Kellie Loder

Kellie Loder (born 1988) is an independent singer-songwriter from Newfoundland who plays drums, guitar and piano. They have released three albums: The Way in 2009, Imperfections & Directions in 2010 and Benefit of the Doubt in 2018. With a voice that St. John's-based newspaper The Telegram has described as "powerful yet serene and soulful", they received critical recognition from Canada, including a nomination at the Juno Awards.

Having written their first song at age 16 about a cousin who died in a traffic accident, Loder was studying nursing at the Grenfell Campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland when they released The Way in August 2009. Later that year, Loder won a talent-search contest hosted by YC Newfoundland, a Christian youth conference. As part of the award, Loder was given time with music industry and production professionals who helped them with Imperfections & Directions, which was released at the 2010 YC Newfoundland. The album was nominated for Contemporary Christian/Gospel Album of the Year at the 2012 Juno Awards. Loder is also a nominee of three MusicNL awards, including Gospel Artist of the Year in 2011.

Loder's music career is unusual in that they chose to begin it in Contemporary Christian music (CCM); most young musicians choose music genres such as country and pop, which are generally considered more likely to bring commercial success. Loder has asserted that they chose CCM because it gives purpose to their music; however, they later shifted their focus toward mainstream pop and rock music, stating that they still write music from a spiritual perspective but want to be accessible to a wider audience.

Loder uses gender neutral pronouns.

Early life Kellie Loder was born to Christina and Bob Loder in 1988, and was raised in Badger, a town in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. They consider their first introduction to music to have taken place before they were born; their mother frequently played Michael W. Smith songs through headphones while they were still in the womb. At age 10, Loder was placed in their church's drumming ensemble.

Loder's younger brother taught them three guitar chords when they were 14, and they received their first guitar later that year. Their first song, which was about a cousin who had died in a traffic accident, used lyrics from a poem by one of their mutual friends. With encouragement from family, Loder concentrated on singing and songwriting, and performed this in addition to another song they subsequently wrote for a friend's graduation. Loder favours the piano, considering it the most beautiful of the instruments they play. They also performed at the 2010 One Worship Festival in Springdale, and officially released Imperfections & Directions, another independent release, at YC Newfoundland that October. Loder was nominated for another MusicNL award the following year, this time in the Gospel Artist of the Year category; this nomination was, in part, due to Imperfections & Directions. Loder said that "on a scale of 1 to 10", their excitement about the Juno nomination was "probably a 10." Loder competed in the 2012 Juno Cup hockey game, in which, at , they were considerably shorter than most of the other players. Playing for the Rockers team of Juno nominees against the Greats team of former National Hockey League players, they were awarded a penalty shot after a fight with Troy Crowder. The Greats threw their sticks in Loder's way as Loder took the shot, which was stopped with ease by goaltender David Francey, a Juno nominee who had been traded to the Greats. Loder returned to Newfoundland on April 2; the following month, they performed at Gros Morne National Park's Trails, Tails & Tunes Festival with Dave Paddon. In that July, Loder performed alongside Nick Hamlyn at Corner Brook's Downtown Days festival.

2013–present Over the subsequent months into the middle of 2013, Loder performed on a monthly basis at the Stavanger Drive Second Cup, which is owned by Newman. They also performed at the Majestic Theatre and the Fat Cat Blues Bar in St. John's. Loder performed six songs live as part of an interview on CBC Radio in April 2013. They had written five of these songs, and four of them had not been previously released. The unreleased songs were "Playground", "Nursing a Broken Heart", "Like a Flower", and "One Girl", and the fourth song was "On This Drive", which had appeared on Imperfections & Directions. The fifth song was a cover version of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues". They were inspired to write the song "Nursing a Broken Heart" after watching George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, on which Hugh Jackman uttered the phrase "nursing a broken heart" as part of an interview. They wrote "Like a Flower" after a friend challenged them to write a song directed at themself as a child. Specifically, their song "Raise You Higher" was selected for several song countdowns and was played across Canada by both secular and Christian radio stations. A CBC Radio reviewer called Loder "amazingly talented", their music "gorgeous" and their song "Playground" in particular "absolutely beautiful". After two years in production, Loder released the album Benefit of the Doubt in 2018. and marks an effort to appeal to a mainstream audience; Loder co-produced 10 of the original tracks. "I still write music that's spiritual, I just want it to be more relatable to everybody," they said. At the MusicNL awards, Loder received two nominations for the album: Female Artist of the Year, and Music Video of the Year (for "Boxes"). In October of that year, they performed "Fearless" at The East Coast Music Hour, a series of concerts inspired by the themes of courage, transformation and longing. They also appeared twice on CBC's Parkway Sessions, performing "Falling Out of Love" and "Hate Loves Hate". In 2020, Loder was due to accompany Joel Plaskett's music tour, but it was rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the summer, they recorded new music including a song called "Afterglow". Throughout the same year, Loder hosted virtual songwriting events on Facebook to connect with fans. Loder placed second in the competition, behind winner Jeanick Fournier.

Loder won two East Coast Music Awards in 2023, for Songwriter of the Year and Fan's Choice Entertainer of the Year. In the same year, Loder released a cover of "Sonny's Dream" on the Ron Hynes tribute album Sonny Don't Go Away.

Discography Year Title 2009 The Way

Awards and nominations