Kayla's Blog

Kayla wins Love Arts Leeds Performing Arts Award

2012-11-12T18:54:00.000Z

Love Arts Awards recognise the contribution of people, groups and organisations in Yorkshire who have made a real difference to people’s mental wellbeing through the arts. Our awards are a fantastic way of giving something back, with five categories to nominate individuals and organisations for including Arts Volunteer, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Arts in Health and Judge's Choice. Nominees were shortlisted to a final three, with the overall winners announced at the awards ceremony on the 29th of October in Leeds.

Kayla was announced as the winner of the Performing Arts category: A fantastic performance (this includes film, theatre, dance, music) that raises awareness of mental health and/or learning disabilities whilst challenging stigma and discrimination.

Community Ventures' Chief Executive, Nigel Fenny presented the Performing Arts award to Kayla Kavanagh:

“I first bought Kayla’s CD last year when I was diagnosed with BPD, it was as if I had written the lyrics myself. I’ve seen her perform live and she is amazing, playing a whole range of different instruments and using music as part of her recovery. She is the only person out there fighting the stigma of BPD and does it amazingly through music”

Taking home a beautiful trophy, Kayla was delighted to have been recognised for the work she has been doing in music and mental health, and thanked all who nominated and supported her this year.

Kayla wins "Creative Hero - Professional" Mental Healthy Award

2012-04-02T16:46:00.002+01:00

Mental health organisation www.mentalhealthy.co.uk has recognised the fantastic achievements of some of the country’s finest heroes, who selflessly and tirelessly look to improve the lives of others. In 2011 they joined forces with some of the biggest names in mental health to recognise these unsung heroes.

Kayla has been announced as the joint winner of the Creative Hero - Professional Award, which recognises professional artists and performers that have contributed to the field of mental health, by raising awareness, educating, speaking out about, campaigning, or inspiring mental wellness through their work. Since being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in 2009, Kayla has worked hard to promote awareness and challenge stigma through her recorded and live music, articles in the national press, her YouTube, blog and tours around the UK.

Creator of Mental Healthy Charlotte Fantelli said “The humbling work individuals and organisations are doing across the globe takes my breath away. Every single Mental Healthy Hero Award winner has done something extraordinary in an area that is not glitzy or glamorous and that takes great strength and human kindness, not only the winners but every candidate is a hero that deserves recognition."

Emergence Press Release

Emergence is today celebrating! Kayla Kavanagh – a Knowledge & Understanding Framework (KUF) trainer, singer/songwriter and mental health activist – has won the Creative Hero Professional Award in the first ever Mental Health Hero awards.

Award categories included ‘Community Hero’, ‘Professional Hero’, ‘Business Hero’ and ‘Creative Hero’ and amongst the winners are some incredible local, national and global organisations and individuals.

Kayla Kavanagh said: “I am thrilled about winning and must thank Emergence for nominating me – it was an honour even just to be nominated and when I found out I had been shortlisted for the award I couldn’t believe it!

“Since receiving my diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder in 2009 Emergence has been absolutely crucial in my development both as an artist and now as a Senior KUF trainer. I can’t believe that I’ve actually won the award and am truly humbled to have been recognised by the judging team of such high profile mental health organisations.

“Music has been the key to my wellbeing living with personality disorder, allowing me to focus the chaotic emotions into lyrics, music and song. Having had the opportunity to record an album and perform at events across the UK has allowed the positive message to ‘go viral’, and I am delighted to be launching the second album on the May 1, of which 10% of the crowd sourced funds go to Emergence.”

Kayla has become an ambassador for awareness of illnesses such as BPD, and has been interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour about how music has provided a positive outlet for the overwhelming emotions associated with living with a mental health condition.

Kath Lovell, Emergence managing director, said on hearing the news: “Kayla works tirelessly for Emergence to help us fight the stigma that is associated with personality disorder. Her music always features at all our events and she brings much joy with it. We are thrilled for her!"

Kayla wins national "Poetry in Mind" competition

2011-12-02T02:15:00.003Z

Kayla has taken joint first place in a national poetry competition!

