This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Josh Mitchell: In the spirit of reconciliation, we are theatre acknowledges the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community.

[0:08] Josh Mitchell: We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

[0:27] Josh Mitchell: Hello, theatre fans one and all. Welcome back to the We Are Theatre Podcast. Today we're jetting back overseas for the first time this year, and I've got Kayleigh here from the UK. Hey Kayleigh, how you going?

[0:35] Kayleigh McKnight: Hi. I am really excited. I'm fabulous, guys. I'm so excited about this.

[0:42] Josh Mitchell: Kayleigh's been on my Spotify playlist for about a year now. Um, when I discovered, I think through TikTok. I think I saw one of your videos, and I was like, the vocals, and like instantly into my playlist. So this is kind of a little music nerd chat for me, guys. So this can be cool.

[1:01] Kayleigh McKnight: Because do you know how scared I was to start doing TikTok? And I've actually been so bad at it for the last like six months. And then I was like, I'm just gonna put myself out there. And this one video I had, yeah, it must have been when I first released my music, yeah, went so viral, got like half a million views on it, and I gained like 15,000 followers overnight or something. And all it was was me chatting to camera, like please stream my songs, and I've done all these other videos of me like doing riff challenges, writing songs in like an hour and like fully producing them. They've got no hits, and then this one where I was like, please just if you're watching this, please stream my music, and it did well.

[1:39] Josh Mitchell: So the algorithm, right?

[1:41] Kayleigh McKnight: The algorithm, and now you're out here getting reactions from Tori Kelly, so you know.

[1:45] Josh Mitchell: I know, like what the hell? The universe the joy of social media. Um, let's strip it back to theatre. We'll come back to music in a bit. Um, yeah, how did you start in the industry? What was your introduction to theatre and performing?

[2:01] Kayleigh McKnight: Um should we go like way back?

[2:03] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, let's go way back.

[2:05] Kayleigh McKnight: Let's start at the start.

[2:06] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, we might as well in the beginning.

[2:09] Kayleigh McKnight: In the beginning. Um yeah, I was a super shy kid, uh, which is shocking for people who know me now. Um I was super super shy. And so my parents are like, what do we do with her? Let's put her in drama classes. And that was the beginning of the end. Um they didn't know what they'd put themselves in for at that point. Um and so yeah, I used to just I mean, I just loved musicals as a kid. And yeah, I kind of look at theatre fandom now and go, God, I wish I'd been it'd been like that when I was a teenager.

[2:41] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[2:41] Kayleigh McKnight: There's so much community in that now. Whereas before I used to just like be like, Mom, please come and see Wicked of Me again. Um, you know, I used to just get basically go with my mom and see all the shows, and I never used to stage door because I was too shy. Um, and then I yeah, I started auditioning for like Amdram stuff when I was a kid and my I got a singing teacher through that, and then you know, she was sort of like I feel like you should take this seriously. Um and so yeah, I auditioned for drama school. I didn't get in the first year, uh, and then I ended up going to Guild School of Acting. Good old GSA.

[3:20] Josh Mitchell: GSA.

[3:23] Kayleigh McKnight: Um and then yeah, and then after that it was just I just auditioned and you know, I came out of drama school and thought I was like, yes, I'm ready, and then I worked in a hospital for a year. Um so um it was it was a hard start, you know, yeah. But um yeah, and then I I did a few kind of you can't do it it's not even allowed to do anymore but like profit share jobs when I first started where you basically didn't get paid yeah um and you know and then I really randomly booked my first West End gig it was Bend It Like Beckham the musical banger it's so niche and people are like oh my god you were in that show it feels like a fever dream you know um and then that was kind of it I've been really lucky ever since then and I've just sort of managed to put my head down and and do a few nice jobs so yeah it's been all right and there we are we're wrapped up to here.

[3:41] Josh Mitchell: Um do you remember your what your first show was like as a as a kid going to see your first production what do you remember what it was?

[3:41] Kayleigh McKnight: I saw Fame the musical in the West End and do you know how I remember this because it was my birthday I must it must have been like my my 11th birthday or my 10th birthday or something and my mum had booked me this like red letter day it's like this thing over here where it's like experiences and I got this experience to go to a drama school for a day and it was it was basically doing like a day school at Sylvia Young Theatre School which is like this drama school for kids.

