Kaleah Lee turns youthful uncertainty into indie-folk gold

“I don’t mind solving equations / To problems I’ve made / I’m checking my work back,” Kaleah Lee whispers on ‘Asking Price’, one of the incredibly intimate songs that make up her debut EP, ‘Birdwatcher’. The seven-track record shows the Canadian singer-songwriter in gentle problem-solving mode, reflecting on who she is, her experiences and emotions with careful consideration, working through things in the hopes of understanding herself better.

Born and raised in the Vancouver suburbs, Lee first started gaining attention online via her equally thoughtful covers of songs by Phoebe Bridgers, SZA, Taylor Swift, Bon Iver and more. But its her original songs that have shown just how special a talent she is; songs that share a quietness and stillness with Gracie Abrams, but backed by a perspective all of Lee’s own.

“I’m not a very emotionally vocal person – and not a very vocal person in general,” Lee tells NME from her home. “Writing helps me to pinpoint what I’m feeling because, a lot of the time, there’s 80 things going on in my head.” Her songs, to her, are like miniature time capsules, documenting how she feels in a particular moment. For listeners, that feeling is mutual, each gorgeous track like stumbling on a secret shared only with you.

Ahead of the release of ‘Birdwatcher’ on Friday (March 22), Lee tells us how her love of poetry turned into writing songs, getting recognised by Taylor Swift and Bon Iver, and the stories behind her debut EP.

The first music you shared was covers. What made you take that into writing your own songs?

“At the time I started doing covers more consistently – when I made the TikTok account and whatnot – that’s when I started writing [my own songs]. I haven’t been doing it for too long. I just am always listening to music and that was very inspiring. Also, I wouldn’t write music necessarily, but poems and then connecting that to the music thing just felt right and worked. But it was just through listening to lots of things. I started playing guitar and everything because of Taylor Swift, like most young girls, so that was definitely an inspiration.”

Where does your love of poetry come from?

“I’m honestly not sure. My earliest memories of being introduced to poetry are my sister had poetry books and I don’t know why I felt like this, but I felt like I wasn’t allowed to read them. But when she wasn’t home, I would go read them, and she wouldn’t know. Then I just started writing my own in my journal – I journal a lot. [Poetry was a way] not to write an entry but more of an expressive thing. I think that was another outlet that I discovered later on.”

With feeling like you weren’t allowed to read your sister’s poetry books, did that make poetry feel like something secret and more intimate and personal?

“Yeah – I didn’t even think of it that way, but for sure, because it felt like I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t do this’. No one knew I was reading it or what I was doing, so it was definitely very personal. I remember when I started writing more, I would always do it super late at night, or when I couldn’t sleep, so it was also definitely a little secret thing.”

There’s a recurring thread of honest songwriting in both the songs you choose to cover and the songs you write. What draws you to that approach in songwriting?

“I think because it feels almost necessary for me to process things or work through things in a way that are just very about me, which just sounds crazy and selfish – but it’s a way I’m working through things so it just because very reflective and honest. It’s bound to be because it’s exactly what I’m feeling and what’s going on in my world at that moment.”

Taylor Swift and Bon Iver have both responded to your covers of their songs – what were those moments like?

“I don’t even remember what I was doing, but it was weird. So weird! The internet has made such a strange sense of [things not being] real – it’s not very concrete, obviously. So to see a username pop up and they’ve commented something or liked something I’ve made, it’s just weird. There’s a disconnect that I think I still haven’t really fully processed, but it’s very crazy to me.”

Your debut EP is called ‘Birdwatcher’ and in the title track you describe yourself as one. What is the significance of birdwatching here?

“When I was writing that song, I was looking for a word that rhymed, and birdwatcher was on the list on RhymeZone. I was drawn to it for some reason. I was like, ‘I have an idea of what birdwatching is – you are watching birds!’ But I Googled it and found out that people actually do it for mental health, mindfulness and grounding. That was a super important aspect of it that I had no idea people were serious about.

“It just fit the song perfectly – it’s very meditative and you’re very grounded and focused on what you’re doing. This whole project was me being able to sit and be mindful of myself and how I’ve been in whatever situation I’m writing about so it worked perfectly.”

The EP starts with a poem. How does that set the tone for everything that follows on this record?

“The poem is just reflective questions, and I think, throughout the EP, each song is me reflecting on a certain situation or aspect of myself. So, to open up with the poem that’s asking questions about those things lets you get a foot in the door of what you’re about to listen to and experience. It also felt right to have in there because poetry is still a huge part of how I write and what I do in my day-to-day.”

Closing track ‘Wake’ especially feels like a moment of taking stock and transformation. What’s the story behind that song?

“I wrote that a day or two after I came home from a little tour and being away for a bit. I had a hard time with that – I think I felt like I had grown in little ways that I don’t think were possible to do just being in my home or a very familiar environment. I was thrown into something completely different for a bit and enjoyed it.

“To have to come home and everything still be exactly how I left it and to feel a bit smaller was hard. That was a turning point for me and realising how much I want to move away from home and get out and explore and do and see things. That was a very, very important time for me.”

What do you want people to take from this EP?

“To let yourself experience different things without trying to interfere with them as they’re happening. For me, I have so many parts – I have a part of myself that’s very practical, but then there’s also the majority of how I think is very free and just lets things happen. When the practical side gets in the way of the free side, it can interfere with growth.

“I’m a big advocate for letting yourself be and feel what you feel, so I hope people listen to this and see the things that I went through, and how I’m dealing with them and letting myself birdwatch or watch myself without interfering or trying to change anything.”

Kaleah Lee’s ‘Birdwatcher’ EP will be self-released on March 22 

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