User:Red Umbrella/Sandbox

Krystle Dos Santos
Krystle Dos Santos is a jazz solo vocalist and songwriter from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Her smooth, sultry sound, wide vocal range, and funky dance beats reflect a mature style of jazz and pop likened to Alicia Keys and Joss Stone. Influenced by and emanating the sounds of Nina Simone, Jill Scott, and Billie Holiday, Krystle is an up-and-coming soulful Canadian artist to be watched.

Biography
Born in Red Deer, Alberta on March 15, 1982, Krystle moved to Edmonton at the age of three where she grew up and attended Elementary and High School. In grade twelve at age seventeen, Krystle decided to pursue music lessons when the high school cheerleading squad disbanded. Music quickly became a passion and permanent focus for her after taking these first singing lessons. She pursued lessons for five more years, finding her voice and style in the process.

After graduating high school, Krystle pursued her musical education in Victoria, British Columbia at the Canadian College of Performing Arts in September 2003. While in Victoria, Krystle fell further in love with music and performing. She gained a valuable appreciation for musical education and the importance of not only singing lessons, but also finding one’s own style and comfort within musical genres.

Introduced first into musical theatre, pop, and rhythm and blues, Krystle soon found soul and jazz. She discovered that her voice and style best suited these musical genres and began focusing more on these styles in her singing and songwriting. Krystle completed her one-year program in April 2004. Passionate about a new singing career, Krystle traveled to England to audition for numerous girl groups in 2005. Although she was not successful in landing a spot, she did advance to the final stages with a group called “The Diamond Girls.” Rejected for being “too tall,” Krystle continued traveling on her own and decided to focus on a solo career instead of a group. While in England, Krystle also discovered and fell in love with the sounds of British soul and has been influenced by such artists as Amy Winehouse and Radiohead.

During this time, Krystle began writing hew own songs privately, including “Hurricane,” (Listen to it here) one of the songs that she crafted and structured for her first LP, recorded in 2007. This recording was made possible in part due to a grant from local Edmonton radio station Magic 99 in February 2007. The ten-thousand dollar grant allowed Krystle to shop around for producers and record her first full-length self-titled record. Finding Phil Lehmann and the production team at Hipjoint Productions in Vancouver, BC, Krystle began an intense stint of writing and recording in October 2007. The finished record consists of seven original songs (including a revisited and structured “Hurricane”) and three covers; including Radiohead’s “Talk Show Host,” Nina Simone’s “My Baby Just Cares For Me” and “I Ain’t Got No, I Got Life,” the album's first single. (Listen to it here)

Returning to Edmonton with the full-length recording, Krystle handed it over to Magic 99 in January 2008. Her sound was well-received and her first single “I Ain’t Got No, I Got Life” began regular rotation on the airwaves. Within weeks, the upbeat, jazzy single began regular rotation on Magic 99. On July 31, 2008, the album was officially released.

On top of promoting her sound in local venues between Edmonton and Calgary, Krystle is shopping her album around to recording labels locally and internationally. She has applied for a marketing grant that would allow her to tour across Canada, promoting her first single and full-length album. She also has plans to apply for international grants that would allow her to tour European jazz clubs to promote her soulful sound overseas as well. Krystle is currently writing new material for two new upcoming projects, a soul/jazz album and a pop album. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta.

Discography
July 2008: Krystle Dos Santos (self-titled) Treading Water 2014