Singing For Bliss With Kathy Kennedy
This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life welcomes marvellous community builder, multi-disciplinary sound artist, and relative social butterfly Kathy Kennedy.
I met Kathy at one of the 17 Christmas parties she was invited to in 2022. Before that I knew her from when she directed the extraordinary women’s choir Choeur Maha. A conversation and a half with Kathy and I soon discovered that Kathy is as iconic as her far-reaching projects. Her magic awaits, right here on your favourite podcast platform! We even have a few hot takes from Kathy’s spectacular recordings. Listen all the way through, and check out the time stamps below to savour the highlights! (Full shownotes here.)
Kathy Kennedy’s Episode
00:00 Rousing and arousing intro song and bio
3:07 Quick and very fun break! Don’t forget to follow This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life and leave a five-star review. Also, please track down Erica and Kathy on Instagram and across the interwebs.
4:22 Interview starts. Question One: How did Kathy get started on her journey to creating this very unique art that requires a certain amount of equipment, a lot of skill? Turns out, Kathy moved from the Gaspé to Montréal as a tween. The assault of noise pollution and hormones left a drastic impact.
7:20 On Kathy’s lifelong fascination: the difference between listening and hearing.
8:05 The definition of acoustic ecology: the study of living beings and their sonic environment. This field was initially ununcovered by R. Murray Schafer who happens to be a Canadian. Go, R. Murray Schafer! His obituary on the cbc.ca was a pretty good read!
8:55 Noise pollution and industry in nature, particularly in the ocean is affecting our animal friends. Whales are having a hard time mating! So are the humans. And they’ve discovered that birds are chirping at a higher decibel.
9:30 To cope with the grating sonar landscape, Kathy turned to art and sound (plus a touch of drugs and rock ‘n roll). Thank
11:10 The importance of bringing people together to sing. Kathy believes that singing is our birthright and not just for Celine and American idols. Kind of like Lynne Adams says that if you have a body, you are a dancer, Kathy insists that if you have a voice, then you are a singer! She says, “Singing is a gift.” Be that happy person who’s singing along to the radio in the supermarket.
17:30 Voice coaching and the healing power of helping people find, accept, and embrace their true voice. “I’m trying to focus on the concept of your voice healing you and making you feel good as opposed to wanting to sound any particular way.”
23:03 Fun excerpt from Kathy’s lovingly and painstakingly mixed recordings.
23:53 How does Kathy get invited to so many parties? Kathy shares the interesting conundrum of being an introverted workaholic artist whose projects overlap with all kinds of wonderful people. Hear about Kathy’s vision of the good enough café, a non-pretentious opportunity for people to eat and commune in a not amazing but good enough place for her peeps to hang out and luxuriate in each other’s company like it’s the eighties in Montréal.
31:01 Another soothing and invigorating excerpt of Kathy’s splendid recording!
31:34 Like Daniel Allen Cox, Kathy Kennedy is yet another house fire twin! Kathy shares how her apartment fire was nothing short of a miracle that led her into a state of bliss (and possibly a touch of mania).
44:17 Listener Question from Hurt Inner Child: A daughter looks to her mother for support after a job interview. Guess how that went? Kathy and Erica can’t fix it, but they have thoughts about when to call your parents for best results.
56:28 Our last little bit from Kathy’s exquisite sound art.
56:40 Morning routines, creative routines, cleaning routines, and Kathy’s spectacular TED talk: Kathy’s rituals in plant care, the struggle to transcend technology and fumble into a flow state, how to navigate neighbours and loud hobbies, procrasticleaning, rage cleaning, and more. Stay tuned for Kathy’s imminent book!
Half-bad ukulele segment: If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot. Thank you to Lisa at Ukulele Fools for this delightful tutorial. Sing along loud and proud and if you’re playing along, we have the capo on 1!
Thank you, Kathy Kennedy! What a blast!
Links, Resources, and Recommended Episodes
Follow Kathy Kennedy on Instagram @kathykennedy.ca or on Facebook. Her glorious website is kathykennedy.ca.
Follow Erica on Facebook or Instagram or check out her website at ericajschmidt.com. You can also make her day by sending her a listener question to any of these places.
Recommended Episodes: 5 Rhythms With Lynne Adams, Hot Dates Frenching With Lou Laurence, and Moments of Joy With Al Lafrance.
Listener Question from Hurt Inner Child
Dear Erica and Kathy,
My relationship with my mother has always been complicated. Most recently, I had a job interview I felt really confident about. I called her right after telling her how I had a good feeling about it. ''Well did they give you any special indicators that you were gonna get the job?'' ''No, I just have a good feeling'' And then I told her that they didn`t have a specific date I'd hear back by (the lady was super busy and her coworkers are on vacation), so I let them know I was taking a personal vacation on August 22nd til the 31st. My mom said I shouldn't have told them that, because that might make them pick another candidate over me. She then went on to talk about her stuff, and I don't get how but we came back to me and she said ''So you feel like you'll get the job?'' and I told her she kind of made me doubt it a little. She then told me I took her thing WAAAAY out of proportion and that I always do this. I told her that she has a tendency of making negative comments which don't necessarily help.
I've had communications classes and worked as a special care counselor. But I can't figure out how to communicate with my mom without feeling attacked and belittled most of the time. She does sometimes give good advice, but I think she's a little clumsy in her delivery and timing. Any advice?
Love, Hurt Inner Child
THANK YOU, WITH LOVE
Thank you so much for listening! To support this independent podcast, please consider purchasing a Lil and Bud dog greeting card at ericajschmidt.com/merch. You can also make a one-time donation here at The Donate Button. Feel free to get in touch for other sponsorship possibilities. My infinite thanks for all of this.
More infinite thanks, as always, to Taes Leavitt (darling big sister, Big Heart Journey), Sherwin Tjia (technical and creative advisor, Sherwin’s Quirky Events, Episode 22) and my dearly departed aunt Eileen Gun, whose generous gift helped to fund my new podcast equipment.
And infinite thanks to you, my dear listeners! Stay tuned for more episodes extra soon. Don’t forget to follow This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life on your favourite podcast platform. And if you enjoyed the episode, I would be immensely grateful if you could share it with a friend and/or leave a kind and enthusiastic rating and review.
