With her guitar at hand and her passion for songwriting, Kylie Fox overcame the odds and turned her passion into a music career.
Fox went from working as a tree planter in Alberta to being named “Innovator of the Year” at the 2023 PrixNB Awards.
Fox has also performed at the East Coast Music Awards in 2021 and shared the stage with artists such as The Strumbellas and Joel Plaskett.
Last September, she released her second full-length album Sequoia, inspired by a forest fire incident in California involving a sequoia tree.
She recalled hearing on the radio that firefighters had worked all night to save it.
“I just thought it was such a statement of our humanity … ” she said. “Even in this big, bad world and we neglect some of the most beautiful, awesome things around us, we’ll really go out of our way to protect the old things.”
Sequoia’s theme revolves around gratitude and not taking things for granted. With seven tracks exploring Canadian folk-rock and jazz-pop, Fox implemented some of her oldest songs.
Alberta was written during her time as a tree planter in Alberta and Ali’s Wedding which was inspired by a dream she had about missing a friend’s wedding.
Fox recalled what it felt like to be 20 years old and being in her early songwriting days.
“It really didn’t become my dream at the time,” she said. “It really just was a way to process what I was going through and experiencing the world around me.”
Along with her band, Fox produced the album on Lake Echo with producer Daniel Ledwell. She said that they spent their Thanksgiving weekend in a tree house, working on the album.
Fox described the experience as “picturesque,” recalling how they wore their fall sweaters, enjoying chilli while the leaves changed colours around them.
“[We had] that feeling of togetherness, like I made my first turkey dinner for my band,” she said.
She also recalls one of her favourite moments while recording the album when her bandmate, Kelly Waterhouse, improvised a piano performance.
“It just gave us all goosebumps,” said Fox.
She describes this moment as a “flow state” where music comes naturally. It isn’t planned, but it makes the song and the recording session more special.
Her band members include: drummer Ryan Berry; guitar player Sean Hutchins; bass player Camilo Villamizar and Kelly Waterhouse who provides backing vocals, keys and horns.
Preparing for their upcoming tour this spring, Fox said the band rehearses every Tuesday for two hours while also thinking about the venues and how they will connect with their audience on stage.
Fox said her favourite moment when performing is the energy exchange between the band, the audience and herself.
“It’s such a cool way to connect and feel really human with other humans,” she said.
“Singing is my favourite thing to do and it’s nice to take people on a journey and kind of see that they are there with me.”
There Are Only So Many Great Nights Tour will start on March 13 in Woodstock, an hour north of Fredericton
The artist also said her songwriting is a reflection of her life experiences and lessons she gained from studying theatre and music at several schools.
For a short period, Fox enrolled in the musical theatre program at St. Thomas University, where she met Lisa Anne Ross. Fox described this meeting as one of the pivotal moments of her career in becoming a musician.
“I approached her after the class and I just started to bawl. And I feel like I was almost on her lap, but I basically was just sobbing things like ‘I don’t think I should study theatre anymore.’”
Even though her journey has not been linear, Fox is still working towards her goals as an artist while staying present and focused on the moment.
“I [remember] I sucked but I just had this absolute certainty that this was my path and I was just gonna do it and give a mile. So I guess it feels like [it] makes so much sense that it led to this.”
Growing up in the “classic East Coast kitchen party family,” Fox developed an innate gift of storytelling and transmitting a feeling through her stories.
“Everyone could play the guitar and sing and we had a piano in my house growing up … I grew up knowing that singing out loud to your loved ones was like a sign of love.”
“I guess, at the end of the day, I kind of just want to touch [the audience], connect with them and entertain them.”