[4:54] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[4:54] Kayleigh McKnight: And um I did like a day workshop there and then mum booked to take me to Fame and that was it that was my first taste of musicals and obviously it was all about going to performing art school as well so very very well themed by my mother. Really and then she didn't realize what she was doing was setting me up lit the flame.

[5:16] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[5:17] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah. But that was the first one, and I just remember coming out like, oh my God.

[5:21] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[5:22] Kayleigh McKnight: This is amazing, you know. So yeah.

[5:25] Josh Mitchell: As a fully fledged theatre kid now in adulthood. Um, what are some of your favorite shows across the spectrum? Like if you had to pick three shows to go to this weekend, can be past or present shows. If we could bring anything back to the West End or put any three shows on right now. Just a view, what are they?

[5:48] Kayleigh McKnight: Okay. One of them is re-road, because this was a love or hate show. But Lord of the Rings, the musical.

[5:55] Josh Mitchell: Oh my gosh.

[5:56] Kayleigh McKnight: Okay. I saw that show like six times. And I'm not ashamed to admit it.

[6:02] Josh Mitchell: Starting off strong.

[6:04] Kayleigh McKnight: Very strong and rogue. Um so that. Um Wicked is up there in my top three. Classic. I was of that era when it first started, you know. So I saw Idina when Idina did it over here. And it was a lot. I sat in that auditorium, and when Defying Gravity finished, my mum turned to look at me in the interval when I was just crying.

[6:26] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[6:26] Kayleigh McKnight: Crying little bit. It just makes you cry for no reason. Like you know.

[6:31] Josh Mitchell: No, not it's just like it's an overwhelming.

[6:36] Kayleigh McKnight: Why am I doing this? This person's just doing their job, but damn, you did it right. You know, it was Idina in her heyday.

[6:44] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[6:44] Kayleigh McKnight: Giving it ah, and you know, it was the best. It was everything my little theater nerd dreamed of.

[6:50] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[6:50] Kayleigh McKnight: And then it happened for me. It was the best. So yeah, Wicked and my last one. Ah, I would love to see, and I've never seen a production of it. I would love to see a production of The Wild Party.

[7:02] Josh Mitchell: Interesting.

[7:04] Kayleigh McKnight: Yes. That is a really unique collection right there.

[7:08] Josh Mitchell: I know.

[7:09] Kayleigh McKnight: We're going one mainstream and we're pulling two out of nowhere.

[7:12] Josh Mitchell: That's completely.

[7:13] Kayleigh McKnight: That's so good. I am a nerd though. You have to understand. Like I love Six. I love, you know, all the kind of big ones, but I am a nerd. Like I love my niche musicals. If someone brings me a new musical I don't know, I get really excited about it.

[7:28] Josh Mitchell: Speaking of niche that's coming to London, folks, the cast just got announced Head Over Heels.

[7:32] Kayleigh McKnight: Head Over Heels. I saw it on Broadway. Get to it. Best show. Completely underrated. Best show, best show, best show. Go see.

[7:40] Josh Mitchell: Really?

[7:43] Kayleigh McKnight: 100%. I absolute vibe. It's all like Go-Go's music set in like this fantasy kind of so good. Like imagine Lord of the Rings mixed with um.

[7:57] Josh Mitchell: You could say I would say mixed with oh no, and Juliet.

[8:01] Kayleigh McKnight: Lord of the Rings mixed with and Juliet.

[8:03] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[8:03] Kayleigh McKnight: So and Juliet's kind of music vibe with like the costumes as well. Like it does not give off that vibe though from the marketing. I don't know how it's being produced on the West End, but on Broadway, oh, so good.

[8:19] Josh Mitchell: And I saw it like in a half full house, like two weeks before it closed. But like so good. So good. 10 out of 10.

[8:26] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah, I need to go. Also, because just wonderful people in it.

[8:31] Josh Mitchell: 100%.

