Kylie Auldist
Soulful songs, incredible vocals, prod. by Lance Ferguson
Kylie Auldist has been singing for as long as she can remember and possesses an undeniable natural vocal talent: the kind of powerful yet nuanced soul voice that comes along only once in a while, and when you’ve heard it once you never quite forget it. She is half-Samoan but born and bred in the outback of Australia. From the age of fifteen Kylie could be found singing country and western songs in pubs – which, for the only non-white in town, was a gutsy move (in her words it was “a bit like the reverse of Steve Martin in ‘The Jerk’”).
Kylie moved to Melbourne to pursue her musical ambitions, where she joined and performed with a variety of funk bands over the next seven years, playing stacks of gigs, festivals and also TV appearances on Good Morning Australia (with Aussie icon Bert Newton, who we Brits may not know, but lots of old ladies in Oz do). While in Melbourne, Kylie hooked up with kings of funk The Bamboos and provided stunning guest vocals on their acclaimed album, “Rawville” for Tru Thoughts. The Bamboos and Kylie Auldist toured Australia and beyond, landing on the fair shores of Brighton, UK, in 2007, where Tru Thoughts snapped Kylie up after being bowled over by her spectacular and charismatic performance.
Kylie signed to Tru Thoughts for multiple albums, and her debut single “Community Service Announcement” was released on 28th April 2008, followed by the album, “Just Say”, on 26th May. A heady mix of Kylie’s distinctive and soulful vocals and the flawless, funk-fuelled production of Bamboos’ main-man Lance Ferguson, “Just Say” created a buzz immediately and was dubbed “the sound of the summer” by many. In the UK Mark Lamarr (BBC Radio 2) declared it “one of the best albums of the year”. Further afield, tracks from the album have gained national radio playlisting in France and Kylie’s native Australia.
Following the release of her debut, Kylie Auldist recorded live radio sessions with The Bamboos for Mark Lamarr’s God’s Jukebox on BBC Radio 2, and the BBC 6Music Funk & Soul Show, bringing her further to the public’s attention. Recent major live shows across Australia have included a double header with Syl Johnson in Melbourne; showing the dance kids at the DJ-heavy Park Life dates in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne that you can still dance to real live instrumentals and soulful vocals; and playing alongside Ben Harper at the Byron Bay Blues Fest, after which the festival director wrote personally to say how impressed he was with them.
On her second album, Made Of Stone, which came out in August 2009, Kylie again enlisted the production skills of Lance Ferguson and the backing of The Bamboos to create a sizzling collection of original, grown-up pop with warm, retro-inspired funk and mod soul flavours complementing the razor sharp musicianship, crystal clear production and Kylie’s incisive lyrical voice. The first single, “It’s On” / “Made Of Stone”, came out in July to fantastic DJ reactions, and big name remixes of album tracks are in the pipeline for a second single later in the year.
In the meantime, as well as recording her own solo material and guesting on the fourth album from The Bamboos, Kylie Auldist has also lent her talents to Cookin’ On 3 Burners (Freestyle), whose single “This Girl” has had major radio play and is winning Kylie more fans by the day.