The synthesis of artistry
Muirsical Conversation With Leoni Jane Kennedy
Muirsical Conversation With Leoni Jane Kennedy
In 2023 soulfully voiced, progressive influenced singer-guitarist-songwriter Leoni Jane Kenndy chatted to FabricationsHQ about her then new album New World Woman.
An acoustic covers album in tribute to Canadian rock and prog luminaries Rush, the album was well received by critics and Rush fans alike.
During the interview, the conversation turned to talk of LJK’s still awaited debut of all original material Synthetic, which had been in the pipeline for four years to that point.
Sadly, various issues and ill-fated circumstances, not of her own making or choosing, put Synthetic back on the shelf; hence debuting with New World Woman.
However, after revisiting the Synthetic tracks, releasing a clutch of them as singles and backed by a successful Kickstarter campaign, Synthetic, with assistance from musician Nick Andrew and Eliot Kennedy of Steelwork Studios, has become a musical reality.
One that has been well worth the wait.
LJK sat in with FabricationsHQ again to discuss the album in detail, including some of the issues that led to it being put on the back burner which, in retrospect, and as opened the conversation, was a musical blessing in disguise.
Ross Muir: My own take on the much later than expected release of Synthetic is that it’s turned out to be a highly beneficial delay.
The success of New World Woman and your own performances in support of it, coupled with supporting, and then playing with, The Anchoress, followed by a similar situation with progressive band Solstice, have led to more exposure and presence for you as a musician.
By delayed association you’ve also had time to go back and revisit Synthetic, leading in turn to delivering a much better album than you would have been able to so some six years ago.
Leoni Jane Kennedy: One hundred percent. And, thankfully, the people that ended up assisting me also helped me enhance the songs to a level that I am now happy to put out into the world.
The reason that I didn’t release the live recordings we have of the songs, which were done with John Gallen at ACM Guildford, was because I heard the potential in those songs. I wanted them, and the album, to be fully produced.
I don’t think I was wrong for doing that for the exact reasons that you said, about taking the time to make the best album we could. But the circumstances we were put in with the producer we went on to work with, meant the album was held from us for about a year – and when we got it back most of the recording we had done was missing!
So, if it wasn’t for Nick Andrew and Eliot Kennedy, it wouldn’t, one, sound as good as it does and, two, wouldn’t now be available. It just wouldn’t be out there – I mean at all – because I was so unhappy with the way it was left, essentially.
But you are right; with the additional time I have been able to revisit it and enhance the songs.
And, with the last track on the album, Temple, I’ve been able to put down what’s basically been in my head since I was thirteen, when I wrote that song.
Also, as you said, I have worked with other people since those original recordings and that has definitely elevated my career – playing with Catherine Anne Davies as part of The Anchoress band, playing with Solstice, and opening for both of those artists.
I’ve learned a lot of stuff along the way but I’ve also had a lot of other issues, that I won’t go into detail about.
That all made this such an emotional release for me. Also, being a creative person in general, in an industry that’s suffering, was a real challenge.
So, for me to do all this independently, with all of the time that it’s taken to get it out there, I’m the proudest I could be for it.
RM: And deservedly so. The singles released all stood on their own but collectively, as an album, there’s a personal story being told across the seven songs.
It’s also very soulful, and while progressive in tendency, no song goes beyond six minutes – but then some of the best songs from the likes of Rush, and Trevor Rabin era Yes, as two examples, are shorter constructs.
Vocally too, you’ve clearly thought about not just your lead vocal phrasing and cadences but the backing vocals and harmony arrangements. There’s a genuine musical artistry at play here.
An acoustic covers album in tribute to Canadian rock and prog luminaries Rush, the album was well received by critics and Rush fans alike.
During the interview, the conversation turned to talk of LJK’s still awaited debut of all original material Synthetic, which had been in the pipeline for four years to that point.