[8:32] Kayleigh McKnight: The cast looks so good. The cast is gorgy gorgeous for all my Aussie listeners that aren't in the UK theatre scene. Go check it out because the cast is stacked with some incredible established but also up and coming talent as well, which is really, really good.

[8:48] Josh Mitchell: Um, from your perspective on stage and offstage, what's some of your favourite theatre experiences as a whole that you've had?

[8:57] Kayleigh McKnight: Oh yeah, we're getting such a good question. Yeah, that's such a good question. I think okay, so one of them being so I'm really lucky that got to do Les Mis. Like that was a big bucket list show for me. 100%. And singing One Day More the day before we finished, so we had One Day More, is honestly the hardest thing I've probably ever done.

[9:22] Kayleigh McKnight: And all of us came off and were like and the very first time we did at the end of the day, and it's like the ba ba ba ba, and you're like lifting your head up. Oh my god, the adrenaline was coursing through my veins. So that was the first show that I ever did in like an amateur level too. So like there's just so many elements to that show that as a patron is like really exciting. But when you're on stage as well, it's like every little thing kind of gives you a different level of energy depending on where you are, and it either drains you or excites you, and it's just like you literally live it, and it's so intense.

[10:02] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah, I mean, that whole show was a dream job. So good, hey, genuinely, like anyway, but like even just like getting to be on the revolve, because that's not something that happened. Well, they don't even have it anymore. Like the revolve isn't a thing anymore. But I was probably one of the last like four companies or something like in that last four years that got to do it. Hold on. And so I am I'm like, I was on the revolve, and you know, just all of that older the old staging in Vercomers of the show, you know. I'm really lucky I got to do that. Yeah, and um, yeah, just being a part of a show that iconic is amazing anyway.

[10:35] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah, um, and then I think like we I was in the original company of Tina, the musical, which in itself was also amazing, just because A, you're making this new show, but B, it's like you're working with a legend.

[10:51] Kayleigh McKnight: You know, Tina came into rehearsals. I was just like, hi, nice to meet you shaking all of our hands. And I was literally like, oh my Turner, you know, and she's doing dance rehearsals with people, and still got moods at like 80. That's wonderful. And just, you know, I think I'm very lucky that in my theatre career, I've done work that's allowed me to have some very exciting experiences like that.

[11:20] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[11:21] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, you know, and the trap, I mean, luckily I've been to Australia with work, so it's, you know.

[11:27] Josh Mitchell: What have you done down here?

[11:28] Kayleigh McKnight: Well, I toured with Mr. Hugh Jackman.

[11:30] Josh Mitchell: Oh, yeah, I did see that on your resume.

[11:32] Kayleigh McKnight: So I got to talk about it. Just casually, you know, just a slight little flip. No, I yeah, weird because it's like not a theatre job, but was the campest, yeah, definitely most theatrical like singing job I've ever done in my life. Um, but also like amaz I think with my career, I'm very lucky I've been doing it for such a long time now, and I have managed to like meet these amazing people, also be in these like iconic shows, and then get to travel and meet like some of the most fantastically talented, wonderful human beings. I'm just very I'm if I had to stop today, I don't think I'd be disappointed. Like, there's more I want to do, but like I look at my career and go like, yeah, I'm happy if it had to stop here, like I'm really cool with that.

[12:20] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, you know, yeah, but also I don't want to stop yet. Let's not put that out there.

[12:25] Kayleigh McKnight: No, no, no. Let's continue that trend then.

[12:28] Josh Mitchell: Yeah. If you could put yourself into any show right now, if you have the opportunity just to walk in and jump on any track right now in the West End what building are you walking into?

[12:40] Kayleigh McKnight: Oh there's a couple. There's a couple. There's probably like three things I really want to do.

[12:46] Josh Mitchell: Okay.

[12:47] Kayleigh McKnight: Um one is obvious. It's the green girl. I want to be alpha. She doesn't. I want to be alpha birthday. Everyone wants to be green.

[12:55] Josh Mitchell: Yeah. 100%.

[12:56] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, see more in six. I'd love to do that at some point.

[13:01] Josh Mitchell: I can vibe that, yeah, 100%.

