a group of female and non-binary attendees, KLP says that inspiration behind it all came from simply wanting to do more, rather than wonder what more could be done, and putting herself to action.
“I was kind of sick of just being asked all the time, and I actually wanted to start doing something, and be part of a solution. So, creating a space where it’s about writing songs, and not just about writing hits, is actually empowering people from inside out.”
“I think that if you’re happy and you feel empowered, fierce, strong, and kind, then you’re probably going to write better music, and the industry is just going to be full of better people. It’s another energy that’s created when it’s all female and non-binary artists in one room. It’s really special, so hopefully I can keep doing that.”
Not only have Ricochet successfully put on these songwriting sessions, but they’ve also played host to Ricochet BALL, which has raised over $55,000 for charities in only two years. KLP says that the efforts have been overwhelming in the best way, and she’s left in awe and wonder about how to go about topping the past two years massive efforts.
“I don’t know how we’re actually going to make more money. I don’t know if that’s possible! To me, it’s just about continuing to do it. You’ve got to remember the intention of why you’re doing everything, being either writing your own music, or doing a songwriting camp, or raising money and putting on something like that charity netball game.”
“I think that as long as the intentions are really good, and you stay true to why you started it, then hopefully you’ll have nice results. It’s so much fun, too. Some people get really into it, and train for weeks, and then there are others that have never played netball before in their lives, [laughs].”
KLP’s Giver is out now, and you can catch her live on her current, national tour.
Check out KLP’s ‘Avalanche’:
KLP Giver Tour 2019
Sunday, November 17th
SOHO @ Fox Hotel, Brisbane, QLD
Saturday, November 23rd
Old Man’s, Bali, Indonesia
Saturday, December 7th
Newcastle Hotel, Newcastle, NSW
Saturday, December 21st
Otherwise, Townsville, QLD
Tuesday, December 24th
Leftbank Hotel, Perth, WA