Sadly, various issues and ill-fated circumstances, not of her own making or choosing, put Synthetic back on the shelf; hence debuting with New World Woman.
However, after revisiting the Synthetic tracks, releasing a clutch of them as singles and backed by a successful Kickstarter campaign, Synthetic, with assistance from musician Nick Andrew and Eliot Kennedy of Steelwork Studios, has become a musical reality.
One that has been well worth the wait.
LJK sat in with FabricationsHQ again to discuss the album in detail, including some of the issues that led to it being put on the back burner which, in retrospect, and as opened the conversation, was a musical blessing in disguise.
Ross Muir: My own take on the much later than expected release of Synthetic is that it’s turned out to be a highly beneficial delay.
The success of New World Woman and your own performances in support of it, coupled with supporting, and then playing with, The Anchoress, followed by a similar situation with progressive band Solstice, have led to more exposure and presence for you as a musician.
By delayed association you’ve also had time to go back and revisit Synthetic, leading in turn to delivering a much better album than you would have been able to so some six years ago.
Leoni Jane Kennedy: One hundred percent. And, thankfully, the people that ended up assisting me also helped me enhance the songs to a level that I am now happy to put out into the world.
The reason that I didn’t release the live recordings we have of the songs, which were done with John Gallen at ACM Guildford, was because I heard the potential in those songs. I wanted them, and the album, to be fully produced.
I don’t think I was wrong for doing that for the exact reasons that you said, about taking the time to make the best album we could. But the circumstances we were put in with the producer we went on to work with, meant the album was held from us for about a year – and when we got it back most of the recording we had done was missing!
So, if it wasn’t for Nick Andrew and Eliot Kennedy, it wouldn’t, one, sound as good as it does and, two, wouldn’t now be available. It just wouldn’t be out there – I mean at all – because I was so unhappy with the way it was left, essentially.
But you are right; with the additional time I have been able to revisit it and enhance the songs.
And, with the last track on the album, Temple, I’ve been able to put down what’s basically been in my head since I was thirteen, when I wrote that song.
Also, as you said, I have worked with other people since those original recordings and that has definitely elevated my career – playing with Catherine Anne Davies as part of The Anchoress band, playing with Solstice, and opening for both of those artists.
I’ve learned a lot of stuff along the way but I’ve also had a lot of other issues, that I won’t go into detail about.
That all made this such an emotional release for me. Also, being a creative person in general, in an industry that’s suffering, was a real challenge.
So, for me to do all this independently, with all of the time that it’s taken to get it out there, I’m the proudest I could be for it.
RM: And deservedly so. The singles released all stood on their own but collectively, as an album, there’s a personal story being told across the seven songs.
It’s also very soulful, and while progressive in tendency, no song goes beyond six minutes – but then some of the best songs from the likes of Rush, and Trevor Rabin era Yes, as two examples, are shorter constructs.
Vocally too, you’ve clearly thought about not just your lead vocal phrasing and cadences but the backing vocals and harmony arrangements. There’s a genuine musical artistry at play here.
LJK: Thank you so much; that really means a lot to hear you say that.
As someone who was brought up in pubs playing Status Quo from the age of eleven, then moving on to Rush, and Yes, and Phil Collins led Genesis, I think all of that comes into play here.
Over time I’ve seen that grow into part of my musical personality, and my genre, if you will.
Someone said to me the other day that I’m blues-prog, and I’m totally here for that, because I completely understand where those two things come into play, and how it has melted into part of my sound.
RM: Indeed. It’s part of the LJK sonic fabric.
LJK: You also mentioned the vocals. The backing vocals, especially on Closer, before the last chorus, those naturally analogue delayed vocals I recorded are referencing the poppier Yes.
Some people are less keen on that era but, for me personally, that poppier Yes, Phil Collins Genesis, and even some of the stuff Rush did, I like that sense of pop-rock-prog.
That’s what I’m leaning most towards on the music side of things, with the lyrics, their meaning and the tonality of my voice behind it.