[13:03] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah. And then I really, really, really, and I won't get to because it's closing. Really want to play um Anna Hathaway and Juliet. I think that part is so fun.

[13:15] Josh Mitchell: Hey, that's so good.

[13:16] Kayleigh McKnight: And I I'm it's coming to Australia, but it's only coming to Melbourne. And I'm like, I'm gonna have to travel to it, and it's only around for like six weeks, and I'm like, I've gotta try and get time off.

[13:27] Josh Mitchell: You have to try.

[13:30] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah, I love the soundtrack, so I'm gonna have to get there. Um, let's talk about music. Um, non musical theatre stuff, guys. We've done this once before. Um and it I it went pretty well, so let's let's dig in again. Um if you had to put yourself into a genre, what because your sound is really unique.

[13:55] Josh Mitchell: I was showed showed your album to one of my friends yesterday, and she was like, This sound, I was like, I know, right? It's it's unique. How would you genre yourself?

[14:05] Kayleigh McKnight: I won't lie, I just think I'm fully fledged pop, to be honest.

[14:08] Josh Mitchell: Okay.

[14:09] Kayleigh McKnight: Like I'll take pop, but I also get told I'm like theatrical pop.

[14:14] Josh Mitchell: See, I vibe, you've got like this jazzy undertone.

[14:18] Kayleigh McKnight: I'll take the undertone. Like if you sit on like you and I and like home long enough, like it kind of sits in this like jazzy kind of I don't know. Uh it's an absolute vibe, either way. How did you get into songwriting and kind of doing your own music?

[14:38] Kayleigh McKnight: I mean, I just like started doing it. I know that sounds so stupid, but I'm not like a big musician musician, right? I don't play loads of piano, I suck at guitar. Um, and I used to write a few tunes here and there with my old housemate Reese, who is an amazing musician. Yeah. And then um I I just I was like, I really want to learn like how to sort of do things myself. So I started doing stuff on Garage Band. Um, and then when I went off on tour with you, and I had all this time on the bus, so I was like, I'm just gonna buy myself this little like key MIDI keyboard thing, and I just got bought logic and I just started doing stuff on that. And it and like top lines and melodies and lyrics come to me very easily, yeah, and I hear so much in my head.

It's just for me, the hard bit about writing music is translating it out of my head because I'm not the musician in the other sense. Yeah, um, so in a way, like I think it's for me, it was more just a case of going, okay, I'm just going to have to be patient with myself. Yeah, the music's always been there, it's just more been about finding the patience of getting it out. Um, and yeah, I just I just started, and I I know that's like the most boring, boring story. You're gonna start somewhere. We've just got to start, and so many people have said, like, oh, how do you get started with like writing music? And I'm like, you just have to start. Like there's no there's no. If you're trying to force it, it's not gonna work.

You just gotta kind of sit and kind of hang and it comes. Some of it is gonna be rubbish. Like some of it, some of the stuff I have written is rubbish. Like, I listen back and I'm like, oh, do we really do this? Like, I almost released that and it wasn't good. But like stuff that I've realized is rubbish, I'm now going, actually, wait, I can take a bit of this and a bit of this and change this. Yeah, yeah. So, but it it is yeah, for me, it was just a case of going, right? I just I just want to, I just want to, so I'm just gonna do it. And I'm very lucky that I'm working with a little independent label in London and they uh found me, and then it's just sort of been there, and you know, I'm lucky I've had that encouragement because I think without that, maybe I would have slowed down, but I'm very lucky that they're they're on my back a little bit, like, come on, more music, let's go.

[16:59] Josh Mitchell: So do you find yourself kind of taking because like obviously theatrical voices are very strong in terms of like compared to people that are just doing music as a career and haven't gone on stage? You can tell the difference between someone that's got a theatre background and someone that's a a musician at heart. Um I think your vocals kind of show that in some of your riffs and the way you kind of play on certain things. There's certain things, even like some friends that have heard some stuff that I've shared, they're like disgusting.

[17:33] Kayleigh McKnight: Oh my god. I'm like, that's just theater, bro. Like, that's just we've got to hit this. It's easy brush theater book. Um, do you find yourself like that easy to incorporate across to like music? Is that just something that just clicks and goes, Oh yeah, we're just gonna Yeah.

