Kyle Richardson, a Canadian pop artist, has just released his debut album, “Louder Than Words.” I spoke with the singer/songwriter about the record, his creative process, and the musical inspirations that led him to this stage in his career. 

“It’s the title of one of the album’s songs.” The entire song is about how love speaks louder than words. So I wanted to focus on that for the album in order to disseminate positivity,” Richardson replied when asked how he came up with the album’s title. 

“I wanted to write songs that were positive and uplifting, but had some soul to them,” he said. He stated that this album is intended to take you on a journey through the highs and lows that we all experience in our twenties and thirties. You can tell, especially while listening to some of his favorite songs on the album, such as Keep the Faith and Anything. These are songs he wrote in 2009, an important point in his career, which prompted Kyle to move to Vancouver in 2010. 

Kyle noted his significant love for the song “Anything.” “I just love the sentiment of the song,” Richardson said. He stated that it is all about being present for those you care about and letting them know how much they mean to you. 

According to Kyle, these songs were “impactful for the process of starting the album.” On a global scale, the last few years have been difficult for everyone. “I feel like music can inspire, uplift, and lighten the mood,” Richardson said. Keep the Faith was cited as an example because, although being an emotional and melancholy song, the chorus is highly uplifting to him. That’s how deep and detailed he is when it comes to not only writing the songs but also curating the final project. 

He’s worked in the industry and has written for Carly Rae Jepsen, DYLN, and Garrett Neiles. and has had songs utilized on television shows such as “Degrassi: The Next Generation” and “The L.A. Complex.” During that time, he released singles “here and there.” 

“I wasn’t ready before because I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with an entire project,” Richardson explained when asked why he didn’t release the album earlier. He was so forthright that he previously thought he was “chasing trends and trying to see what would get on the radio.” Instead of continuing down that road, Kyle chose to take a vacation from it all. 

That rest was just what he needed. Kyle stated, “I got a new perspective on life when I took that break.” As a result, when he began working with producer Jeff Dawson, he became far more precise, detailed, and patient. He stated that they would write one song about once a month. Then, once they were all finished, they would go back and make any required fixes and tweaks. 

“I had to get to a place where I could really commit to a project,” Richardson explained. He wanted to ensure that everything about this album was taken care of, from the songwriting to the visuals of the music videos and artwork. He was in a position to “embrace the process of it all.” 

Despite the album’s emotionally powerful and deep notes, Kyle wanted to ensure that it remained a pop-musical type album. “I was really tempted to pull from different musical elements while putting it through a pop lens,” he said. He comes from a time when pop musicians would offer you albums full of songs that carried your emotions to different places while still making it feel okay to go through whatever you were going through, from loneliness and heartbreak to simply questioning your existence. 

Kyle noted that the album’s soulful tones were inspired by his desire to “take it from a modern perspective but put a bit of a throwback vibe onto it.” Stevie Wonder, John Legend, John Mayer, James Arthur, and Gavin DeGraw are among his musical influences. Those feelings can be felt not only in his calligraphy but also in the way he crafts and films his music videos. 

Getting to this point in his career as a self-employed artist has been the zenith of his success. “No one tells me what I can and cannot do.” “I get to be as creative, open, and honest as I want,” Richardson said. 

Now that the next chapter of his life has begun, he is eager to return to create more music, engaging with his fans more deeply, and doing live events.