I really value the phonetics of words, and how they come across; I don’t always get everything lyrically when I write, it’s more about the phonetics.
If it fits lyrically, great. But if I can make it fit lyrically, by surrounding it with phonetics, I’m there for it.
RM: I’d like to talk a little about some of the songs on the album, starting with the title track.
As I commented in review of the album, Synthetic builds and shape-shifts from rhythmic, soulful beginnings to become something akin to cinematic or widescreen prog.
And your reaffirming vocal cry of "I am alive!" toward the song’s orchestral culmination is anything but synthetic. It makes for a powerful opening statement.
LJK: Thank you. That ending was fully intended. I knew I wanted to elevate the ending and did, with the help of Nick and Andrew. Nick plays guitar synth on this album, so anything that’s orchestral is done by him.
I worked in the studio with Nick and Eliot mixed and mastered; Eliot also produced the album alongside myself and Nick.
The orchestral elements were really important, but I think it was the first time Nick had really attacked that side of it. He had always done midi-guitar, but the string element he had never tried.
He worked it all out on these songs though, and it worked so beautifully that I will one hundred percent be going forward with him.
There is harmony there that roots from Nick’s classical nature, and I love that; I’m here for neo-classical styled prog. Nick, when he was a teenager, used to play all the Yngwie Malmsteen stuff; you can definitely understand that with the technical guitar theory behind the string parts, if you take away the fact that its midi-strings. That’s why we managed to end that song so powerfully.
RM: I’d also like to mention Jesse, a lovely, soulful number about your good friend, Jesse Hoff (Lazy J Amplification).
The phrase "singing from the heart" is perhaps overused or can be something of a cliché, but here that’s exactly what you are doing, reinforcing the personal nature of the song and the close friendship you have with Jesse.
As someone who was brought up in pubs playing Status Quo from the age of eleven, then moving on to Rush, and Yes, and Phil Collins led Genesis, I think all of that comes into play here.
Over time I’ve seen that grow into part of my musical personality, and my genre, if you will.
Someone said to me the other day that I’m blues-prog, and I’m totally here for that, because I completely understand where those two things come into play, and how it has melted into part of my sound.
RM: Indeed. It’s part of the LJK sonic fabric.
LJK: You also mentioned the vocals. The backing vocals, especially on Closer, before the last chorus, those naturally analogue delayed vocals I recorded are referencing the poppier Yes.
Some people are less keen on that era but, for me personally, that poppier Yes, Phil Collins Genesis, and even some of the stuff Rush did, I like that sense of pop-rock-prog.
That’s what I’m leaning most towards on the music side of things, with the lyrics, their meaning and the tonality of my voice behind it.
I really value the phonetics of words, and how they come across; I don’t always get everything lyrically when I write, it’s more about the phonetics.
If it fits lyrically, great. But if I can make it fit lyrically, by surrounding it with phonetics, I’m there for it.
RM: I’d like to talk a little about some of the songs on the album, starting with the title track.
As I commented in review of the album, Synthetic builds and shape-shifts from rhythmic, soulful beginnings to become something akin to cinematic or widescreen prog.
And your reaffirming vocal cry of "I am alive!" toward the song’s orchestral culmination is anything but synthetic. It makes for a powerful opening statement.
LJK: Thank you. That ending was fully intended. I knew I wanted to elevate the ending and did, with the help of Nick and Andrew. Nick plays guitar synth on this album, so anything that’s orchestral is done by him.
I worked in the studio with Nick and Eliot mixed and mastered; Eliot also produced the album alongside myself and Nick.
The orchestral elements were really important, but I think it was the first time Nick had really attacked that side of it. He had always done midi-guitar, but the string element he had never tried.
He worked it all out on these songs though, and it worked so beautifully that I will one hundred percent be going forward with him.
