Artist Spotlight: Kaila Freid — Finding Her Sound, Her Look & Her Own Lane
Written by The Mixtape Queens
A Voice That Showed Up Before the Music Did
Born and raised in Belleville, New Jersey, Kaila Freid’s relationship with music began before she was old enough to understand what having a “gift” even meant. She had been singing since she was three years old, but one of the first moments her parents and grandfather truly recognized something different in her happened almost by accident: a cassette stopped working, and Kaila simply started singing instead. By ten, that voice was already finding its way beyond the walls of home. Kaila performed at the African American Festival in Montclair, New Jersey alongside gospel rapper Trag-Evalast, one of the first artists to recognize her talent. The two collaborated on his single “I’m Gonna Strive,” giving Kaila one of her earliest opportunities to perform and record music.
Trag-Evalast has since passed away, making that childhood collaboration something Kaila carries differently today. What began as an early musical experience became a memory that continues to motivate her to live up to the message embedded in the song itself: strive for more. And Kaila can laugh at the beginning, too. There’s still a video online from that era featuring her first time rapping — complete with what she jokingly describes as some very off-beat clapping. As she grew older, the stages became bigger. At 12, Kaila auditioned for The X Factor, advancing to roughly 600 contestants out of approximately 20,000 people. By 16, she was auditioning for both American Idol and The Voice. But those experiences also introduced her early to an uncomfortable reality of entertainment: sometimes talent isn’t the only thing being judged. At one point, she was told she didn’t have the right “look.” Years later, finding what that look — and more importantly, what her sound — actually means would become one of the defining parts of her journey.
FROM NOTEBOOKS TO WEATHERED PAGES
College opened another door. While studying communications and marketing, Kaila connected with Chuma “Hoodini,” who helped her record and produce her first song. In 2019, she released “Love Hostage,” a record carrying an island influence and marking an important step from someone who could sing into someone actively building a catalog of her own. Then COVID changed the rhythm of everything. While in school during the pandemic, Kaila filled notebooks with songs. With fewer distractions and plenty of uncertainty surrounding what came next, she began developing the part of artistry that happens before anyone hears the finished record: the writing.
She learned to build stories through songs. There were moments when she questioned whether music was something she wanted to continue pursuing at all. Then came an opportunity that shifted her direction.
Kaila won a scholarship to attend a songwriting retreat where she was discovered by Jeff Bresee, founder of Weathered Pages. The experience became a turning point, exposing her to different elements of songwriting and ultimately helping lead her into a private studio session. That distinction matters to Kaila’s story.
“Funny Bunny” and “Attached” had already been written before she entered the studio. What happened once she got there was another layer of artistry: collaboration. Creative decisions surrounding the final records were developed in the studio alongside Eric and her colleagues, helping transform songs that already existed on paper into the finished releases listeners would eventually hear. Those became Kaila’s first major studio releases and another step toward something she says took years to truly discover: her own sound. The artist emerging now is intentionally fun, experimental, bold, playful and undeniably feminine. There’s pink. There’s personality. There’s humor. But underneath all of it is a songwriter who spent years figuring out how to stop chasing an image and start creating from a place that actually feels like herself.
FINDING HER SOUND — AND WHAT COMES NEXT:
For Kaila, being an independent artist means learning how to become more than the person behind the microphone.
Her current goals include gaining greater exposure, continuing to build her brand and navigating the reality of wearing multiple hats independently. Her background in communications and marketing gives her another lens through which to understand that process, but finding her footing in the industry has still been exactly that — a process. And now, she feels closer to her artistic identity than she has before. Kaila wants listeners to take what they need from her records. Sometimes that means having fun. Sometimes it means hearing a story that mirrors their own. And sometimes Kaila may be telling a story she hasn't personally lived at all. That is part of what excites her about songwriting. She has an ability to put herself in someone else’s shoes and translate their emotions into music, allowing the song to become a vessel for experiences bigger than her own. For an artist who describes herself as bold, loud, playful and someone who genuinely loves helping people, music gives those qualities somewhere to meet.
Her next chapter will show another side of that range.
Kaila is preparing to release “Death Wish,” an emotionally driven piano ballad inspired by coming to grips with yourself through relationships. The song is produced by Eric Holts, a Blue October producer, and co-written with Justin Furstenfeld of Blue October. Built around strong vocals and a more emotionally intense approach, the record offers another glimpse into the versatility Kaila has spent years uncovering.
From the three-year-old singing when the cassette stopped, to a ten-year-old performing alongside someone who believed in her talent, to competing among thousands, filling notebooks during COVID, entering songwriting retreats and finally beginning to recognize her own creative identity — Kaila Freid’s story has never really been about suddenly becoming an artist.
She’s been one.
The journey now is about becoming the artist she wants to be — without allowing anyone else to decide what she is supposed to look or sound like.
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