Review Fix chats with Kinley to find out all about her newest single, “Washington.â€
Review Fix: What does music mean to you?
Kinley: Music is integral to my well being. I write it to understand my own feelings. I write it to feel good. I listen to other peoples music to pump me up or to relax me. Music is my business but also my pleasure! Haha. It’s true though. I learned at a young age that music is a universal language and I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about it.
Review Fix: What makes this band special?
Kinley: I have only performed one song live as KINLEY. It was the East Coast Music Awards show. It was my dream band. My soul sister Mara Pellerin played keys and sang backup, Colin Buchanan (who produced the album) played bass, Aaron Comeau (who played guitar on ‘Washington’) played guitar, and my dad (accomplished drummer Alan Dowling) played drums. It was a dream to play with them. They are all such great humans and amazing musicians.
Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?
Kinley: My sound has been described as ‘tropically tinged indie-pop’. I would say that holds true for my upcoming album. There are a few more rocking tunes and a couple more folky vibes as well this time.
Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?
Kinley: Surprise! I don’t play live shows. I have played for many years touring with other bands and sometimes still do. I don’t feel the pull of the road for my own material. I am very content to be at home, where I can write more songs.
Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?
Kinley: ‘Washington’ After attending the Womens’ March in Charlottetown on January 21, 2017, a friend of the family told me I should go write about what we saw. I went home and watched hours of live footage from the Womens’ March in Washington happening the same day. I wrote this song to do my part in the fight for equality. It’s time that womxn finally rise up together and be heard and act however they want, not how someone tells them to act. Love conquers! I entered and won the Women’s Freedom Song Contest, an international songwriting contest to “find the next female anthemâ€. I recorded this song on an album with Dennis Ellsworth called, “Everyone needs to chill out.†My mom always said more people should hear this song so I recorded it again, with a different feel.
Review Fix: What are your goals for 2020?
Kinley: I really love writing songs and I intend to keep writing this year. I would love to have my new album in tv and films. I love the marriage of film and music.
I have a side company of recording violin and viola on other peoples’ albums. I have a home studio and can record on other artists’ songs and email them back to them. I am looking forward to working with other artists in this manner.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Kinley: Well I just found out that my boyfriend and I are getting reno-victed from our apartment. That means that the owners of the building are evicting us, renovating the apartment, and will increase the rent to something we (and the other tenants) can no longer afford. This has been happening a LOT in Charlottetown and to many of my friends. Coupled with the incredibly high number of air b and b’s in the city, where people rent their otherwise unoccupied dwellings to tourists mostly in the summer months, there are a dwindling number of available places to live. And those places have spiked their rent because they can. None of this seems fair but there are no rules put in place in PEI about the number of Air b and b’s an individual can own. Soooo, my boyfriend and I are looking for a place to live in the next 70 days. I guess I’ll be fighting for housing rights. It’s funny since on my last song, ‘I’ve got money coming’, there is a line about the housing crisis, “No room for anyone else right now, locked ourselves unto our beds. Never thought that it would come to this, guess I took my home for granted.†How fitting that I got my eviction notice two days before my album comes out.
Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?
Kinley: In the near future:
I teach weekly violin lessons at Holland College.
I’m looking forward to filling in with Atlantic String Machine at the Canadian Folk Awards.
Heading to East Coast Music Awards to play violin with my boyfriend Dylan Menzie’s band.
Making a music video with Jenna MacMillan in the spring for my single, ‘Run With You’.
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