Launched in Feb 2011, POETRY IN MIND 2011/2012 was open to all Writers who have been diagnosed with or treated for a Psychological Illness and their carers in the UK. The announcement of joint winners Kayla Kavanagh and Jane MacCallaugh was made on December 1st, with each winner receiving £125 and their Poetry published within the charity, MIND’s, own associate literary project titled ‘Testimony’ and within the POETRY IN MIND own publication. The Publication will have a place in the British Library, and the winners have the chance to read their Poetry/ Have their Poetry read at the Prestigious Hay Festival, 2012.

POETRY IN MIND allows either aspiring or already practicing Poets, who experience mental health illness to artistically express their experiences. The Themes of the competition this year are ‘Treatment and Care’, so Poets will be encouraged to write as freely as they wish about what care and treatment they receive, (negative or positive) and their feedback will be taken into full consideration, ensuring positive change for within the mental healthcare system, to better all patients.

The lead Patron and Judge for POETRY IN MIND is the Poet, Larry Westland, CBE. POETRY IN MIND is supported by: Mind, Sane, NHS, Priory Hospitals, Hay Festival (Hay-On-Wye Festival), The Poetry Library, The Poetry Society.

Kayla's winning entry:

White Bird ~ Kayla Kavanagh

White bird with a broken wing

Crying freedom from your long~abandoned cage of fear

With eyes clear and understanding

Yet faraway and distant all the same.

How your soul speaks out in song

From behind the bars so strong and unyielding.

How pretty you are my love ~

I have watched you dance upon the waters,

As angels have tended your side

And kissed you goodnight.

Would that the moon should rise

Pouring cool beams upon your wizened frame,

To breathe the fresh night air,

Bathed softly in twilight's misty glow.

Walk barefoot upon the sandy shore

Let the gentle waves lap softly at your feet

Caressing the pain, washing the wounds,

Tracing a finger of healing across your heart

The clatter of hooves on the dry silt

Brings a new morning, bids dawn to break,

And the memory fades, and the image dissolves…

White bird, wakened in the cold and empty cage

With a gutteral sigh you unwelcome the morning.

Nominate Kayla for Mental Healthy "Creative Hero" Award

2011-10-17T17:00:00.001+01:00

The Mental Healthy Awards are open and Kayla would be delighted if you would consider nominating her for The ‘Creative Hero’!

The Creative Hero (Amateur) award recognises people who have made a real difference to the lives of others through their creativity. Since being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder in 2009, Kayla has worked hard to promote positive awareness and challenge stigma surrounding misunderstood conditions like PD through her recorded and live music, articles in local and national press, YouTube channel, Blog and Tours around the UK.

In the past two years, Kayla has put herself in the public eye campaigning in newspapers, on the internet, at events and through her music to a worldwide audience. Kayla is committed to working with organisations such as Emergence Plus and Rethink Mental Illness, through whom she has had the opportunity to speak out through the media and at events across the UK, challenging the stigma so often associated with conditions like Personality Disorder.

Kayla would be very grateful if you would consider nominating her for this prestigious award, which recognises those who have used creativity to help raise awareness and campaign for better understanding of mental health conditions. If you feel that her work deserves recognition, please take a moment to nominate for the "Creative Hero (Amateur)" category. To nominate, simply click on the link below where you will be asked for your name, email address and a short paragraph about why Kayla should win the award. You can leave out the first few fields asking for Kayla's Date of Birth/Phone No/Address etc - just fill in the ones with the red asterisk.

Select "Nominate" under Creative Hero 'Am' (Amateur - as the majority of Kayla's work is done on an unpaid/charitable basis, not being a primary source of income): http://www.mentalhealthy.co.uk/creative-hero

Where it asks for a relevant website, you may wish to include any of the following depending on which area of Kayla's creativity you feel the judges should look at:

Kayla's music: http://www.kaylakavanagh.com
Kayla's article on Mental Healthy: http://www.mentalhealthy.co.uk/psychology/bpd/living-with-borderline-personality-disorder-bpd.html
Kayla's blog: http://kaylakavanagh.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-borderline-personality-disorder.html
Kayla on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh5iXg6l1bo

Kayla has never been nominated for or won an award before, so your vote would really make a difference ... thank you for your support and please comment below if you have voted! x

Kayla's 2nd album needs you!

