Lydia Cole: Joining the Diana Krall tour.

YOUNG Kiwi singer-songwriter Lydia Cole will be opening for the Grammy award-winning singer Diana Krall when she visits New Zealand in February.

The 22-year-old former Aucklander, now based in Toowoomba, Queensland, was blown away by the invitation to perform. 

“I’m not even lying, I will be opening for Diana Krall in Auckland!” she writes on her MySpace blog. “How do these crazy things come about?” 

Lydia says she knew she was born to share her music with the world at a young age, after a brief stint on stage at a talent quest. 

She says her crazy, spontaneous decision to perform at her intermediate school talent quest changed her life and set her on the path to become a musician. 

“I won Most Promising Performer even though I was this shy, average student with no experience with ever being on stage,” says Lydia of her early performing days among schoolmates on Auckland’s North Shore. 

“It was bizarre, essential moments that led me to pursue what I had been too afraid to dream.”

Lydia left high school part-way through her final year, impatient to get going on her career.

“I remember reading an interview with Brooke Fraser, when she said she used to hate having birthdays because it meant another had passed without having made her first album. I felt the same way in my teens.”

Lydia started off playing the recorder and the piano and took up classical guitar when she hit 15.

Born and raised on the Shore, the songstress is no longer a stranger to the stage.

She has received a couple of music grants from NZ On Air, been a finalist for the 2008 MTV Kickstart Competition and has released a music video for her single Feels Like.

Shaun Chait, a reviewer with NZ Musician magazine, describes her as a new talent full of promise.

“Cole comes from the (older material) Jewel side of singer-songwriters – earnest, touching slow burners with acoustic guitar and piano stylings,” he writes.

“She has a pretty, if familiar voice, and the use of viola and cello instrumentation complements this rather sombre affair.”

In October, during her church tour with Boh Runga, Greg Johnson and Nathan King, her EP hit number six on the Kiwi singles chart.

She tells fans on MySpace that the tour was especially good as Nathan King was an old favourite of hers.

“His band Zed’s song Glorafilia was the first thing I taught myself on guitar as a 13-year-old,” she says. 

Lydia is now producing her second music video.

Lydia shares some of her music for free on her You Tube channel which has attracted fans from all around the world.

“I started out entering every competition possible. They are a great way to meet other musicians and industry people,” she says.

“You also get honest opinions and observations from people about the technical side of what you do, and the opportunity to test out material and see how it affects people.”

Lydia made the decision to skip the ditch to Australia after meeting partner and fellow musician Stu Larsen while he was touring New Zealand in 2007.

She has toured the North and South Islands of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia, she says she will also be doing extensive touring in the next couple of years.

“There is so much I haven’t yet seen of New Zealand and Australia,” she says. “I hear amazing things from people who make it to the small and far-flung towns.”

Lydia is also set to perform at the Parachute Christian rock concert, a festival held at Mystery Creek that annually attracts crowds of more than 25,000 people.

While back in New Zealand she will play in Auckland with Midnight Youth and Artisan Guns, as well as a live concert on Radio New Zealand National.

Lydia’s EP was recorded at Neil Finn’s Roundhead Studio.

Finn joined in on the recording sessions playing keyboards for her CD.

Lydia has also worked with musicians Nic Manders, Jol Mulholland (The Mots), Nick Gaffaney (who plays with Anika Moa and Cairo Knife Fight) as well as bassist Chip Matthews from the Open Souls.

When asked what advice she would give young aspiring songwriters, she says they should just be themselves.

“Listen to your heart when it comes to making decisions about the direction of your music. Your gut will pretty much always be right.”

* Diana Krall plays the TSB Bank Arena, Wellington, on February 19, 2010.