Kaylin always seemed to have a liking for singing around the house ever since I can remember. I have video footage of her singing out loud while playing with her babies. She typically made it up as she went, singing about her interaction with the babies... When Kaylin was 9 she was attacked by a dog which changed her forever. Any young boy or girl could imagine being thrown around by a large dog only to be attached by her lip. This caused her lip to be torn off from the center of her upper lip all the way back to the side of her cheek bone along with other deep bites around her eye which has caused permanent damage to her tear duct. The injuries required life support as well as facial reconstructions. This incident is what we believe has inspired her to take a stand and lift her head up high and be proud of who she is regardless of what she looks like.
Kaylin took a more serious look at singing after the attack as a way to heal her soul. She started singing into a camera only a week after being attacked, face swollen with over 200 stiches both inside and out of her mouth. She wanted to enter a Mylie Cyrus contest where she actually beat around 3000 contestants and made it to the top 20 where she eventually fell short and dropped out of the competition.
Some time passed and one day while coming home from a hockey game that her sister had played in I thought, “you know what, you are 12,” which was the lower age limit to audition for the XFactor, “let’s fly to Miami and audition, see what you can do.” So we went, and she made it to the second rounds local to Miami. She was ecstatic only to be told no on the second day after coming back. The poor things arm pits were so sweaty and she was so nervous in front of the executive producers she just seemed to inexperienced as they asked her to keep going and come back.
Being told no is certainly a part of this game she learned early on but we analyzed it, understood it and she asked that I put her in vocal lessons. Per a recommendation we started taking lessons for about a year, learned a lot, joined a little trio and tried out for Xfactor and Americas Got Talent, made it to the third rounds where they take your picture and tell you, “don’t call us, we’ll call you”. Never made it to the show but great learning experience.
After much discussion we needed a change of scenery so I looked hard for the vocal coach “I” would have chosen vs being recommended.
I found Johanna Boberg (JB Vocal Studios) on the internet, a young local, vibrant singer who had toured with Hilary Duff in 2007 and had relocated to Raleigh! This was exactly what I was looking for. So after our first introduction, Johanna’s exact words were, “I think I can work with her” with a smile. Kaylin immediately fell in love with Johanna’s vocal exercises, her personality, her strength as a woman, and her ability to demonstrate her vocal abilities for Kaylin to mimic.
Johanna was a perfect fit. From day one, we all discussed Kaylin’s level of singing and where we wanted to go with her “career”. Johanna and her husband Wade (which is another bonus, because he is another seasoned musician as well) recommended the following, “Learn songs, go through the process of recording them in their studio, practice, grow in strength and start writing songs.”
Well, it took about a year and a half to 2 years for Kaylin to really develop, both vocally, and as a young lady, learning stage presence, learning how the recording studio worked and also learning on the side how to play the piano, transpose music, etc… So we started out just finding karaoke songs on the internet, learning the song and trying to sing in the same key, record and put it out on youtube, just to go through the process. I learned that Kaylin needed to be able to find the right key of a song so that she could sing the song in her range. She learned how to listen to a song on the radio, pick out the chords, transpose the song, play the song, then record the backtrack and sing to it. Johanna also helped with this process as she helped Kaylin take what she was learning from the piano teacher and actually apply it in real time. Johanna was impressive, sitting on the floor with the music laid out, transposing and cranking out chords to help Kaylin apply and put together all she had learned both vocally and musically through the piano.
So over time, Kaylin grew and began playing the piano while singing. She started at school, she performed at talent shows then went back and analyzed them with Johanna, discussed what could have been done better, etc. Another aspect of Johanna was since she played in a band all over the US and had her own band that she directed, she awarded the opportunity for her students to play and sing with a live band. That also helped Kaylin along, building experience and building confidence.
A long story short, in just 2 years Kaylin took the advice of her mentors Johanna and Wade and wrote a song, then another, and another. Her school at the time had a water main break and she was off for two weeks. During this time she wrote about 5 songs which I wanted to record right away. Johanna introduced us to a few producers in the local area which we began to see here and there learning to produce her songs. We learned a lot through one of the producers where we went through the entire process of being handed a song, re-writing it with Johanna, perfecting it, then recording it with the producer. This first song would be 100%. We went through the motions and boy did we learn a lot. Kaylin was tasked by Johanna to write a song that came from her heart, Kaylin’s heart. Kaylin wrote a song called “Life Must Go On” which was about how she felt after her dog attack. This seemed to be a pretty good song. If I recall Johanna listened to her song, recommended another verse to add to the two she already had which made the song even better.
In parallel to all of this that was going on, Kaylin went to audition down at the JCC College for the Country Music Showcase… Well, she won! She won a 5 song recording contract through Music and More. How perfect can timing be… So we recorded a few of the songs she had written, one of which was Life Must Go On which was featured in a documentary about a young man who died from cancer. Kaylin recently has won the overall 2015 open mic night hosted by Deep South. Kaylin has been featured in Johnston County’s blog “JoCo Has Talent”. Kaylin is the official spokesperson for Doggone Safe a dog bite prevention/education program. Kaylin also tours with Teen Nation Tour and The One Voice Project traveling state to state, city to city, school to school talking about the effects of bullying and how to stop it. Kaylin is currently writing and recording new songs. One of the lastest, being “Sad But True”.
So in summation, I believe the integral component here is the influence that Johanna Boberg has had in Kaylin’s cultivation, character and ultimately her passion for music. Kaylin often reflects and cherishes words of wisdom from Johanna, “there will be a million no’s and closed doors but that one yes will come”. Johanna stressed the importance of staying true to yourself. As parents, we are eternally grateful for Johanna’s mentorship, she will probably never know the depth or impact she has made in Kaylin’s life as well as our family. Thank you Johanna.
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