Despite her vast stage experience and years of classical training, Victoria fiddler, singer and dancer Kytami still feels like she's in a constant state of metamorphosis.
As a performer, she has been on stages of various descriptions since she was four, but her journey during the past decade has been one of constant push-and-pull. At first, she was simply a classical violinist. Then, a classical pianist. Once she became an adult, Kytami (a.k.a. Kyla LeBlanc) struggled to adapt the classical music of her past to the cutting-edge sounds of the future, which resulted in a constant need to experiment.
"It has been a long evolution," she said, the sounds of bass-thumping electronic music echoing in the background.
Following the end of her four-year journey with Vancouver group Delhi 2 Dublin, which combines the music of Ireland and India in a dance music pastiche, Kytami spent the bulk of last year learning to be herself again. Once she found her footing, the floodgates reopened.
"I initially had the idea in 2002 to start playing with a DJ, because at the time, I was playing in Irish pubs. It wasn't really the kind of music that was influencing me. I was really into hip hop and drum-and-bass at the time, and that's what I wanted to make. But I didn't know any other violinists or how it could be done."
Kytami, who was born in Vancouver and raised in White Rock, moved to Victoria in 2007 while she was a member of Delhi 2 Dublin. She wanted a quiet environment in which to raise her daughter, Cyprus. The upside was discovering a musical community that accepted her outside-the-box musical output.
Up to that point in her career, Kytami had been working with other producers on a variety of projects, but ultimately lacked confidence in her direction. She found it in Victoria while with Delhi 2 Dublin. "When that [collaboration] ended, I had confidence from touring and performing with that band, and took it and focused on what I do."
She spent the majority of 2011 as a solo artist, the first time in a long while Kytami was her own individual entity. In retrospect, the prospect scared her somewhat. "I spent the year flying by the seat of my pants. I just wanted to let people know I was still making music and doing shows."
She performs frequently with singer Georgia Murray, who blends pop, soul and hip hop. The collaboration continues, when possible, but Kytami spends the majority of her time these days furthering her own ideas. "It's time for me to do what I want to do, which is focus on Kytami."
Kytami was approached recently with an opportunity perfectly aligned with her sound and vision. Michael Fraser, a Vancouver violinist and DJ, wanted to join forces with Kytami for the Beats, Strings & Life Tour, one of the first of its kind to feature two distinct violinists/fiddlers with backing by a DJ.
The two had run into each other at various points, and played together this year at a Halloween-themed show in Vancouver. Until recently, the timing hadn't been suitable for a full-scale collaboration. "We were doing similar things but playing in different bands," said Fraser, formerly of flamenco-fusion act Tambura Rasa. "Once we both left the bands we played with, we are doing solo projects that seem to be quite similar."
On the heels of her busiest year to date, Kytami was hesitant at first to jump on board with a 10-date winter tour of the province, with support from Victoria DJ Joshua James. "I wasn't really thinking about touring into sa国际传媒 again because I did it so much this summer. But when he approached me with the concept, I really liked it."
Like Fraser, Kytami is a former student of the Vancouver Academy of Music. Soon after graduating, she released a solo record, 2002's Conflation, that was "really influenced by hip hop." Work on recordings by Vancouver acts Third Eye Tribe and Swollen Members furthered her interest in the form, but her love of dance music finally won out. Her groundbreaking union of the fiddle and frenetic beats, at one time unique to Kytami, is now becoming something of a sensation, thanks to violin sensation Lindsey Sterling, whose dubstep-violin arrangements have tens of millions of views on YouTube.
"I used to go out there, and people used to say, 'I've never seen anything like this,' " she said. "But now people say, 'Are you Lindsay Sterling?' "
Despite her penchant for dance music, and her fondness for fiddle music, Kytami makes no bones about her classical background. "I'll never be a great classical soloist, but my foundation is very firmly in classical. I can play some very classical-sounding riffs but I can get down and rip it up in a foot-stomping way with any fiddle player, I feel."
In that regard, her tour with Fraser makes perfect sense. "I really like the idea of two violinists going out and exploring what can be done with the instrument," Kytami said.
"It's like we're joining forces and bringing something new. You never know what's going to happen on tour sometimes."
