Exclusive Interview with LAYLA KAYLIF

Layla Kaylif is an English–Arab singer-songwriter once described as a “Pop Poet” (The New Paper, Singapore) and hailed as “one of the UK’s most intriguing under-the-radar voices” (Curious For Music). Her music moves between alt-rock confessional and spiritual pop, weaving poetic lyricism with a darkwave atmosphere. Her latest single, “Closer,” has been praised for its fearless honesty and sonic reinvention — “a slow-burning alt-rock elegy that throbs with defiance and desire, turning vulnerability into voltage” (Visual Atelier 8). Check out the exclusive Interview below:

1. Your roots can often shape your journey. Can you share a story or moment from your early life that had a significant impact on your path into music?

LAYLA KAYLIF: I’ve lived with a heightened sense of life’s fragility since I was a small child – as though standing on an edge. My need to find meaning beyond the physical world, something that didn’t feel like a black hole, led me to become a kind of “seeker through song,” I suppose you could say.

Ultimately, that search became a search for God. Because truly, life without God is a terror. I see now that God is back in fashion in pop culture – inevitably so – because the purely horizontal life leaves you without a compass. What we need is the vertical life, the life that reaches toward the unseen. It’s the arrow in the heart – and the heart is where God strikes.

2. Did your musical journey begin with formal training, or was it more of a personal exploration? How has that shaped your unique approach to your craft?

LAYLA KAYLIF: I’m not a trained musician. I’m a lyric poet who happens to sing her words – in the tradition of Sappho, or a troubadour, or trobairitz. My songs are born from language first, from poetry, and then they find their melody.

3. Who were some of the most influential figures in your early musical life, and how did they inspire your sound? Also, what’s the story behind choosing the name ‘LAYLA KAYLIF’?

LAYLA KAYLIF: My experiences have been so varied that it’s hard to single anyone out. My sound? That’s harder to pin down – maybe Madonna if I had to pick someone.

As for my name – Layla is my real name. “Kaylif” is an anglicised version of my father’s name, Khalifa – in the Arab world, we traditionally take the father’s name as a middle name. Technically, the proper English spelling would be “Caliph,” but that felt a bit too much. Imagine calling yourself “Caliph”!

4. What do you believe sets your music apart? How would you describe your sound to someone discovering you for the first time, and what emotions or experiences do you hope to evoke in your listeners?

LAYLA KAYLIF: If you don’t care about lyrics, don’t listen to my music. It’s as simple as that. My songs live or die by the words. My sound is eclectic – multi-genre – I can’t really box it in. Maybe pop/rock/world/americana/singer-songwriter. My latest single “Closer” is alt-rock, but every project evolves with its own atmosphere.

5. For most artists, originality is first preceded by a phase of learning and, often, emulating others. What was this like for you? How would you describe your own development as an artist and music maker, and the transition towards your own style, which is known as ROCK?

LAYLA KAYLIF: I began with poetry and pop culture. Later I began working with producers, the first was Paul Mex, who was living in a town in the UK where my boyfriend was at college, so I used to go and visit him, so it was convenient. Also, he had worked with George Michael, which impressed me, of course! We made a dance track called Slaves in Heaven (you can still find it online). Then I started working with Greg Fitzgerald, my producer, and co-writer. He co-wrote and produced this track as well as my most famous song Shakespeare in Love. This is completely different sonically…multi-genre songs, but lyrical depth.

6. Music often transcends entertainment. What’s your view on the role and function of music as political, cultural, spiritual, and/or social vehicles – and do you try and affront any of these themes in your work, or are you purely interested in music as an expression of technical artistry, personal narrative, and entertainment?

LAYLA KAYLIF: I’m fundamentally a deep lyricist. My songs are spiritual vehicles, sometimes political, sometimes cultural. I don’t think of myself as “entertaining” per se.

7. Do you feel the rewards of your musical career match the energy and passion you invest in it, or are there different kinds of fulfillment you’re still seeking?

LAYLA KAYLIF: I’ve faced many emotional and personal challenges that have sometimes weighed heavily and distracted me from pure focus on success.

8. Can you walk us through your creative process? From the first spark of an idea to the finished track, what’s the most essential part of your process, and how do collaboration or external influences shape your work?

LAYLA KAYLIF: I usually have a muse – a projection, really, my own invention. I listen to all kinds of music and often study scales – Arabic, Western, whatever grabs me.

Right now, I’m comparing Arabic scales to flamenco styles; they’re surprisingly similar, though Arabic scales are more complex because of the quarter tones. Flamenco is a derivative – its melisma lost those quarter tones after the Reconquista (ha ha).

From there, I start recording top-lines, but always shaped by the lyric. I will always have a complete lyric. No-one messes with my lyrics! That’s my scripture. Eventually, I bring everything to a producer, a collaborator. On my last album, ‘Lovers Don’t Meet’, I wrote all the songs, and the producer did the arrangements with live musicians.

9. What’s been the most challenging hurdle in either your personal life or music career, and how has it shaped you as an artist?

LAYLA KAYLIF: Men and the Middle East. M&M’s ha ha. Actually, I love M&M’s – but only the peanut ones. If you give me a packet, I’ll eat them all and then feel sick, and swear never to eat them again…until I do. There you go, I’ve completed the metaphor for you and hopefully answered your question.

10. On the flip side, what moment or achievement in your career so far has made you feel the proudest, and why? And let’s talk about your latest release and future plans.

LAYLA KAYLIF: My proudest unsung achievement is that I’m the most famous export from Dubai – besides the Burj Khalifa – that most people have never heard of, ha ha. By contrast, of course, everyone has heard of the Burj Khalifa and we even share the same name, albeit slightly modified on my end.

My latest release is a song about…consequences. My lyrics operate on many levels, take from it what you will. Greg and I co-wrote it and recorded it in London.

And as for future plans – no way. That’s a recipe for disaster.

11. With social media having a heavy impact on our lives and the music business in general, how do you handle criticism, haters, and/or naysayers in general? Is it something you pay attention to, or simply ignore?

LAYLA KAYLIF: I avoid social media for anything that might attract that kind of energy. Honestly, I despise it. I’m far too sensitive – I overthink, I ponder, I absorb too much. I’m not thick-skinned at all. I’m incredibly vulnerable in that way.

12. Creative work in a studio or home environment, or interaction with a live audience? Which of these two options excites you most, and why?

LAYLA KAYLIF: I like being creative in my home environment. By the time I go to the studio these days, I have most of it done, and the studio is brutal for me, it’s boring work. Ironically, I love performing live – I just haven’t yet found a promoter brave enough to bring my show to life. But it’s all there, fully formed, in my head. It has to be the right show. I don’t enjoy you know, acoustic, intimate things.

13. Do you think is it important for fans of your music to understand the real story and message driving each of your songs, or do you think everyone should be free to interpret your songs in their own personal way?

LAYLA KAYLIF: I used to enjoy telling people about the literary influences – how I flipped an Arabic poem into an Appalachian stomper, for example – but you’d have to be a nerd like me to appreciate that.