2011-06-20T11:45:00.000+01:00

Join me in recording my second studio album! 2009 saw the Mental Health Awareness single “On the Borderline” released, followed by the debut album “Stranger than Fiction” in 2010. Both CDs were a huge success and I have a list of emails from folks asking when the next album is being released …. which is where you come in :) Both releases to date have been self-funded, and studio time was kindly donated by my partner (Nigel Pease ~ Selva Sound). The coffers are empty after our nationwide tour, and we’d love to get back in the studio to start recording, but need your help.

For just £1000 we can cover the cost of duplication, mixing and mastering ~ without it, the songs stay in my head. Which isn’t the most useful place for them, as it makes sharing them quite difficult (short of coming round to your house and playing them to you personally, more on that later …). So if you’ve enjoyed any of the music to date, and would like to hear more, please consider pledging. Even if it’s only a tenner. £12 will get you a copy of the album as soon as it’s off the press. £15 gets a signed copy with some free Kayla Kavanagh postcards/badges/plectrums. £50 gets your name on the album itself (quite exciting), and £250 means I will go to a venue of your choice, anywhere in the UK and perform a set of your choosing for you and your mates.

Please pledge whatever you can, however small - all details and pledge info below!

It's Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month ...

2011-05-01T17:26:00.011+01:00

... so I thought I would kick off by writing a short blog about BPD.

Being Irish, I'm not known for my ability to keep things brief, so I will do my best on this occasion :) I've been privileged to have recently been invited to write guest blogs for Uncovered Magazine and Mind on this very topic, so I'll be keeping this one brief as most of what I would like to write about is already contained in those articles. As they focus more on the moments of crisis and suicide attempt, I thought it might be useful to write a little bit about the actual day to day of how BPD affects my 'normal life', those around me and, most importantly, what it *really* means to live with the condition. So, if you've never read about BPD before, welcome, and if you have, feel free to skip to the Uncovered/Mind articles instead :)

What's this blog all about?

Jerold Kriesman and Hal Straus refer to BPD as "emotional hemophilia; [a borderline] lacks the clotting mechanism needed to moderate his spurts of feeling. Stimulate a passion, and the borderline emotionally bleeds to death."

I'm often asked by journalists to describe a "day in the life" of living with Borderline Personality Disorder, which is a nearly impossible task as the very nature of it is so unpredictable that every waking moment is completely unique. However, in the interests of keeping this blog less than 94050 words long, I'm going to try to provide a little bit of insight into what it means and how it feels. If I know you personally, hopefully our interactions might make a little more sense following reading this. And if you've seen me on a stage or watched a video online, this might provide a bit of background into how I ended up there or what I was thinking during the performance ... all very scary stuff really to be sharing, but in the interests of creating awareness of BPD, I think it's important to be vulnerable as most of what is behind the disorder is often so difficult to understand when put in Pseudo~Psychological Terms.

So, you're mental then? What does that mean?

I should say at this point that I use the term 'mental' in a loving fashion. It's always tricky to find a socially acceptable way to say "I have a mental illness", and I find it quite refreshing to refer to myself to my friends as "a mentalist". So no offence meant, and none taken should you choose to use that word back to me :) However, I'm not going to get bogged down in the semantics of pejorative labelling as that would be an entire blog unto itself ~ suffice to say that I don't think there is any politically correct way of saying that you are slightly unhinged, so I shall leave it at that for now.

If you're reading this blog, then I would imagine 90% of you already know that I have BPD, and possibly quite a bit about it. I do tend to harp on as I'm a bit of an ambassador for mental illnesses, especially the ones that aren't particularly trendy or haven't quite received the same level of public understanding that things like Depression and Bipolar Disorder may have. I thought it might be useful to break down what this whole Personality Disorder business is about in layman's (or woman's ~ see how this PC thing gets everywhere? Nightmare ...) terms, so this is my humble attempt of explaining my own personal slant on it. I'm sure there are thousands out there who could do a much better job than I can, but today is the beginning of BPD Awareness Month so hopefully this blog might provide a little bit of understanding to someone who has never heard about it before. Anyway. I'm rambling again. So off we go ...

