Kalila Badali is an alternative folk/pop artist and registered psychotherapist based in Toronto, Canada. Kalila’s music invites her audience into an ethereal, yet groovy space with an intricate guitar picking style and vocal loops to explore the intersecting themes of mental illness, ecology, and feminism. 

Her song “Potato” deals with questions and anxieties around dying and spending time with loved ones before they die, but also wanting to hide and avoid the pain that comes with confronting loss. 

While the song name seems a bit silly at first, this upbeat banger is actually quite devastatingly sad. It’s a comfort food for Kalila, but also a bit of a symbol of pain and loss. It’s actually quite personal to her relationship with her family. 

“Potato” and four other songs including “Dotty Mae” and “No Eye Contact” are from her new EP, Panacea, produced by James Atin-Godden. For Kalila, the EP came together thematically by accident. She wanted to make something that captures the experience of being stuck and not knowing what to do to change circumstances and getting lost in the number of options that can “help.”