There is harmony there that roots from Nick’s classical nature, and I love that; I’m here for neo-classical styled prog. Nick, when he was a teenager, used to play all the Yngwie Malmsteen stuff; you can definitely understand that with the technical guitar theory behind the string parts, if you take away the fact that its midi-strings. That’s why we managed to end that song so powerfully.
RM: I’d also like to mention Jesse, a lovely, soulful number about your good friend, Jesse Hoff (Lazy J Amplification).
The phrase "singing from the heart" is perhaps overused or can be something of a cliché, but here that’s exactly what you are doing, reinforcing the personal nature of the song and the close friendship you have with Jesse.
RM: It looks like you and Jesse had a lot of fun making the music video that accompanied the single release.
LJK: The video was fun, until I put a nail in my leg!
JJ Eringa, the videographer, was filming for what would be the final scene and my guitar solo.
It was dark, we were outside, it’s the middle of the night and Jesse was breaking firewood to put in the firepit. I picked up a piece of wood thinking "well Jesse is snapping it off with his leg, so I’m going to snap it off with mine; that will work because he’s doing it and it’s going down very well for the filming."
But me being the little bean that I am, I snapped it off my leg and immediately was like "Ow! That hurt way more than it should," and pulled a large nail, half the length of my finger, out of the side of my leg!
I’ve still got a scar on the top right of my leg, and I’ve still got the nail, because you can’t get rid of something like that; this is something that you keep for life!
RM: You could make it a pendant and wear it as a badge of what-I-do-for-my-art honour.
LJK: No! I would not trust having that anywhere near me again! [laughter]
RM: You mentioned the solo on Jesse, which complements the song nicely.
That leads to another noticeable, and noteworthy, facet of the album – you are a very, very good player but the album is not chock full of solos, and there is no soloing for soloing sake.
It's more about the guitar sounds you’ve created, or the textures you’re adding. Something else you’ve clearly given thought to.
LJK: Yeah, for sure. Some people who listened to the album said they needed more solos, but I’ve purposely avoided showing them off, to be honest with you.
I don’t need to show off to bring these songs forward to the public, and I don’t think adding a solo on every song was necessary. Clearly you agree, but for the people who don’t, there’s plenty of stuff out there for them to go and listen to where guitarists are soloing; but that’s just not where I’m at with these songs.
In the future though? Maybe, because I’m a heavier player now, although I don’t necessarily do a lot of really heavy stuff.
When I was out performing with Andy Glass in Solstice, we were doing some guitar duelling; that’s been a huge highlight of my career.
That’s something that’s coming out of me now so, for the next album, maybe there will be more solos.
But at the time I was doing this album and working on the songs, all the emotion behind the solos that I did do, was entirely intentional, rather than also riffing over something that would just become additional to what was already there.
LJK: The video was fun, until I put a nail in my leg!
JJ Eringa, the videographer, was filming for what would be the final scene and my guitar solo.
It was dark, we were outside, it’s the middle of the night and Jesse was breaking firewood to put in the firepit. I picked up a piece of wood thinking "well Jesse is snapping it off with his leg, so I’m going to snap it off with mine; that will work because he’s doing it and it’s going down very well for the filming."
But me being the little bean that I am, I snapped it off my leg and immediately was like "Ow! That hurt way more than it should," and pulled a large nail, half the length of my finger, out of the side of my leg!
I’ve still got a scar on the top right of my leg, and I’ve still got the nail, because you can’t get rid of something like that; this is something that you keep for life!
RM: You could make it a pendant and wear it as a badge of what-I-do-for-my-art honour.
LJK: No! I would not trust having that anywhere near me again! [laughter]
RM: You mentioned the solo on Jesse, which complements the song nicely.
That leads to another noticeable, and noteworthy, facet of the album – you are a very, very good player but the album is not chock full of solos, and there is no soloing for soloing sake.
It's more about the guitar sounds you’ve created, or the textures you’re adding. Something else you’ve clearly given thought to.