[17:48] Kayleigh McKnight: If anything, I get told to rein it in.

[17:51] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[17:51] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah. Like I I do too much, and then like my producer's like, yo. We're not Mariah, Gary. Let's let's try it, let's just wind this back. We're only on the first chorus. Let's just wait till the end before we get the whistle notes. Okay, Mariah, let's calm down. Um but yeah, it is it is definitely like for me, uh with writing music, I try and I look at artists like Yebba, for example, who you know, she's not musical theater, but she grew up with like gospel, or like Renee Rapp, for example, who's just started releasing her own music. Yeah, yes, she's come from a Broadway background, but she writes music that allows herself to have that vocal that she wants. Yeah, and she does it well, she treads the line so well. Yeah, so I'm always striving for that with the music that I'm writing, that I'm writing stuff that I enjoy performing and challenges me to perform.

[18:44] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, that's yeah, you know, you're not kind of restraining yourself just to kind of sit in a can like I know I can do this, so I'm gonna write stuff that's gonna allow me to actually do it. Like, yeah, completely. And also it's been fun for me to like explore other parts of my voice that I you don't use in theatre because you know, you can't do all the breathy stuff with theatre because it doesn't sound like you wouldn't do that when you're speaking, for example. But it so that's been really fun for me, is actually going, Oh, I actually can use this part of my voice that I don't normally use in theatre work. So, yeah, it's been it's definitely been a journey discovering my voice in that way.

[19:21] Josh Mitchell: I was gonna ask you where you draw your inspiration from, but your Twitter bio kind of sums that up pretty well. Um write songs about boys who made me cry and prance around on stage.

[19:32] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah.

[19:33] Josh Mitchell: I was like, look, kind of answers the question for me. But yeah, I mean, any of my friends will tell yeah, go on.

[19:41] Kayleigh McKnight: In terms of like sitting down, like, is it something that you kind of um go through something and write, or is it just something that kind of starts flowing and you're like, okay.

[19:53] Kayleigh McKnight: I I think it's a bit of both. Like, I I don't tend to like something doesn't happen, and then the next day, like I write a song about it. But like definitely I draw inspiration from stuff that's happened to me. I was gonna say, like, if you speak to any of my friends or anyone that's followed me on social media for a long time will know I am not lucky with the dating. I'm very lucky now I've actually got a boyfriend, and he's really nice. That's like not happened to me for years, and I keep joking with people that my music's gonna suck now because I'm quite happy. Um but like you know, I was quite unlucky in the dating field, yeah, and you know, went through some pretty major heartbreak, and and it did inform a lot of what I was writing, but also I wanted to kind of make that accessible, which is why songs like Fix You and You and I are not big heartbreak songs, but you know, fix you is literally about how so many of us go into relationships going, I'm gonna fix them and it's gonna be so fine.

And it's like so much. No, but yeah, it's three songs between that and home. I'm just like, this is written for me. Like, this is my album right here. And those those three songs were really written very close together, actually. I think you can kind of hear that in the production of them too. But like it they were written so close together and and they were all sort of around the same sort of period of time. And you can tell. But yeah, I think everything is chalked up to experience. And and I write songs now that are about things that happened to me like seven years ago. Or I write about things that haven't happened but could happen, and I use my life experience to draw on that.

[21:32] Kayleigh McKnight: And I think that's the joy of being an actor writing music because so much of what we do is learning about people and trying to imagine what is in someone else's head.

[21:42] Kayleigh McKnight: Um and I think writing music is very similar, so I enjoy all of that really.

[21:46] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, cool. Do you have a like a process or like uh a time that you kind of sit to write, or is it something like cool, I've got something sitting on my chest right now, everybody go away, and I've just got to get this out on paper?

[21:58] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah, I I it it differs. Like if I'm told I have to sit and write, I find it really hard.

[22:05] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[22:06] Kayleigh McKnight: So it always comes to me at the most inconvenient times. I'll be in the shower, and then I'm like, oh, I've got an idea. I've got an idea. And I'm like reaching for my phone, voice note in the shower, you know?

