Until recently, Kiesza never envisioned a career as a solo performer, focusing her efforts on songwriting rather than producing her own material. That all changed with the success of “Hideaway,” an infectious, Chicago house-tinged slice of electro-pop that introduced the rising star to a global audience in early 2014.
“I figured I’d have a million side projects and be a writer for other people,” said the 26-year-old Calgary native, who has penned songs for the likes of Rihanna, Kylie Minogue and Icona Pop and released her debut album, “Sound of a Woman” in October, in a recent phone interview. “‘Hideaway’ definitely changed things.”
How was your recent experience at Coachella?
Oh, Coachella was amazing. It was my first time being there at all … so it was quite an experience for me. I didn’t know what to expect, or how many people would come out, but the tent was overflowing.
How do you fare in the sun? I’m Irish and Scottish, so it’s pretty much pass the tan and go straight to sun poisoning for me.
I’m allergic to the sun; I’m like a vampire. [Laughs.] I was dodging the sun and going from shade to shade. I had to be very careful.
Is it true you recorded your first song at 18 and heard it on the radio that same year?
Yeah, that’s true. I wrote a song on the guitar on a sailboat, and when I got home … I showed it to my neighbor down the street. He happened to be having a dinner party, and there was a radio announcer there. He liked the song, and he let me play it on the radio. It was strange to have the first song I ever wrote played on the radio.
Do things generally come that easily to you?
Songwriting does come easy to me. It’s always been natural and instinctive for me. I sort of feel it’s what I was created to do. That’s why I was directing myself more as a songwriter than a live musician.
Did you know immediately you’d hit on something with “Hideaway”?
I didn’t know that it would be big; I definitely felt connected to the song in a way I didn’t with others. My whole purpose was trying to find a great song to give to a bigger artist, and I couldn’t bring myself to give that one away. I figured I’d create a new side project, and it would be house-themed and soulful, and it would be something only my Facebook friends knew about. It’s definitely exceeded those expectations.
Considering you got your start in folk, what drew you toward this more electronic sound?
I didn’t choose to start in folk; I just happened to start out playing a classical guitar, and not very well. [Laughs.] My first songs were limited by my inability to play the guitar … so [the music] lent itself naturally to acoustic, folk-y music. As I got better at the guitar my sound really started evolving.
Did you find as your music moved into that electronic realm you started incorporating more technology into your day-to-day? Did you spend more time on your cell phone? Buy the newest video game systems?
I’m actually sort of the opposite. On tour a couple weeks ago I went out without my phone for like two weeks, which of course drove my team mad, but I like to purge myself of technology. I think it comes from being a sailor. When you’re on a boat sailing the ocean you get completely disconnected from everything. It’s just you and a boat and the ocean, and it’s quite amazing. I always crave to be disconnected like that.
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You actually joined the Royal Canadian Navy at 17. Are you eerily good at the board game Battleship?
[Laughs] I played that game when I was a kid. Maybe it made me better when I enlisted in the Navy.I read your love of the ’90s inspired “Hideway,” and then you worked with Duran Duran, who were obviously huge in the ’80s. Are you just working your way backwards through time?
[Laughs] The Duran Duran thing was totally spontaneous. Simon [Le Bon] was running [on] a treadmill in the gym and “Hideaway” was on the TV screen, so he called his friend who knew me. Then we ended up going into the studio like a week later.Considering you’re so drawn to the art of songwriting, do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong era, like you should have been around at the height of Tin Pan Alley?
What I loved about the Tin Pan Alley era was that it was such an era of discovery. People were creating new sounds. Right now there’s a lot of fusing of sounds that came from the past. It’s hard to discover a new sound right now! There’s a lot of recycling now, but that was a time when people were discovering, and that would have been exciting.
Andy Downing is a RedEye special contributor. @andydowning33
Kiesza, 7:30 p.m. April 27 at Metro. $25.