Kayla Richardson, a junior music technology major, performed original country and covers for KWTS “The One” 91.1 FM on March 31.

KWTS Live Lounge brings in musicians for a live performance on radio. Live Lounge sessions have been taking place since 2010, but were discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemic. Richardson’s performance was the first Live Lounge performance since the start of the pandemic.

Isaiah Tanner, program director for KWTS and Sophia Britto, a senior digital communication and media major, hosted the Live Lounge session with Richardson.

“This is our first [Live Lounge] in about two years,” Tanner said.

“Since it was our first Live Lounge in a while, we were thinking it through as a committee,” Britto said. “The events coordinator of the National Broadcasting Society, Skylerr Patterson, recommended her [Richardson] as an artist.”

Richardson has been playing instruments since she was young.

“I started [playing the violin] when I was about three for my church,” Richardson said. “My uncle plays the drums for Insufficient Funds, [which] inspired me when I was younger.”

Richardson performed five songs: three original songs and two covers.

“I pick what I like,” Richardson said. “If it happens to be similar to what I sound like, I add my own elements to it. A lot of times, people tell me [I need to] pick songs people want to hear.”

One of Richardson’s original songs, “Recover,” is about heartbreak. .

“It was three in the morning, and I wrote the song in 30 minutes,” Richardson said.

Richardson also performed one of her new songs, “Fragile,” which will be released soon. In the song, Richardson looks back at her experiences during high school.

“I was going through a really rough time and it felt like nothing was going right,” Richardson said.

Richardson talked about how she started learning about performing and recording.

“I started thinking about how to record [music],” Richardson said. “I went to YouTube and I taught myself how to do it.”

You can listen to the full performance here.

Richardson can be found on TikTok as @kaylarichardsonmusic, on Facebook as Kayla Richardson Music and on Instagram as @kaylabmusic. Her music can also be found on Spotify.

Tune in to KWTS “The One” 91.1 FM for music, weekly special shows and podcasts.