What does the term BPD actually mean?

Tricky one. It's a bit of a rubbish term explanation~wise, as the words don't technically reflect anything about the condition. For a start, the word "Borderline" doesn't mean that you are on the borderline of having a personality disorder ~ it was originally used to indicate that you are on the border of neurosis and psychosis (but I promised not to get all psycho~babblesque so will cease and desist on that point for now). Basically, it's a full blown disorder. The word Borderline is referring to something else. Then we have the very scary sounding word "Disorder" following the very personal word "Personality". It doesn't mean that there is something wrong with your personality. It simply means that that is the area that the illness affects. Which is why it's a difficult one to diagnose as it's not easy to spot people's personalities being problematic. So in a nutshell, Borderline Personality Disorder is a not very useful label for a condition which essentially means "you have difficulties with the emotional aspects of your life that cause you considerable problems on a daily basis".

Stick with me on this one, it does get easier :)

How would I know that you have it? You look 'normal' to me

In the same way that you can't spot a diabetic unless you have three meals with them, you'll not spot a Personality Disorder unless you spend a lot of time with the person. All the symptoms will show up through the cracks in social relationships and workplace environments eventually, but almost all of them will go unseen behind closed doors when the person is on their own. It is always lovely to be told that you "look normal", but equally it brings home the pain of constantly striving to "appear normal", as that is what society expects. Again, I use the term 'normal' entirely superfluously as I don't believe there is such a thing, but this blog would never get written without using such terms by way of explanation.

From a very personal standpoint, the way that you would know that I have a Personality Disorder is quite evident if you've spent a great deal of time in my presence in a pressured situation. I don't deal well with stress (which is fantastic as a full time musician) and have the world's shortest fuse when it comes to outbursts of tears or anger, often seemingly inappopriate to the situation. That's where the BPD really kicks in. Much of the way Personality Disorders manifest themselves is in a lack of ability to regulate emotion. Marsha Linehan quite expertly puts it that: "People with Borderline Personality Disorder are like people with third degree burns over 90% of their bodies. Lacking emotional skin, they feel agony at the slightest touch or movement."

What are the symptoms?

Again, without getting into the psychological domain, I thought it would be helpful to list the main symptoms of BPD. Not everyone has them all, nor do they have them for all their lives, but hopefully it'll give a bit of an overview of what we experience with this disorder:

1. Shifts in mood lasting only a few hours.

Anyone who knows me knows how ridiculously up and down I can get within minutes, never mind hours. Someone once referred to my behaviour as being like "the bipolar highs and lows on rapid cycle", which I thought was quite appropriate. There is often no reason for it, which is why people occassionally end up whispering in corners wondering what has happened. Don't worry. It most likely wasn't you; and if it was, it was my skewed perspective of what actually happened, as opposed to what actually happened :)

2. Anger that is inappropriate, intense or uncontrollable.

Yes, yes and yes. All of the above. I've bashed on a car window in a car park when I thought they were taking a space that they shouldn't have, and have stormed out of more workplaces than I can remember. We aren't an angry people though I hasten to add. The explosive nature means that it lasts for a few mere seconds, then it is gone, and the guilt kicks in. It's a bit like our head has no pressure valve for containing anger and it needs to be released quickly. But more likely than not, it becomes self-inflicted through self-harm, self-deprecation or self-loathing. Or all of the above.

3. Self-destructive acts, such as self-mutilation or suicidal threats and gestures that happen more than once

In my teens I used self~harm as a way of releasing emotion that I didn't have words for. In my twenties it turned into using eating as a control mechanism. The suicide attempt also came out of a period of intense emotion and self~hatred, so I think it's fair to say that these are pretty high on the list of BPD symptoms for just about all who live with it.

4. Two potentially self-damaging impulsive behaviors. These could include alcohol and other drug abuse, compulsive spending, gambling, eating disorders, shoplifting, reckless driving, compulsive sexual behavior.