LJK: Yeah, for sure. Some people who listened to the album said they needed more solos, but I’ve purposely avoided showing them off, to be honest with you.
I don’t need to show off to bring these songs forward to the public, and I don’t think adding a solo on every song was necessary. Clearly you agree, but for the people who don’t, there’s plenty of stuff out there for them to go and listen to where guitarists are soloing; but that’s just not where I’m at with these songs.
In the future though? Maybe, because I’m a heavier player now, although I don’t necessarily do a lot of really heavy stuff.
When I was out performing with Andy Glass in Solstice, we were doing some guitar duelling; that’s been a huge highlight of my career.
That’s something that’s coming out of me now so, for the next album, maybe there will be more solos.
But at the time I was doing this album and working on the songs, all the emotion behind the solos that I did do, was entirely intentional, rather than also riffing over something that would just become additional to what was already there.
RM: We’ve touched on the soulful nature of some of the songs and the progressive structures, but the clever change-ups and directional shifts on the rockier Test The Waters remind me, as I also mentioned in review of the album, of the sort of song Donald Roeser would bring to Blue Oyster Cult.
That said the very short solo, which adds to the song’s dynamic, is clearly a nod to Alex Lifeson.
LJK: Exactly! The song needed a small passage of sanctuary to get to the next bit, and that’s what happened. Most of my weird, fucky guitar stuff – and there’s no better term for it [laughter] – does have an influence of Alex, but there’s also the influence of others, like the rhythmical side of Francis Rossi, when he does those little solos.
It's very melodic, and it’s very intentional, but sometimes I just like to create a weird little passage that isn’t expected, just to throw people off, or keep them engaged.
I can always hear those parts in my head, but I never know how to get them across – but, again, with the help of Nick, that all became possible.
RM: The album closes out on the two heaviest songs – in terms of mood and lyrical weight, not musically – Different Kind Of Woman and Temple.
The former, which was issued as the lead-off single back in April of last year, is lyrically self-searching, perhaps looking to become the woman you know you should be?
LJK: That’s exactly what it is, and I’m happy to go into it in more detail.
Different Kind Of Woman was written at the time I was doing my Under Graduate course and I noticed I was very insecure in my musical position, even though I had just been awarded The Freddie Mercury Scholarship and was gigging with my band regularly.
I found I was looking to other bands and artists who had such outstanding individuality that I didn’t know where that put me. I didn’t feel secure enough in my music, or my personality, to have solid ground to stand on, or to go forward with.
I didn’t recognise a place for me at that particular time, and I took that into my relationships as well.
And that’s where, eventually, the idea for Different Kind Of Woman came from, or the concept of it – I was changing myself for this man, or that person, in the same way I was changing myself for the music industry. And I never really needed to do that, but I had to go through it to get to the other side, if that makes sense?
RM: It does, absolutely. Self-realisation can be transformative, and to be able to express that in four minutes of song is pretty special, and impressive.
Similarly impacting, and telling another personal story, is strings-backed ballad Temple.
As can be gleaned from the lyrics, there’s a darker tale being told here, which dovetails with the accompanying, and at times unsettling, music video.
LJK: Temple was a tough one for me because as I mentioned earlier, I wrote it when I was thirteen; it was the first step that I took in what became the process of this album.
As most teenagers do, I went through various growing up phases that affected me mentally; things that happened around that time – neither good nor bad – shaped me as a person growing up.
So, looking back on that all these years later, how could I have depicted that time any differently?
That said the very short solo, which adds to the song’s dynamic, is clearly a nod to Alex Lifeson.
LJK: Exactly! The song needed a small passage of sanctuary to get to the next bit, and that’s what happened. Most of my weird, fucky guitar stuff – and there’s no better term for it [laughter] – does have an influence of Alex, but there’s also the influence of others, like the rhythmical side of Francis Rossi, when he does those little solos.
It's very melodic, and it’s very intentional, but sometimes I just like to create a weird little passage that isn’t expected, just to throw people off, or keep them engaged.
