Kyler England Powers Up Music to Connect with Life -- Terra Wellington's Balanced Living

This young pop star knows what it takes to stay true to herself.
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Originally Published February 28, 2005 -- Your Wellness Guide

Kyler England Powers Up Music to Connect with Life

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Touring in over 100 shows in 2003 and now embarking on a six-week East Coast tour for Spring 2005 to promote her new CD A Flower Grows in Stone, Alternative Rock Artist Kyler England understands the significance of taking care of herself and staying grounded.

A vegetarian since her early teens, England says “when I first started touring, I did soup cups with hot water at gas stations, and that would be my dinner. Then, I realized I needed to eat better.”

This young artist has learned that she alone is responsible for getting regular exercise (she takes daily walks of four-to-five miles a day) and good nutrition, and that staying balanced with the proactive support of friends and family is key to her continued success. She has even given her twin sister, who sings occasional backup for her band, permission to give her a kick in the ‘tush’ “if I get too big for my britches,” says the budding star, whose sound is reminiscent of Joni Mitchell and Sarah McLachlan.

Kyler England

As England, who recently performed at a Tsunami benefit in Los Angeles, makes her way through dozens of tour stops, she says that most things are changing -- the people, the climates, the surroundings. “It hit me hard when I was on tour in February 2004. I was in Washington and Oregon and didn’t know one single person in Portland for almost three weeks. I would wake up in a different bed every morning and started to lose touch with who I was. [In situations like that] you can start to see yourself through other people’s eyes and can lose touch with who you are.” As a result, she says she’s found it important to reach out to the people who really know who she is and who love her (close friends and family) in order to rekindle clarity about her identity.

England is passionate about music and sees singing as something that she feels everyone is born to do -- that you don’t need to be a rock star to have permission to belt out songs that you love. Her family grew up singing at home and on road trips -- just for fun. “I think there is something special in music that goes beyond words and lyrics. Something about the human voice and music that touches people on a different level. The vibrations and harmonics layered with lyrics is a powerful thing.”

Seven years ago, at age 20, her mother passed away, which England says was devastating. Her mother was one of those types of people who could find the silver lining in anything, she says. To find an outlet for her feelings of loss and sadness, England wrote and produced a special CD of five songs, entitled How Many Angels. “It was a way for me to take a difficult time and negative energy and turn it into something more positive,” she says. And now, when England performs any of those special songs, she often gets after-concert praise from audience members who say that they had a loved one die and England’s song has helped them.

“In the moment of writing a song, that’s not what’s on my mind [how it will help someone]. Any time you examine a personal experience and learn from it and put it into an art form, people can learn from that...they can connect. It is a natural thing that happens.”

England has found music to be cathartic. “With songwriting, it’s a way to process what is going on in your life, such as the people in my life, what I encounter, or what moves me emotionally. I learn from that.”

The 2004 Gold Prize winner of the Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest speaks of singing as an almost Zen-like state. “You’re in the moment, melding your physical self with the emotional self. It brings you right into the ‘now.’ I tend to race in the brain, thinking about what I have to do or things about the past and find it really hard to bring my brain into the now. But when I’m singing, I’m right there. In a way, it’s kind of like yoga. The breathing gets your blood pumping, and it helps support your singing. You get a kind of a tingly feeling and your blood feels more alive.”

And yoga isn’t just a metaphor for England, who melds many things into her life to find balance -- including her music, which contains elements of folk, rock, and pop to make a sound that is all her own. “I have recently been into using yoga exercise balls and will try to take it on the road with me. Although, I haven’t worked out how to easily pump it up and deflate it – don’t want to be pumping up balls after driving 300 miles!” Whether it’s building her career or stretching her body, there’s no doubt this determined singer-songwriter will not only figure out how to pump up that exercise ball but also genuinely enjoy long-term success.

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