I am ridiculously impulsive. Leave a pink fluffy thing for sale at the checkout and you'll find it in my basket. I have been known to raid Primark (which, for the record, is pronounced 'Pree-mark' not 'Pry-mark' despite what my now~fellow~countrymen might say ... it's originally an Irish Company [Penneys], and we Irish pronounce the UK version Pree, not Pri, so there :) on many an occassion coming out with brown paper bags brimming with things I'll most likely wear once and putting myself into the overdraft. I have also struggled with an eating disorder over the last year or so, and earlier in my twenties, so the impulsive behaviours are definitely a bit of a giveaway.

5. Marked, persistent identity disturbance shown by uncertainty in at least two areas. These areas can include self-image, sexual orientation, career choice or other long-term goals, friendships, values.

People with Borderline Personality Disorder often feel like they don't know who they are, or what they think, or what their opinions are. Instead, they try to be what they think other people want them to be. Someone with Borderline Personality Disorder said, "I have a hard time figuring out my personality. I tend to be whomever I'm with." I am exactly the same. If I'm alone with you, I'll be bouncing your personality right back at you, which most people find incredibly uncomfortable. If I'm in a group situation the whole thing becomes intolerable as you literally don't know which person to be, which in itself can lead to self~hatred at the fact that you don't have an identity of your own. People think that as a musician I must have a very strong sense of self, but I really don't. Take all my instruments and stage persona away and there is a very empty shell of a non~person left behind. Which is quite possibly why I chose a career with a very definite sense of 'self' on stage, except that self becomes more of a caricature in person and can only truly be found in the lyrics of songs like Colour Me In, which is all about having no identity (as I discovered years after writing it :).

6. Chronic feelings of emptiness or boredom.

Someone with Borderline Personality Disorder also said, "I remember describing the feeling of having a deep hole in my stomach. An emptiness that I didn't know how to fill. My therapist told me that was from almost a "lack of a life". The more things you get into your life, the more relationships you get involved in, all of that fills that hole. As a borderline, I had no life. There were times when I couldn't stay in the same room with other people. It almost felt like what I think a panic attack would feel like."

I can't count the number of new hobbies/instruments I've taken up with great enthusiasm only to get bored a few weeks or months later. Life is a perpetual cycle of trying to fill an unknown void that makes very little sense, and can't be filled by 'new things'. In the past twelve months I have taken up sewing, knitting, embroidery, crocheting, felting, geocaching and many more that I can't even remember ~ all with great intent and passion at the time. But as with most things I take up, they end up lying in a cupboard half~finished as they don't quite fill that gaping hole. Music has been pretty much the only thing that I haven't given up on because it became too hard or required more attention than I was willing to give it ~ but in saying that, I have been guilty of letting my songwriting go to the back burner for over a year for this very reason. Which is a bit rubbish really. [Note to self: write more songs]

7. Unstable, chaotic intense relationships characterized by splitting.

I have friends, I have enemies. Nothing inbetween. In the head of most people with BPD, you end up in one of two camps: good or bad (called splitting). There is no middle ground, no grey area, and no hope of being shifted from one place to the other for A Very Long Time if something catastrophic happens. I imagine that the world hates me, so I try to be the best kind of person to everyone I meet in the hope that it might change its mind, and when that fails, I expect them to hate me, and often that's how I feel in response. So most of the people who are in 'the bad camp' have done very little to deserve being there. It's simply that in my head there are only those two places, and I imagine myself to be in 'the bad one' to the rest of the world, forever.

8. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.

Yep, real or imagined. Usually the latter, but it always feels like the former. My long~suffering other half often jokes that I'm the stereotypical Borderline when it comes to this one ~ "LEAVE ME ALONE!! Wait ... where are you going?? .."

I have massive issues with abandonment. Huge. It was therapy issue #1, and will probably continue to be for the rest of my days. If I meet someone I like and trust, they will at some point abandon me. Imagine how that feels for the people I do meet, when all my interactions are based on that thought? I often feel the most guilt around my close friends and family as that is the basis upon which I am built, meaning that they have the impossible task of 'not abandoning'. This is a large part of my even bigger problem with Separation Anxiety, which was actually the first symptom of BPD that I can trace way back to when I was 10/11 years old, and still haunts me at the ripe old age of 32.

9. Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.

