Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Kayla von der Heide, 30, of Bisbee, Ariz., performed “Jealous Guy” by John Lennon: Her lovely vocals enticed almost immediate chair turns from John Legend and Gwen Stefani. Gwen loved Kayla’s “super original” sound and the tone of her voice. John liked her intimate vibe. Kayla decided to join Team Gwen.

Here’s more about Kayla:

* Quite the artistic type, she’s from Victorville, Calif., resided in Hesperia, Calif., and recently moved to Bisbee in southern Arizona.

* She makes her living as a wedding and lifestyle photographer and already had 23 weddings booked for 2019 when profiled that April by Voyage LA.

* She also runs MojaveGhostShop on Etsy, featuring antique candles and prints of her photographs, though the shop is currently “taking a short break.”

* In the Voyage LA interview, Kayla said music is an inspiration for her photography. “Music was my first love,” she told the site. “I always sang, played piano, and eventually picked up the guitar when I was a kid. ”

* It’s a gift she’s shared, to the tune of four albums — “The Word Around,” “Wandering Heart,” “The Rise (Live)” and “Marigold” — and an EP, “Time Can Be So Cruel.” That amounts to lots of original music.

* ‘Marigold,” her latest release, dropped to streaming sites in late March. Be sure to check out the impressive “In My Dreams” and “No Time for the Taken” from that collection.

* Kayla says she wrote the seven songs on “Marigold” last year, around the time she was turning 30.

* The title track, she writes on Instagram, “is about abusive relationships and how people can change when provoked or triggered. I wrote it around the time the (Gabby) Petito search was going on, because it bothered me so much, but it was mostly written based on personal experiences.”

* A frequent guest star on her social media is her adorable pet dog Bodie, a stray she found hanging around the dumpsters outside a wedding she was shooting. She named him after the Bodie ghost town in California and they’ve been visiting old haunts together ever since. There’s even a track on her new EP called “Bodies Song.”

Kayla on social media:
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube