James Baley

Toronto’s James Baley is a Juno-winning music creator and multi-disciplinary artist whose radiant energy continues to establish him as a distinctive and magnetizing performer. Sharing compelling stories through his vulnerable lyrics, James combines his R&B, gospel, and electronic influences to create soulful reflections and exuberant dance tracks for the church, club and vogue ballroom. Over the last four years, James has written and recorded with July Talk, Zaki Ibrahim, U.S. Girls, Badge Époque Ensemble, and Azari, with his latter collaboration on “Gotasoul” garnering them a Juno nomination for Dance Recording of the Year (2019). Known in the ballroom community as Songbird Miyake-Mugler, James takes inspiration from his alternative aesthetic and joy of movement.

With the release of his debut LP, “A Story” in September 2021, Baley continued to establish himself as a powerful and versatile songwriter. This ten track album features songs from the ballroom inspired “Banishment” to the gospel/ pop influenced “On My Mind”. 2021 also saw James Baley credited as a co-writer/ co-producer on July Talk’s Juno-winning, ‘Pray For It’, and perform at Pride Toronto’s 40th anniversary closing ceremony. To close out the year, Baley sold out his album release event at The Great Hall in October and performed as direct support to July Talk at their hometown date in December. 2022 continued to have much in store for James including a national brand campaign with Vizzy, a Converse x Keith Haring Foundation collaboration, and a supporting role in TIFF premiering film, “SOFT”. This year, James has already performed his first solo show at the National Arts Centre, been featured in documentary series, “New World Beat” and modeled for a global e-commerce campaign with Inkbox. James’ newest single, “On The Inside,” which combines the carefree confidence of a classic dance-pop sing-a-long with the restlessness of an alcohol-driven, lusty night on the town. The remainder of the year will see James releasing more new music as well as contributing to a number of collaborative, special projects that focus on intersecting his creative communities.

Kyla Charter

Blending her soulful vocals with razor-sharp rock tonalities and pop sensibilities, singer-songwriter Kyla Charter has lent her voice, and rhythm guitar playing to a number of both local and international musical artists, including Patrick Watson, Alessia Cara, July Talk, Zaki Ibrahim, The Queer Songbook Orchestra and Melbourne based rock band Kingswood. A Toronto native, Kyla can also be heard singing background vocals on the forthcoming July Talk and Rich Aucoin albums respectively. She has appeared on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, On Air with Ryan Seacrest, BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge, The Bambi Awards, Made in America Festival, The European Music Awards, The iHeart Radio MMVA’s, Danforth Music Hall, Kee to Bala, CBC Festival at Echo Beach, Massey Hall, Budweiser Stage, Scotiabank Arena, The Barbican Center, and Madison Square Gardens.

A Humber College, Jazz and Contemporary Vocal Performance alumnus (with teachers including Larnell Lewis and Rik Emmett), Kyla’s musical approach weaves her remarkable gift as a storyteller, with A Capella vocal percussion, and dynamic rock, R&B and folk melodic aesthetics. Borrowing widely from an eclectic musical spectrum, in large part the result of a truly multicultural upbringing in the metropolis of Toronto, her sound is whole world, all heart.