[22:16] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, or I wake up at 3 a.m. and I'm like, I must write this down, and then I listen to the voice note back in the morning and I'm like, what am I even doing? Why did I wake up for that?

[22:25] Josh Mitchell: I know.

[22:26] Kayleigh McKnight: But it is it is amazing some of the stuff that comes out when you're not thinking about it. And so generally speaking, what I do is I collate ideas and ideas and ideas, and then I sit and kind of go, Oh, let's just see what's here, and I don't put too much pressure on myself.

[22:39] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[22:39] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, rather than going today, I'm gonna write a song about this. It's like, okay, let's just listen to this thing, and what does this feel like to me?

[22:46] Kayleigh McKnight: Which is such a kind of weird phrase. But I always feel like the music in the melody feels like something, yeah.

[22:53] Kayleigh McKnight: And then I was like, I mean, that kind of draws the and drives the like emotion behind the show uh song. Like, is this a happy, sad? Like, are we going heartbreak? Are we going cheerful? Like, how we completely.

[23:04] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, 100%.

[23:04] Kayleigh McKnight: It's all driven from the city. And again, and again, like the musical theater background is all of that, right? Like the music drives the narrative.

[23:10] Kayleigh McKnight: So it's like, how did I have an education in musical theater? It's finally come in useful. Um, but yeah, it is it's it's all so interlinked.

[23:19] Josh Mitchell: So hey, it's helpful.

[23:21] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah. Um, going from like starting out writing your own stuff on a bus to being where you are now. Um having did I say you just booked your first festival?

[23:32] Kayleigh McKnight: I have, yeah.

[23:33] Josh Mitchell: So like seeing that process as like an individual artist in your own kind of world. Um, how do you look back on that journey and see how much you've changed as a artist yourself?

[23:51] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely been a process. And and and like there's been a lot of I mean, even now, like I look at that first EP and I think, oh gosh, like the stuff I'm writing now is is so much more mature and and I'm in the process of of sorting out like getting new photo shoots done and and getting my branding redone and like really solidifying what the sound is, and I feel so much more confident to just like push the boundaries of what I thought was viable.

[24:21] Kayleigh McKnight: Um I I worried so much in the beginning about creating music that I that I wanted people to like, yeah.

[24:26] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, and I love that I love all of the music I've released, I really, really do. But I also think there's a part of me there that went went really commercial with it.

[24:34] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah, to introduce it. To try and fit in a box kind of thing.

[24:38] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[24:39] Kayleigh McKnight: And and I love all those songs, but I think I'm liking more what I'm writing now because it's slightly just edging towards a little bit more of an interesting place for me musically. Hopefully everyone else feels the same.

[24:52] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, but it is it is uh yeah, it's definitely I've definitely grown in confidence and and just you know getting to play live, like the songs I was writing on a bus, yeah, you know, in the back of a bus in Australia or wherever, and now I'm like playing them live, might be playing them at a festival this well.

[25:09] Kayleigh McKnight: I am playing them at a festival this summer. That's mad.

[25:11] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, and like I play gigs and people sing the lyrics back at me, albeit it's like two people and my mum, but people are singing the lyrics back at me, which is crazy to me.

[25:20] Kayleigh McKnight: And you know, it is even if there was only 10 people at my show, that's 10 people that wouldn't that that like my music, and that is it's so amazing.

[25:29] Kayleigh McKnight: So yeah, it's even if even if this is the height of it, I'll be so look at me. I'll keep being like, if this is it, if this is the best, it is.

[25:38] Josh Mitchell: We're tapping ourselves, Kayleigh.

[25:39] Kayleigh McKnight: This isn't cool. I'm not gonna I'm not. I'm trying to do the whole like I am grateful, I am I am thankful, the universe has my back.

[25:48] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, but no, I am truly like I am so grateful for it at the minute, and it's I'm just excited now to to see what happens with I'm releasing new music this year, and yeah, I'm very excited to see what happens with that because I feel like I've really taken a big step on from where I was before.

[26:04] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, how do you go with balancing the two careers, like between both the different types of stages?