Basically this just means feeling completely "out of it," or not being able to remember what you said or did, usually in times of severe stress. Not like being incredibly drunk I might add. It's a very sinister and frightening feeling which I've only experienced a few times in my life, but when I did, it was absolutely terrifying as you literally have no recollection of what just took place - sometimes for hours, days or even weeks. And the world is always out to get me, no matter what anyone may say.

On the flip side, people with Borderline Personality Disorder also have an unusually high degree of interpersonal sensitivity, creativity, insight and empathy, which is the one part of the disorder that I wouldn't change :)

What was that about this being a short blog again?

I know, I know. Rubbish. I do tend to meander both on stage between songs and when typing away merrily at my keys. I should point out that the reason I have sat down to write this blog today is because I have been moping around all afternoon not knowing what to do, feeling incredibly empty, unsure of who I am or what I'm doing in life, and feeling entirely disconnected from the world. The interweb has saved my life in many of the same ways that music has. And if you've managed to make it all the way down to the end of this post [hurrah! well done! kudos to you my friend], then you have made a massive difference to my life today. Knowing that these words, vulnerable~making and painful as they are to write, will be read by others who understand or have a desire to understand makes the hole inside just a little bit tinier.

I have the latest episode of Dr Who on pause so you will forgive me if I now get back to filling the emptiness with The Silent instead ... thank you so much for taking the time to read my ridiculous meanderings today. It is Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness month, and I hope that this has helped make BPD a little bit more understandable (even if I am not :) I'm much better at writing songs about BPD than writing words about it, so I hope this has made a little bit of sense.

Love, hope and blessings to those who live with hidden illnesses, and to those who hold their hands today,

Kayla xx

Uncovered Magazine Interview
Uncovered Magazine Guest Blog
Mind Guest Blog

Leave a comment below:

Kayla featured in Uncovered Magazine

2010-12-03T19:36:00.001Z

Kayla has been interviewed in an amazing four page feature in "Uncovered" magazine ~ click on the pictures below to read the article or buy your copy this month from WH Smith / electronically at http://www.uncoveredmagazine.co.uk/.

Kayla in The Independent & Sheffield Star

2010-10-04T18:44:00.001+01:00

In the lead up to World Mental Health Day on 10/10/10, Kayla has been featured in the national and local press talking about her struggles with mental health issues and how music has helped in her recovery. The first article was published in The Independent as part of their major feature on Mental Health cuts and their devastating effect on people in need of treatment by the NHS:

Enlarge article

On Monday 4th October Kayla was also featured in the Sheffield Star, talking about the impact recording "Stranger than Fiction" has had on her battle with mental illness:

Enlarge article

Read the digital version at http://www.thestar.co.uk/features/HEALTHY-LIVING-Singer-hoping-to.6563748.jp

Kayla featured in Tweeting Times Magazine

2010-08-27T17:54:00.000+01:00

"Twitter celebrities pledge to stamp out stigma ~ will you?"

This month Kayla has been featured as part of an article in popular online Social Media Magazine 'Tweeting Times'. The story focuses on the campaign to educate people about the realities of Mental Health problems and stamping out stigma. Stephen Fry is the main feature in the writeup and Kayla is very excited to be in the same article!

Read the full story online at http://tinyurl.com/338ffwq

Kayla Kavanagh Interviewed on BBC Radio Sheffield

2010-04-07T18:01:00.005+01:00

Listen again to Kayla being interviewed on BBC Radio Sheffield - talking about Personality Disorder, launch date of the new album "Stranger than Fiction" and an exclusive play of one of the tracks 'On my knees'.

Kayla interviewed on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour

2010-03-08T13:46:00.004Z

As part of a feature on Personality Disorders, Kayla was interviewed on the Radio 4 "Woman's Hour" programme on Monday 8th March. Presenter Jane Garvey spoke to Dr Kevin Healy, Clinical Director of Cassel Hospital and Kayla, who spoke about her experience living with Borderline Personality Disorder - how it affects daily life, the diagnostic criteria and personal insight into the condition.

