Name: Kathy Kennedy
Nationality: Canadian
Occupation: Sound artist, vocalist, composer, voice teacher
Current release: Kathy Kennedy's new album Vowel Jams is out via Orchard of Pomegranates.
Topic I am passionate about but rarely get to talk about: Urban gardening. I want to/need to grow things … more.
Recommendations for Montreal, Canada: If you dare to come to Montreal in our cold winter, you can take shelter in our mile-long underground shopping centre circuit. Otherwise I would suggest the marshlands and islets on each end of the island. They have bike paths and bird sanctuaries and lovely vegetation.

If you enjoyed this Kathy Kennedy interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and bandcamp.



When did you first consciously start getting interested in singing? What was your first performance as a singer on stage or in the studio and what was the experience like?

At six, I sang “The Dear Little Shamrock” at the St. Patrick’s Day concert, the biggest event of the year in our town.

If you're also playing other instruments, how does the expressive potential of these compare to your own voice?

I suck at instruments … and that’s led me to use computers and electronics.

Good thing I did because that allowed me to create sounds I could never have imagined before!

Singing is an integral part of all cultures, and traditions. Which of these do you draw from – and why?

I don’t relate much to the music I heard growing up (country and Irish fiddle music) but I do remember being struck by the psychoacoustic wonder that is singing in a church!

We’ve always sung to express things that words alone cannot convey. We sing for joy, sorrow, frustration and ecstasy. Some of my most meaningful performances have been at funerals or weddings, channelling those intense emotions for everyone through song.

What were some of the main challenges in your development as a singer/vocalist? Which practices, exercises, or teachers were most helpful in reaching your goals – were there also “harmful” ones?

I decided to go the classical route rather late (beginning around age 21). I was already singing folk and pop quite well and wanted to “study music” more seriously. But it was a somewhat fraught decision since I had no real affinity for classical music.

I was led to believe it was the summit of our cultural achievement as humans, and so I was determined to become a proponent. But as a young adult, I was struck by the hegemonic and colonial pretext of classical music. As a young feminist, I had real trouble with the tired sexist tropes overtones of so much of the repertoire. It's probably a good thing, since it forced me to compose my own music in response to those outdated ideologies.

One of my first compositions was called Baking a Cake in which I recited text from Simone de Beauvoir’s The Third Sex on the egg as a fertility symbol (among other things). I did a remake of Schubert’s Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel) called Gretchen at the Steering Wheel.

Immediately after graduate school I went into free jazz, and have learned other styles over the years. Hopefully I’ll always keep exploring.

What are the things you hear in a voice when listening to a vocalist? What moves you in the voices of other singers?

The philosopher Roland Barthes wrote an essay called “The grain of the voice” which explores the materiality of the voice, how it inhabits the body as opposed to how it functions in relation to musical criteria.

I’m always listening for authenticity in the voice. I think the most loved voices speak from that place (Om Kalthoum, Nina Simone, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Billie Holiday).



How would you describe the physical sensation of singing? [Where do you feel the voice, do you have a visual sensation/representation, is there a sense of release or tension etc …]

Singing or vocalising comes from a vibration in the larynx that spreads throughout the entire body through bone conduction. So effectively when we sing we are massaging ourselves from the inside out. It's clear to me that humans have done this activity for self-soothing since forever. Consider the blues, for example.

Also, we know now that singing lowers cortisol levels, stimulates oxytocin, endorphins and raises serotonin levels. High notes in particular give the feeling of “runners high.”

So my goal in singing, in general, is to set the whole body in vibration.

We have a speaking voice and a singing voice. Do these feel like they are natural extensions of each other, ends on a spectrum or different in kind?

The difference between speaking and singing is the extension of vowels, and that is what creates the formants (or overtones) that amplify the voice … The Italian tenor Caruso famously said that singing is going from one vowel to another, punctuated by consonants.

When we speak, we don’t set that magical process into motion so much. The voice stays mostly in the throat as opposed to spreading throughout the body as in singing.

I was obsessed with the singing voice for a long time, but I’ve become more interested in the music of the spoken voice with its inherent melodies and rhythms. In particular, the prosody (all that is not text) is what fascinates me.

I also now enjoy sounding like an untrained singer … because I really do believe that every voice holds beauty.

How do you see the relationship between harmony, rhythm and melody? Do you feel that honing your sense of rhythm and groove has an effect on your singing skills?  

I’ve been performing in an experimental improvisation context mostly, and while I enjoy the liberty of making any sound at any time, I relish the ability to make tight rhythms and harmony.

It requires discipline, attention and physical control to syncopate and sing in pitch. Groove definitely takes discipline.

What are the potentials and limits of your voice? How much of your vocal performance can and do you want to control?

I think that all voices have technically the same physical potential, since the physiology of the vocal tract is generally pretty similar among humans. It's more a question of flexibility, to move the sound around through the infinitely complex series of resonators in our body.

Just think of impersonators and how they can instantly change their vocal sound. We are all so much more flexible than we realize.

As a singer, it is possible to whisper at the audience, scream at the audience, reveal deep secrets or confront them with uncomfortable truths. Tell me about the sense of freedom that singing allows you to express yourself and how you perceive and build the relation with the audience.

Until very recently I’ve concentrated on giving voice to others with my compositions and sound art. I mean singing is like flying, it's like swimming and also much like surfing. It's so fun that I’ve dedicated my skills to helping others sing.

Now its my turn to have fun and hope that it will bring joy to others to hear and see.

I'd love to know more about the vocal performances for your latest release, please, and the qualities of your voice that you wanted to bring to the fore.  

Every piece begins with me playing with my effects pedal and making a few loops. I then take what interests me most and build it up with some multitracking and production, trying not to lose the essential fun of the improv.

To make a “composition” that is more than just a tweaked improv, I add some field recordings or text that give it some contextual girth. Most of the effects are created by me, and they’re becoming integral to my vocal language.

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

I find lyrics really tough. I felt confined by fitting lyrics into conventional song formats, so I decided to just do other things, like sing syllables that I like.

This album is an attempt at finding new formulas for and relationships to text. It would be nice to be able to just write songs one day, but I’m not there yet.

Strain is a particularly serious issue for many vocalists. How do you take care of your voice? Are the recipes or techniques to get a damaged voice back in shape?

All those years of classical technique have served me after all. I have a lot of great tricks for reviving the voice, and they really work.

Good thing too, because I’m pretty hard on my voice, but I can generally coax it back with gentleness and relaxation.

How has technology, such as autotune or effect processing, impacted singing? Has it been a concrete influence on your own approach?

I think autotune and other related effects have really altered this generation’s perspective of singing, just as the microphone did in the nascent years of recording.

Unfortunately, we have become unrealistically judgemental of singing voices, and it stops too many of us from daring to sing. That’s a real shame since everyone should be able to access the joy of singing!

I enjoy playing with the current styles of moderated/corrected voice as a trope.

For recording engineers, the human voice remains a tricky element to capture. What are some of the favourite recordings of your own voice so far and what makes voices sound great on record and in a live setting?
 
Great question! I have such a hard time with this even though I recorded most of the album at home myself.

I rely completely on competent professionals for the final say, and couldn’t have made this album without my producer Ayelet Rose Gottlieb.

Motherese may have been the origin of music, and singing is possibly the earliest form of musical expression, and culture in general. How connected is the human voice to your own sense of wellbeing, your creativity, and society as a whole?

As mentioned before, my practice has been about giving others the chance to sing, and now I’ve decided to do it myself more. Vocalising is so good for you, both physically and emotionally.

I hope my album inspires others to be more playful with their voice. I think it's societally over-codified.