[26:10] Kayleigh McKnight: Um obviously like you've just come out of a tour itself. How do you look at looking after your personal brand as well as your theatre brand as well?

[26:20] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah, it's it's really weird. It's really weird, and I don't think I've nailed it yet. You know, I originally was like, I'm gonna create two social media accounts and like do things really differently, but it just didn't sit right with me.

[26:31] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[26:32] Kayleigh McKnight: Um I like to think that I'm quite honest on social media and quite personable on social media. I don't really put much of a front in the world.

[26:39] Josh Mitchell: I mean, your live tweeting of your World Cup of the World Cup, spot on.

[26:43] Kayleigh McKnight: That was an absolute gem to go back and read. Honestly.

[26:47] Kayleigh McKnight: Um honestly though, like I am what you see on social media, all my opinions are real, like yeah, but also, you know, my opinions might change, whatever, but I'm I'm very much just myself.

[27:00] Kayleigh McKnight: Like how we're chatting now is how I chat to my friends and everything. And I I don't want to kind of create some sort of persona for the music or a persona for the theatre, and it works for some people and they absolutely smash it, but I just I'm not cool enough for that.

[27:12] Kayleigh McKnight: I don't I cannot have a Sasha Fear Spyoncé thing going on. I'm not cool enough.

[27:16] Josh Mitchell: So I I'm trying to just be my own authentic self, and you know, I talk about my music a lot and I talk about my theatre stuff a lot, and I try now not to ignore the other one.

[27:31] Kayleigh McKnight: I I used to think I had to really separate the two for it to be successful, but I'm realizing that actually it it none of it means anything.

[27:38] Kayleigh McKnight: Like what will work will work for you. So I'm trying my very best to kind of keep it all in in one place.

[27:44] Josh Mitchell: It's hard though.

[27:45] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah, it is hard. 100%.

[27:47] Josh Mitchell: Um overarching because we've spent the whole time capping ourselves at certain things. What are some goals for both careers that we're looking at? Where would we like to be um in both music and theatre in let's say a couple of years' time?

[28:02] Kayleigh McKnight: Okay, well, in theatre, I want to nail a land role.

[28:04] Josh Mitchell: Uh land a land roll.

[28:06] Kayleigh McKnight: Lad role? A land role.

[28:09] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, I want to land a leading role.

[28:10] Kayleigh McKnight: There we go. Oh, it is late.

[28:13] Josh Mitchell: It is late, it's been a long day.

[28:15] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, yeah, I've only been the understudy. Not only, that sounds bad, but you know, I've been doing this for eight years now, and I really want to have an opportunity to make a part of my own.

[28:26] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[28:27] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, so I would love to do that at some point, and I'd love to do it on a new show, so I feel like I'm really creating a role.

[28:33] Josh Mitchell: Yeah.

[28:33] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, so yeah, I'd love to do that. And um, I'd also love to be in a musical film.

[28:39] Kayleigh McKnight: That's even if I'm like a tree in the background, like I'd just love that experience.

[28:43] Josh Mitchell: Can we bookmark? Can we get your opinion on Matilda?

[28:47] Kayleigh McKnight: I still haven't seen it.

[28:48] Josh Mitchell: Oh I know, but I'm in the UK, so it's not on Netflix yet, and I haven't had a chance to go to the cinema.

[28:54] Kayleigh McKnight: I know, but everyone is like raving about it, and I need to do it.

[28:57] Kayleigh McKnight: It literally nearly made me book a flight. Because like oh man.

[29:01] Josh Mitchell: The stage show is amazing.

[29:03] Kayleigh McKnight: I know, and guys, we've had Lauren Byrne on the podcast that's playing his honey right now.

[29:08] Kayleigh McKnight: So that was another, like I was like, I'm I'm getting on a plane. As soon as I watched that, I was like, this is it, I'm going.

[29:14] Josh Mitchell: So good.

[29:16] Kayleigh McKnight: Okay.

[29:16] Kayleigh McKnight: Um I've heard the film is incredible, and I I need to watch it.

[29:19] Kayleigh McKnight: But the musical is so good, and Lauren Byrne is.

