Meet Kaylee Daugherty | Singer, Musician & Teacher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kaylee Daugherty and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kaylee, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I am from the little ol’ town of Banning, California up near Riverside. As an only child, I was heavily supported by my parents and that has given me the confidence to try wild things, fall on my face, and try again.

I really do think that we are a culmination of our opportunities, whether purposefully or not, and I am who I am today from a mixture of happenstance and hard work. As a child in church, I was given opportunities to perform in a choir and worship team setting. In elementary school I was able to join band as a percussionist, in high school marching band as drum captain and in university concert band as percussion section leader. As a teen there was a city program in Banning called the Youth Arts Council which gave youngins a safe place to try new things, work together and polish cringey moments into something to be proud of. Actively in my adulthood as a worship leader (and passively at my Christian university where chapel attendance was mandatory), my ears began to absorb ideas of melody, harmony, improvisation, “changes”, leadership and collaboration.

In recent years opportunities have more directly led me down my current path. Jazz bassist Curtis Price encouraged me to join MiraCosta’s vocal jazz ensemble Frequency led by Matt Falker, which was my first exposure to jazz. It was exciting and confusing and all the colors in between. Curtis and his friends were gigging and a world was opened up to me that I did not realize could ever be available to me. I was never the best singer around, never the winner of competitions growing up, and I thought that those legitimately pronounced “singers” had to be the best of the best. I started gigging as I started my grad program for special education (where upon our orientation the president advised us to “say goodbye to our family and friends” and anything outside of the program for the next 5 quarters, advice I did not heed). My life was full to the brim, often spilling over, but the exhilaration and fulfilment of simultaneously living two distinct lives left me very satisfied.

As I have gigged the last few years and recently settled into pursuing music full time, I have realized that there is room at the table for me in the San Diego music scene and have since settled into my place. I don’t expect to ever be at the head of this table or necessarily desire to be, but I am so happy to be included and include others in the loving music community of San Diego.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
As an artist the idea of “branding” ourselves is a somewhat necessary evil, even though we are multi-dimensional beings that do not fit neatly in boxes. In cold-calls/emails, actual rejection only occurs maybe 5% of the time, however a rate of 90% radio silence is expected, leaving a defeating 5% success rate. Especially as a free-lance artist, the act of continuously marketing yourself for one-off work, and bartering a price tag for product, is exhausting and creates self-reflection that can be beneficial but also self-doubt which can destroy you.

A friend was helping me with my website recently, asking me to describe myself and style in a few specific words for the front page. It really left me at a loss. In a field where you always want to say “yes” to any kind of gig, to make a few bucks, connections or even to appear “busy” to the scene and therefore desirable (gross, I know), it is easy to start to have an identity crisis where you don’t know who you are (cue Sell-out by Reel Big Fish). We all need to put bread on the table, build a following and a reputation for ourselves, and hone our craft, so widespread gigging isn’t necessarily reprehensible, but as I am settling into the scene I do find myself yearning to define the product marketed as “Kaylee Daugherty”.

What I do know about myself is that I have an itch for rhythm which is scratched by Latin jazz as well as funk. I am both intrigued and baffled by the harmony that I encounter in swing. I have a passion for passion itself, which blues is drenched in. These are the genres that I have dug into professionally and where I am beginning to establish an identity.

If something sets me apart from others it is probably my interest in language. My brain enjoys puzzles and each language offers its own set of patterns to discover. I also respect that learning languages brings communities together and can gravely help others (as I write this I flashback to when my basic knowledge of sign language encouraged a deaf, nearly blind and disabled homeless man out of moving traffic). In music, Portuguese can transport a listener to Rio, Spanish to Veracruz, as well as transport listeners to their childhood. It is such a powerful tool. This has encouraged me to spend time daily learning Portuguese on Duolingo (shout out to my main owl) and crawling through classic literature in Spanish. I continuously grapple with the idea of telling stories that are not my own, walking the line of appreciation and appropriation, but nevertheless I am proud of myself for engaging in a lifelong journey with language, and thankful that something that makes me happy can also be shared to make others happy.

Along the way I have learned that failure is a passing moment that you can use to dig up your grave or your buried treasure. You can let the sight of other musicians farther along in their journey to success discourage you or inspire you. You can wait for opportunities to come and shrug your shoulders when they don’t, or you can create your own opportunities. We all construct our lives–though some people were given nicer tools from the start and have had helping hands in the manufacture, all of us can grow and succeed and become something we are proud of. I started my journey in jazz later in life with no formal training but because I was persistent, I am now a professional singer. I want others to know that growth is possible for them too if you work to make it happen.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Mornings we could go paddleboard in the Carlsbad lagoon, snorkel off of La Jolla Cove, hike Torrey Pines or lay in the grass at Balboa Park. Afternoons we could go to the Yellow Deli in Vista, get some bomb Asian buffet from Natsumi Sushi and Seafood Buffet in Mira Mesa or do a Mystery Picnic scavenger hunt from one of AmazingCo’s San Diego locations. At night we could get ice cream at Handel’s, catch a show from one of my homies or rent a glow-boat off of Coronado.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to thank my parents for their continuous support in my life whether its moving across the world, picking up a hobby for 1.5 weeks or changing careers. I want to thank the church and my father for my introduction to music, Curtis Price & Matt Falker for my introduction to jazz, and San Diego pianist and composer Irving Flores for being my current mentor in jazz and taking a chance on me when I entered the scene. I want to thank my past employer for firing me so I would make the jump into the cold water that is full-time musicianship. I want to thank Andrew Bustamante of Bardic Management for getting those of us in the scene a steady stream of work. I want to thank Justin Joyce for his unending support and putting up with, and at times one-upping, my shenanigans. I want to thank my homie Laurel Nelson, a frequenter of my gigs (inebriated or otherwise).

Website: kayleedaughertymusic.com

Instagram: @kayleedaughertymusic @mojorepairshop

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT604jqqVKwawCFVidmPIZA

Other: booking@kayleedaughertymusic.com

Image Credits
Danny Z. Gutierrez, Tristan Faulk-Webster, Kaila Rayne