Album Notes

It's easy to be fooled by Karla Margallo's 5-foot Filipina frame. But she knocks that picture out with a powerful punch of self-produced songs that raise the bar in pop music delivered by her distinct voice, rich in soulful, mellow tones. Although her songs range from R&B to rock styles for the sake of prosody, they are consistent in sincere poetry, captivating melodies and shades of the blues.

Born in the Philippines, raised in New Jersey, Anna Karla Margallo has earned her degree at Berklee College of Music dual majoring in Music Business/Management and Songwriting. Although she’s been singing since she was a baby, performing since she was three, and writing songs since she was 13, Karla thought she was destined to pursue a career in medicine. Fortunately, she had enough passion and drive to realize her responsibility of sharing her gift of music.

Karla’s eclectic art reflects her musical journey. Carrying her little boom box around the house, she grew up listening to Top 40 on the New York City radio stations and looked up to divas like Madonna, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Eventually her musical horizons broadened as she discovered R&B, alternative rock, hip-hop, folk, old-time classics, and jazz and studied classical piano and voice as well as contemporary music theory. Today, Karla draws songwriting influences from the mastery of classic tunes and finds inspiration for innovation in current radio hits by top producers.

But Karla's main muse is simply life:
"Music should move the mind, heart, or feet. And in order to make that honest music, whether you are the performer, the writer or the musician, you must allow yourself to take your knowledge, influences, experiences, and beliefs and naturally express all of those important elements with your performance, compositions or instrument. You can always challenge yourself and try new things. Step out of your comfort zone, but never deny your true self. You don't have to try too hard to be unique. We naturally are."

Karla Margallo is not your typical singer-songwriter.