There’s a quiet kind of magic that happens when two artists meet at the
exact right moment. For Brighton-based 23-year-old singer-songwriter
Kyla Kilzer and Jersey-born producer Max Noir, that meeting became Sip
& Wonder, a five-track project tracing the slow unfurling of
emotion, growth, and self-acceptance. It’s an EP that feels lived in,
like pages torn from an old journal, set to beats that shift between
soft garage rhythms, introspective hip-hop, and spacious alt-R&B.
Kyla and Max met by chance, and their first studio session birthed the
track, ‘Break Through’ - a trip-hoppy meditation on breaking cycles and
learning to be gentle with yourself when you inevitably fall back into
them. “It was by chance,” Kyla says, “and yet it’s led to so many
beautiful things.” The track sets the tone for the rest of the record:
grounded but expansive, calm but defiant, built from that shared
instinct to turn feeling into sound.
With ‘Frustration’, the tempo simmers. Kyla channels anger into rhythm,
Spanish-tinged percussion dances across a hip-hop beat, her voice
shifting from silk to steel. “I was angry with myself,” she recalls,
“but we just channelled it all into music and came out with this lovely
piece.” It’s catharsis rendered in sound, the tension of
emotion made tangible through breathy harmonies and bossa nova textures.
On ‘Stay Calm’, the pace slows to a deep exhale. Written as a personal
mantra to manage anxiety, it’s tender and grounding, a reminder to come
back to the body, to use your senses to steady the noise. Kyla’s voice
moves like water over Max’s stripped-back production, the space between
each sound deliberate and soothing. “It keeps me calm and serene,” she
says simply, and the song does the same for anyone listening.
‘MOOD’ carries that emotional honesty into sharper focus. A song born
from friendship, heartbreak, and the ache of realising someone wasn’t
who you hoped they’d be. “It broke me more than any romantic
relationship I’ve ever had,” Kyla admits. The result is a cinematic
blend of moody strings and introspective lyricism, a balance of strength
and vulnerability that both artists lean into naturally. “It started
with a melody,” Max says, “but after a few revisions, Kyla wrote
something incredible around it.”
When ‘Take My Time’ arrives, the duo ease listeners into a world of
patience and presence - an airy garage groove threaded with Kyla’s soft,
effortless vocals. It’s a song about moving at your own pace, refusing
to measure your worth against the speed of others. “It’s fun and
upbeat,” she explains, “but it still holds that message of bravery, of
not caring what anyone else thinks.” Max’s production keeps things clean
and propulsive, layers of strings rising and folding back into motion.
Across ‘Sip & Wonder’, Kyla and Max craft a world that’s equal parts
intimate and expansive, music that feels like a conversation between
two people learning, healing, and experimenting in real time. It’s the
sound of patience rewarded, of lessons learned and cycles broken. A
gentle reminder that taking your time is sometimes the fastest way to
grow.
Tru Thoughts heard about this music through BandLab Technologies
(BandLab/ReverbNation) through an artist submission campaign via
Opportunities, and BandLab/ReverbNation are supporting this release.
Tracklist:
1. Break Through
2. Frustration
3. Stay Calm
4. MOOD
5. Take My Time
