She won Powell River Idol at age 13, wrote her first song at age 14 and released her first CD at age 15. When Ildiko Jane Kelly turns 16 on Saturday, it’s anybody’s guess what this year’s project might be.
Just weeks ago, the soulful songstress unveiled Glass Heart to a packed house at The HUB 101. The CD is comprised of 12 songs she recorded at The Music Room earlier this year with the help of engineer Tom Dowding and guitarist Ben Kyle. In addition to handling vocal duties, Ildiko Jane also plays piano and guitar on the tracks.
“It all started with the first song I wrote, which was “I Thought You Were An Angel,” she said. “First boy, first love thing, you know. My mom said, and she was kidding, ‘if you write more songs I’ll make you an album,’ so I came up with 11.”
Since then, Ildiko Jane has penned a further 11 originals and is already itching to put them to tape. It may be time to make another wager with her mother.
“My genre is kind of pop/soul, I’d say. More soul,” she said. “There’s a little bit of country-rock in there as well. Country-rock is going to be on my next album. That one’s going to be a little different, more of a jazzy, country-rock, bluesy kind of thing.”
The tracks on Glass Heart were arranged primarily for an acoustic setting, allowing Ildiko Jane’s songwriting and vocals to take centre stage. The inspiration for many of those songs? “Boys,” she laughed. “I’m like the Taylor Swift of Powell River. If I like you and you don’t like me back, I’m going to write a song about you. If I like you and you do like me back, you’re still probably getting a song.”
Seeing those songs bring joy to others is what Ildiko Jane finds to be the most rewarding part about the writing and performing process. “That’s really sweet when they like what you do,” she said. “I feel accomplished. Not everybody’s going to love what you do, obviously, but the ones that do it’s like yeah, I won them over.”
Glass Heart is available at RockIt Music, Paperworks Gift Gallery, Hindle’s Camera and Stationery, Powell River Academy of Music, Canadian Martial Arts Academy and Taws. It will soon be available on iTunes and CDBaby.com as well.
Interested readers may keep up with Ildiko Jane and her latest musical adventures at ‘IJK-Official’ on Facebook and @IJKofficial on Twitter.