I can always hear those parts in my head, but I never know how to get them across – but, again, with the help of Nick, that all became possible.
RM: The album closes out on the two heaviest songs – in terms of mood and lyrical weight, not musically – Different Kind Of Woman and Temple.
The former, which was issued as the lead-off single back in April of last year, is lyrically self-searching, perhaps looking to become the woman you know you should be?
LJK: That’s exactly what it is, and I’m happy to go into it in more detail.
Different Kind Of Woman was written at the time I was doing my Under Graduate course and I noticed I was very insecure in my musical position, even though I had just been awarded The Freddie Mercury Scholarship and was gigging with my band regularly.
I found I was looking to other bands and artists who had such outstanding individuality that I didn’t know where that put me. I didn’t feel secure enough in my music, or my personality, to have solid ground to stand on, or to go forward with.
I didn’t recognise a place for me at that particular time, and I took that into my relationships as well.
And that’s where, eventually, the idea for Different Kind Of Woman came from, or the concept of it – I was changing myself for this man, or that person, in the same way I was changing myself for the music industry. And I never really needed to do that, but I had to go through it to get to the other side, if that makes sense?
RM: It does, absolutely. Self-realisation can be transformative, and to be able to express that in four minutes of song is pretty special, and impressive.
Similarly impacting, and telling another personal story, is strings-backed ballad Temple.
As can be gleaned from the lyrics, there’s a darker tale being told here, which dovetails with the accompanying, and at times unsettling, music video.
LJK: Temple was a tough one for me because as I mentioned earlier, I wrote it when I was thirteen; it was the first step that I took in what became the process of this album.
As most teenagers do, I went through various growing up phases that affected me mentally; things that happened around that time – neither good nor bad – shaped me as a person growing up.
So, looking back on that all these years later, how could I have depicted that time any differently?
LJK: When I chose Freya Baker, the girl who plays the younger me in the music video, it shocked me how much she looked like me when I was a kid!
The cellist who is on the video, Tom Kingroves, is friends with Freya’s mum Holly; that’s how we got in touch with Freya, who came to my house where she was filmed by JJ Eringa.
And she was just the most patient little lass ever! She was fantastic doing what she did, and so energetic.
It was quite a moving experience for me because it was like looking at myself when I was that age.
I’m not naturally amazing with kids; I’m not around them enough to know how good I could be with them, so my natural instinct is to avoid them! [laughs]
RM: I totally get that. My wife and I don’t have kids so there’s a natural distance, if you will, simply because we are not around them much.
LJK: That’s all it was with me, too. So, for me to be looking right at someone who looked exactly like me at that age, and who is acting as me, in a song that I wrote as a teenager, it was completely surreal.
The meaning behind the song is, again, self-reflection and self-realisation. It’s about letting go of expectations that I have with myself as an adult, and looking at younger me and thinking how cool she would think I am now, and how much she would aspire to be me, now.
But I can also use that as a general concept for not just me, but for other artists. If people ask me for advice, that’s the one thing that I would tell them.
I teach Performance Degree courses for college level students, and they’re going through the same stuff that we all go through as creative people. We’ve got ideas, we’ve got emotions, and we’re trying to channel those ideas and emotions because we are literally hosts, which is what I’m saying in Synthetic – we’re hosts for things we can’t understand; we can only put it in a message in music.
At the time I was writing Temple, at thirteen, that’s all I was doing; I couldn’t understand how it was so powerful, and so overwhelming, all at once.
That’s all I did. I stayed in my room my entire teenage years; I had very little social skills and didn’t do anything other than write songs; it was my way of processing everything that I was feeling.
Temple is my first sort of documentation of processing all of that.
RM: I appreciate you talking so candidly on this and, with Temple, providing a snapshot of who you were to who you are now – an artist with a musical and lyrical maturity well beyond your age, unarguably shaped by your just described teenage years.
