Name: Kaleida
Members: Cicely Goulder, Christina Wood
Nationality: English-German
Current release: Kaleida's third full-length album In Arms is out via Embassy One.

If you enjoyed this Kaleida interview and would like to stay up to date with the band and their music, visit the duo's official homepage. They are also on Instagram, and Facebook.

For a deeper dive, we recommend our earlier Kaleida interview with Cicely about the production of In Arms.



Cicely, as always on a Kaleida album, the vocals sound incredible. Part of it is of course purely down to the beauty of the voice. But how do you capture that beauty in the studio?

Cicely: I think vocal approach should be minimal – let the voice shine through. I never use autotune, only Melodyne and sporadically. I love hearing different intonations in the notes – it’s so boring and predictable to have everything in tune.

Listen to any amazing jazz singer and it’s what lies between the notes that brings the character, the human, the story. Thankfully AI will never be able to achieve this!

It has often been claimed it's because electronic music sounds cold and humans add warmth to it … But Kaleida's music doesn't sound cold at all and still the combination between the instruments and the vocals makes for a combination I don't think an acoustic or electric band could ever achieve …

Cicely: That’s kind of you to say. I actually don’t think electronic music does necessarily sound cold but there’s definitely an interesting interplay between the human and mechanical with voice and electronics.

It’s funny because analog gear now sounds very warm so perhaps it’s all relative and digital will feel warm in comparison to what’s made in 50 years from now?

Christina, do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in your voice and singing? How and when did you start singing?

Christina: I started singing in a dream state when I was 2 years old like most children. I remember walking along the halls of our old house in Kentucky and singing to myself.

It was my way of connecting with heaven. I still remember that feeling of pure bliss, escape, being in the flow, connecting to another plane of existence, a secret place I could access …

Singing is an integral part of all cultures, and traditions. Which of these do you draw from – and why?

Christina: I was part of a church choir for many years, so that choral hymnal sound is embedded in me. I love evening services, plain songs, medieval modal music …

But for me the most powerful form of singing that I draw from is folk music, especially from the American South … it’s just raw and emotional and untrained and the human voice can tell you so much when it’s free.

I get a real feeling when I listen to Appalachian ballads, it’s something about my childhood in Kentucky that I really draw from, like a compassion, a sadness, the beauty and the sorrow of life that you can really sense there.



What were some of the main challenges in your development as a singer/vocalist? Which practices, exercises, or experiences were most helpful in reaching your goals – were there also “harmful” ones?

Christina: Getting out of the soft palette is the hardest thing for me. I also find falsetto really hard …it doesn’t suit my personality somehow :)

So those are the things I true to focus on when I’m doing my vocal exercises, singing in the nose so to speak and getting more flexibility in my range. And of course, working on support muscles in the core.

I haven’t come across too many harmful ones yet.

What are the things you hear in a voice when listening to a vocalist? What moves you in the voices of other singers?

Christina: I hear vulnerability, emotional nakedness, empathy, honesty, an oldness, or depth, some kind of connection to the past and a deep understanding of the human condition. I also love uniqueness, unusual qualities that make that voice one of a kind.

Old Björk recordings have all of that, Beth Gibbons. Lana del Ray has a bluntness to her voice that I appreciate … and a singer I really admire for her technical and emotional skill is the Fado singer Maria Teresa de Noronha …

Listening to her is like watching vocal acrobatics. She has so much control over her dynamics, it’s unreal.



[Read our Ana Moura interview about the Fado]
[Read our Lina_ interview about the Fado]

How would you describe the physical sensation of singing? [Where do you feel the voice, do you have a visual sensation/representation, is there a sense of release or tension etc …]

Christina: When it’s going well, it’s like a moving meditation … it feels somewhat effortless, and connected, like a string of light moving from your pelvis out of your mouth to the sky.

What kind of musical settings and situations do you think are ideal for your own voice?

Christina: I love when a concert feels like a ritual primal union and you are all gathered round the campfire feeling deeply human together …

I don’t know if that suits my voice but that’s what I try to do at gigs – to create safe space for all to feel, heal through feeling, and the transcendent possibilities in music.



We have a speaking voice and a singing voice. Do these feel like they are natural extensions of each other, ends on a spectrum or different in kind?

Christina: I get really confused by this link.

Obviously they are connected but for me my singing voice is another part of me entirely, not my pedestrian speaking voice, but a truer soul voice. They don’t feel particularly connected.

Our track ‘Convolution’ doesn’t really have words, but its own sort of primal language.



From whispers to screams, from different colours to dynamics, what are the potentials and limits of your voice? How much of your vocal performance can and do you want to control?

Christina: I want to control it all! Sadly, I can’t, I’m not that skilled of a singer.

I can control how I feel during the performance though, so I try to connect with that and sing it out.

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words?

Christina: Yes, the vowel sounds are really important. It all has to flow and no sound should stick out too much.

I admire singers though who have really wordy awkward sounding lyrics and just go for it. You have to own whatever you’re doing.

Strain is a particularly serious issue for many vocalists. How do you take care of your voice? Are the recipes or techniques to get a damaged voice back in shape?

Christina: I got a vocal pipe recently that helps with warm up and cool down. We’ll see how it works on tour in April.

Honestly my main issue is catching throat aches and colds from my toddlers!

Motherese may have been the origin of music, and singing is possibly the earliest form of musical expression, and culture in general. How connected is the human voice to your own sense of wellbeing, your creativity, and society as a whole?

Christina: If I don’t sing for a few weeks, I feel kind of matt. Singing gets my energy moving. It’s therapeutic, cathartic. I feel lighter after singing. I think most people do.

I wish that we still sang more as a group in our culture. It’s so good for the soul. Some cultures do it more than others. Two of my favorite memories are

1) being in Peru at my sisters for the Pukllay festivities, and everyone standing in a courtyard one evening spontaneously breaking into joyous song together, and
2) being in a pub in the middle of nowhere in Donegal, Ireland, and the whole room singing together!

Thank the universe for music. It’s the best.