To listen again to the interview in full, click on the link below:

(If the link doesn't work if on a Mac click here instead: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00r3yx0/Womans_Hour_08_03_2010/)

Kayla performing at York Minster

2010-01-11T00:52:00.003Z

On Saturday 9th January, Kayla was invited to York Minster to play a multi~instrumental performance at their quarterly event. ‘Minster Nights’ is a popular evening which takes place at York Minster every few months and allows visitors to stay as late as midnight, experiencing the wide range of activities on offer as well as several artworks and installations by local and national artists.

Kayla's performance included the hammered dulcimer, guitar, flute, electric violin, keyboard and new instrument, the Eigenharp Pico (below). Photographs from the event are now available on the FaceBook Musician Page.

"On the Borderline" single now available

2009-11-23T17:55:00.012Z

On 19th November, Kayla Kavanagh launched her special release single "On the Borderline" at the inaugural PD Congress in Birmingham. The 1st National Personality Disorder Congress was a two day event celebrating success - innovation, knowledge & understanding. As an invited Keynote Speaker, Kayla was privileged to be a part of such an important event raising awareness of Personality Disorder. Her single sold out at the event, and is now available as a Digital Download.

Photographs of Kayla's performance are now online on her FaceBook Musician Page.

Kayla on Borderline Personality Disorder

2009-10-20T17:16:00.008+01:00

Kayla talks about her experience with Borderline Personality Disorder. The background music is the soon to be released special edition single "On the Borderline".

http://www.kaylakavanagh.com

Countdown to the Edinburgh Fringe ...

2009-08-08T10:48:00.001+01:00

Following the success of her debut Fringe performances in 2008, Kayla returns to the 2009 Festival with her critically acclaimed 'one woman band' stage show.

Kayla will be performing at the popular venue of The Space @ Jury's Inn for six nights in Week 2 of the Fringe: Monday 17th - Saturday 22nd August at 8:30pm.

Show name: Kayla Kavanagh
Location: The Space @ Jury's Inn - Venue 260
Dates: Monday 17th - Saturday 22nd August
Time: 20:30 - 21:15
Tickets: £8 (£6) Buy Online

Watch out for High Street Stage performances and Open Mics ... to keep updated on these and other impromptu free shows follow Kayla on Twitter, FaceBook or MySpace.

Kayla Kavanagh interviewed on BBC Radio

2009-03-25T13:15:00.003Z

Kayla was invited to BBC Radio Sheffield to be interviewed by Gareth Evans during the popular 9am-12am Entertainment show. Gareth quizzed Kayla on her successful 2008 UK tour, her exciting new business Kaleidoscope Digital, and found out about her plans for 2009.

Two exclusive clips from the forthcoming album "Stranger than Fiction" (released through Selva Sound) were debuted on air during the show.

To listen to the full 15 minute interview, click here.

Kayla interviewed at the Fringe

2008-10-02T15:56:00.000+01:00

Kayla being interviewed with performance highlights from by the Edinburgh Festival Internet, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Interviewed by Pol Steele at The Music Box, Stevenson College in August 2008.

Listen to Kayla's BBC Interview!

2008-02-13T15:52:00.006Z

How embarrassing.

Honestly there is nothing worse than hearing your own voice on the radio. Especially when excited talking about campervans. You can now listen to the full 15 minutes of chat, campervans, live music and everything inbetween if you click here. The BBC have archived the live performances which will be forever available to the world (apparently) on the Raw Talent website, which is quite exciting.

I'm currently in the midst of applying for funding for the upcoming stream of gigs and Edinburgh Festival, which is all a bit daunting. The Kamper doesn't pay for itself and devoting all my time to either being in the studio recording or working out what a 40% guarantee on Box Office takings is.

Answers on a postcard please ...

BBC Radio Live Broadcast

2008-01-26T15:57:00.006Z

So this is the new blog then ... my wee virtual tour diary of what's happening in the land of Kayla Kavanagh and the debut album / Kampervan tour in 2008! The year has started really well with lots of Festivals and various random gigs already booked, and I've just done my first BBC interview and live performance which was very exciting :)

You can listen again to the broadcast here. I got the chance to give the upcoming CD single "Fallen" its debut, followed by a couple of live songs from the new album ... which we're currently in the studio recording.

Watch this space ...