Your younger self would indeed aspire to be who you have become, but that leads to the mirrored question of what does the twenty-five year old Leoni Jane Kennedy think of the thirteen-year old Leoni Jane Kennedy who wrote the song that sits as the final track of her debut album of all-original material?
LJK: [long pause] Wow. I was not expecting that.
I think, looking back, and what I am now realising, and clarifying to myself, is that I’ve always had what I needed, which is a really nice thing to be reminded of.
And I’m in this exact position now because of the way she wrote music, how interested she was in it, and the way that she got everything together.
And it was the right thing to do because she thought it was the right thing to do.
RM: I think also, if she had a crystal ball back then, she would be proud of who she became.
Someone else who would have been extremely proud is your late grandad Kenny, who you spoke about in the Intro-story to your Kickstarter campaign for the album.
LJK: Yeah, he definitely would. Given the circumstances of how we lost him, and when we lost him, I wish I could have got the album out sooner.
But at the same time, if I had, it probably wouldn’t have been the album it is today. So, while I’m sad that he can’t hear it, I’m glad he was there for the journey.
RM: While you have established a fanbase, which grew out of the Rush fans & prog fans support for New World Woman, you must have been delighted with the Kickstarter campaign's success, and how quickly you hit, and went beyond, your target.
LJK: Yeah, I was, but I was really worried at first!
I had the full album completed even before I started working with Catherine – all the masters were done a couple of years ago – but the sheer volume of things that I’ve been doing, including trying to finish a Master’s Degree, the gigging, keeping up with life and mental stability, meant I hadn’t got around to looking to get the album out, until now.
And when you’ve put something off for that long it feels even worse when you get around to trying to start it!
But I promised myself at the start of this year, before I turned twenty-six, that it’s got to happen.
So, I did make it happen, but it took five months to put it all together for the Kickstarter campaign.
When we launched the campaign, we raised all of the money in six days which, considering it’s an originals album, was amazing.
And I really wasn’t expecting that because while New World Woman did well with its own funding campaign, it did take pretty much the whole thirty days to hit its target, and take in the money that was necessary.
But that was a covers album, which already had an established fanbase, whereas this time I was entirely reliant on the audience I had built up since doing New World Woman, which included opening for Catherine and then playing with her, and the same with Solstice.
So, something definitely worked and we ended up almost at eight grand, which is great, because anything additional will be put towards business and product managing, postage costs and an album launch party that will take place in London later in the year.
RM: Great stuff. Further confirmation that the delayed release timing has been right.
Thanks for sitting in again with FabricationsHQ, Leoni, and the deep dive into Synthetic and your own journey.
LJK: Thanks so much Ross; cheers!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Leoni Jane Kennedy
June 2016
Synthetic is out now.
https://www.leonijanekennedy.com/
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/leonijanekennedy/synthetic
https://leonijanekennedy.bandcamp.com/
Photo credits: Rob Blackham/ Blackham Images
The cellist who is on the video, Tom Kingroves, is friends with Freya’s mum Holly; that’s how we got in touch with Freya, who came to my house where she was filmed by JJ Eringa.
And she was just the most patient little lass ever! She was fantastic doing what she did, and so energetic.
It was quite a moving experience for me because it was like looking at myself when I was that age.
I’m not naturally amazing with kids; I’m not around them enough to know how good I could be with them, so my natural instinct is to avoid them! [laughs]
RM: I totally get that. My wife and I don’t have kids so there’s a natural distance, if you will, simply because we are not around them much.
LJK: That’s all it was with me, too. So, for me to be looking right at someone who looked exactly like me at that age, and who is acting as me, in a song that I wrote as a teenager, it was completely surreal.
The meaning behind the song is, again, self-reflection and self-realisation. It’s about letting go of expectations that I have with myself as an adult, and looking at younger me and thinking how cool she would think I am now, and how much she would aspire to be me, now.