[29:23] Kayleigh McKnight: I mean, I haven't seen Lauren do it, so I need to go.

[29:25] Kayleigh McKnight: But Lauren is an icon. I love her.

[29:27] Kayleigh McKnight: She is love. Such a babe.

[29:29] Josh Mitchell: Um, sorry, and so music goals.

[29:32] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, I want to get played on Radio One, BBC Radio One, which is the big big radio station over here.

[29:39] Kayleigh McKnight: Yeah, and um I also want to be a guest. This is on my uh my bucket list.

[29:44] Kayleigh McKnight: I want to be a guest on Sunday brunch, which is like a Sunday morning like cooking and chat show, which sounds so lame as a goal, but no word of a lie.

[29:55] Kayleigh McKnight: If I was a guest on Sunday brunch, I'd be like, I've made it. I have made it.

[29:59] Josh Mitchell: Um, yeah, that would be it.

[30:01] Kayleigh McKnight: And also, I want to play like a big festival like Glastonbury or um like wilderness or something like that.

[30:07] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, yeah.

[30:07] Kayleigh McKnight: See, all right. We've put we'll put the good things out of the universe, guys.

[30:11] Josh Mitchell: It's all good.

[30:13] Kayleigh McKnight: Um amazing. Well, guess what? That pretty much wraps us up.

[30:15] Josh Mitchell: We're we're ending on a high note, we're ending on our goals and aspirations.

[30:20] Kayleigh McKnight: Um are we getting new music?

[30:23] Josh Mitchell: Do we have a date?

[30:24] Kayleigh McKnight: No date yet. It was I was hoping for it to be February, but I think we're looking at April now.

[30:28] Josh Mitchell: Okay.

[30:28] Kayleigh McKnight: So it'll probably be around my birthday in April.

[30:30] Josh Mitchell: So let's keep our fingers crossed for that.

[30:32] Kayleigh McKnight: This year. But yeah, it'll be it'll be the spring.

[30:34] Kayleigh McKnight: You'll see it on our social skies we'll be we'll be sharing it.

[30:37] Josh Mitchell: Yeah, so I know what the single is, so I can tell you what the single will be.

[30:40] Kayleigh McKnight: Okay.

[30:40] Kayleigh McKnight: It's called Fires on the Beach.

[30:43] Kayleigh McKnight: And I played it at a few gigs.

[30:46] Josh Mitchell: What's the the vibe of the lyrics?

[30:48] Kayleigh McKnight: Are we happy upbeat? Or is it a about it's like the nostalgia of young love and like wanting it back.

[30:55] Josh Mitchell: Oh so it's like up tempo-y.

[30:58] Kayleigh McKnight: Okay, it's good. The guitar driving kind of vibes.

[31:01] Josh Mitchell: Sick.

[31:02] Kayleigh McKnight: It's like a roll, roll the windows down, yeah, and like sing it out with your car vibe.

[31:06] Josh Mitchell: Okay, I'm here for it.

[31:08] Kayleigh McKnight: I'm here for it.

[31:09] Josh Mitchell: Um, amazing. Well, thank you for joining us, Kayleigh.

[31:11] Kayleigh McKnight: Uh, I'm gonna let you go to bed and I'm gonna go continue on the rest of my day, which is different for me to say, guys, because usually I do this late at night my time.

[31:18] Josh Mitchell: This is great.

[31:19] Kayleigh McKnight: Um, but for all of you listening and watching at home, you can find us on YouTube, Spotify, uh, Instagram, Facebook, everywhere.

[31:26] Josh Mitchell: I'm pretty sure Kayleigh's in the same spots as well, plus Twitter and TikTok.

[31:30] Kayleigh McKnight: Um go follow our TikTok because that's where this episode began.

[31:34] Josh Mitchell: Um, shout out, TikTok.

[31:37] Josh Mitchell: Um, we'll be back in two weeks with another episode of this show, and you'll see everything about Kayleigh's album release when it happens on our socials as well as hers.

[31:48] Josh Mitchell: So make sure you check it out. Until then, we'll be back next time with a brand new episode of the We Are Theatre Podcast.

[31:53] Kayleigh McKnight: Bye.