At 20 most people are still settling into their post-secondary education or, perhaps, getting a raise at their first or second job. Some of us, however, are looking back on a few years of national award-winning attention and five years as a professional musician. After touring her second album for nearly a year, Kira has still got her feet on the ground.

"It’s a very special album to me; there are some songs on there that are really close to my heart, and I’m just really happy that they’re out there for the world to hear them," she says. "I think that I grew as a writer on that record and, having it out, really gave me confidence to go back down to Nashville and write even more. I’m just really looking forward to the future and some new music."

This is not just empty optimism, for those not familiar with her work ethic.

"I just got back; I was in Nashville for about two months, pretty much writing every day, so now I have lots of new stuff. I’m going to get together with my band and we’ll (tour) through the summer. I’ll probably sit down in August or September, look at the new stuff I’ve written, and we’ll decide what we’re going to go into the studio with."

GC asks Kira how her fans have responded to this album, which takes on some challenging themes, and presents a wide variety of viewpoints amongst the songs.

"It’s amazing, especially with (the first single) "Quarterback". I’ve never experienced anything like with "Quarterback", where the whole audience is singing along with the words, and in the (quiet) parts, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone is so taken with the song itself! I’ve had a couple of audiences where, on the ‘Monday morning when the word got out’ line, I put the mike out, and I don’t say anything, and literally the entire audience – hundreds, thousands of people – are singing along to this song.

"My band says Kira, you have gotta get it together, because I always get choked up in that one part. But they’re singing along! It’s a problem – I’m sorry, guys!

"I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity to cut that song; I’m really glad that they thought of me. I feel like it really brought me closer to the people that connect with my music. It means the world to me. . . It’s magical."

At 21, she has already got five years under her belt since her first single was released, and you would think an early burnout would be a distinct possibility. Think again!

"There is something magical about being . . . onstage with my band, in the moment. Even "Love Me Like That", which I have been singing for five years now – that was my first single. And there’s something to be said about looking into the audience and seeing all these people singing along to your music: it’s incredible. It helps make it fresh every time, and I don’t really think about the words when I’m singing them. . . I try to put myself mentally where I was when I wrote it.

"I’ve grown so much, in my opinion, just as a writer, and as a performer as well. I’ve been onstage performing since I was seven years old, and I feel that last year and this year, at 20 and 21, is when it finally clicked for me: I finally understood it.

"The crowd has always been willing to connect with me, and be there, and to want to sing along, and I finally found it in myself to be able to connect with them, and to be able to really make contact and feel what other people are feeling – to make as much connection as you can, being five feet away on a stage."

Big life lessons you may have acquired, having this extraordinary job?

"I would say the thing that really clicked, when I say I really ‘got it’, I think just comes with accepting yourself, and being confident in yourself. I’m not, all the time, of course! But I found a way to make the stage my happy place. I don’t think about what people are thinking, or what I’m wearing; what people are thinking at all! That’s just my world.

"Once I was able to separate like that, and just be Kira Isabella – just be happy onstage and stop thinking about what anybody said – it was magical! So freeing! I’m still working on it; I work on it every single day, but it feels like I got over that hump."

A last bit of Isabella philosophy: "I am, for the most part, a very introverted person, and I think a lot of artists are. There’s this constant struggle between wanting to share your art and what you’ve done, and being terrified that nobody’s going to like it. You really have to find that confidence in yourself. I always try to tell myself that ‘I had a purpose before anybody else had an opinion’. I read it somewhere, but it probably took two and a half years for me to really understand what that meant.

"I have always been in this, and I can’t be distracted by anything else. It’s about the music, and it’s a connection I want to make with people. There are always going to be people that don’t like it, but there are always going to be people that do."

Nope, she’s not a kid anymore.