But I can also use that as a general concept for not just me, but for other artists. If people ask me for advice, that’s the one thing that I would tell them.
I teach Performance Degree courses for college level students, and they’re going through the same stuff that we all go through as creative people. We’ve got ideas, we’ve got emotions, and we’re trying to channel those ideas and emotions because we are literally hosts, which is what I’m saying in Synthetic – we’re hosts for things we can’t understand; we can only put it in a message in music.
At the time I was writing Temple, at thirteen, that’s all I was doing; I couldn’t understand how it was so powerful, and so overwhelming, all at once.
That’s all I did. I stayed in my room my entire teenage years; I had very little social skills and didn’t do anything other than write songs; it was my way of processing everything that I was feeling.
Temple is my first sort of documentation of processing all of that.
RM: I appreciate you talking so candidly on this and, with Temple, providing a snapshot of who you were to who you are now – an artist with a musical and lyrical maturity well beyond your age, unarguably shaped by your just described teenage years.
Your younger self would indeed aspire to be who you have become, but that leads to the mirrored question of what does the twenty-five year old Leoni Jane Kennedy think of the thirteen-year old Leoni Jane Kennedy who wrote the song that sits as the final track of her debut album of all-original material?
LJK: [long pause] Wow. I was not expecting that.
I think, looking back, and what I am now realising, and clarifying to myself, is that I’ve always had what I needed, which is a really nice thing to be reminded of.
And I’m in this exact position now because of the way she wrote music, how interested she was in it, and the way that she got everything together.
And it was the right thing to do because she thought it was the right thing to do.
RM: I think also, if she had a crystal ball back then, she would be proud of who she became.
Someone else who would have been extremely proud is your late grandad Kenny, who you spoke about in the Intro-story to your Kickstarter campaign for the album.
LJK: Yeah, he definitely would. Given the circumstances of how we lost him, and when we lost him, I wish I could have got the album out sooner.
But at the same time, if I had, it probably wouldn’t have been the album it is today. So, while I’m sad that he can’t hear it, I’m glad he was there for the journey.
RM: While you have established a fanbase, which grew out of the Rush fans & prog fans support for New World Woman, you must have been delighted with the Kickstarter campaign's success, and how quickly you hit, and went beyond, your target.
LJK: Yeah, I was, but I was really worried at first!
I had the full album completed even before I started working with Catherine – all the masters were done a couple of years ago – but the sheer volume of things that I’ve been doing, including trying to finish a Master’s Degree, the gigging, keeping up with life and mental stability, meant I hadn’t got around to looking to get the album out, until now.
And when you’ve put something off for that long it feels even worse when you get around to trying to start it!
But I promised myself at the start of this year, before I turned twenty-six, that it’s got to happen.
So, I did make it happen, but it took five months to put it all together for the Kickstarter campaign.
When we launched the campaign, we raised all of the money in six days which, considering it’s an originals album, was amazing.
And I really wasn’t expecting that because while New World Woman did well with its own funding campaign, it did take pretty much the whole thirty days to hit its target, and take in the money that was necessary.
But that was a covers album, which already had an established fanbase, whereas this time I was entirely reliant on the audience I had built up since doing New World Woman, which included opening for Catherine and then playing with her, and the same with Solstice.
So, something definitely worked and we ended up almost at eight grand, which is great, because anything additional will be put towards business and product managing, postage costs and an album launch party that will take place in London later in the year.
RM: Great stuff. Further confirmation that the delayed release timing has been right.
Thanks for sitting in again with FabricationsHQ, Leoni, and the deep dive into Synthetic and your own journey.
LJK: Thanks so much Ross; cheers!
Ross Muir
Muirsical Conversation with Leoni Jane Kennedy
June 2016
Synthetic is out now.
https://www.leonijanekennedy.com/
https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/leonijanekennedy/synthetic
https://leonijanekennedy.bandcamp.com/
Photo credits: Rob Blackham/ Blackham Images