BRE KENNEDY IS ALL OR NOTHING

 

Bre Kennedy, the Utah native writes music that details self-growth and transformation. A leaf in the wind, is the period describing her time in Los Angeles as a teenager that inspired a major shift of focus. Subsequently, Bre moved to Nashville where she was able to discover her identity as an artist. Inspired by Fleetwood Mac and Cat Power, her music is poignant and reflective of her own struggles. She mentions how she likes to sing about the ā€œmessy moments in life that people donā€™t really like to talk aboutā€. August 27th marks the release of two singles followed by a new album scheduled for October 8th.Ā 

 

From where you started, how would you describe your growth as an artist?

 

I started my early career in Orange County, Los Angeles, and so I moved to Nashville from Los Angeles in 2015. I really think thatā€™s when I kind of woke up to myself. I feel like I was a leaf in the wind in Los Angeles, and I really valued my time and I think Iā€™ll have another chapter in Los Angeles but you know I was 22 when I moved to Nashville in 2015 and I feel like thatā€™s around the time that we start waking up to ourselves outside of the conditioning of what our parents want and what the world projects on usā€¦ Itā€™s like what do I want? And I feel like for some reason in my life, that was the first time my capital k knowing was likeā€¦Hey! I donā€™t know why but you need to drive your car to Nashville, Tennessee and everybody thought I was crazy, and I was like what are you doing, you donā€™t make country music, but sure enough my first week here I met Kyle Dreaden who made my last two EPā€™s and a lot of this album, and I cultivated all of my relationships with my band members who have been with me for the last five years and who have inspired me to write the music I am now. I would say my journey and growth have come from a culmination of being thrown into Los Angeles at a really young age and have turned into me finding my voice as a songwriter in Nashville.Ā Ā 

 

Regarding your single Twenty-Something, what is your perspective on the twenties?

 

Whirlwind! That is the biggest way I can say it, thatā€™s the first song on the recordā€¦I think the twenties are freedomā€¦and they allow us to get messy, and I really love writing about the messy parts that people donā€™t really like to talk about, and I think on our phones its really easy to be like,look at my amazing life in my twentiesā€¦but oftentimes what we donā€™t highlight is the transformative heartbreak that happens in a form of metamorphosis every two years in your twenties. Itā€™s a lot of pressure on someone to be, and I wish someone wouldā€™ve told me before I went into my twenties. Try on every color and then once youā€™ve tried on every color you can figure out what you like but it’s ok, you donā€™t have to stay with just one color!

In a recent article, a writer described music as a celebration of painā€¦what do you think about that?

 

My album thatā€™s coming out is probably that, which I wouldnā€™t have probably liked to say because it is very dark to think about, but then again, I think that humanity is a lot of overcoming pain. From conditioning to generational trauma, to heartbreak itā€™s like a constant metamorphosisā€¦I actually like that phrase ā€œcelebration of painā€ because it just means that humans are making light of a dark thing and the dark moments. My whole new album Note to Self is pretty much me bringing the darkness to surface from my twenties and finding the silver lining. I think music is a celebration of many things if youā€™re able to dance through the bullshit.

 

What are your expectations for your upcoming album?

 

The last two EPā€™s I put out didnā€™t have a plan, I just picked songs that I really liked making with my friends and scattered them out in the world, and I had put an intention that I was going to craft an album that I felt ultimately captured me right now as a songwriter and an artist and then the world shut down. Iā€™ve had a lot of anxiety about it, but now I feel really thankful that I have this time capsule in lieu of a silver liningā€¦now I have this thing to look back on and be like I made a really beautiful thing with my friends, and we pushed through and a lot of the songs I listen to even now I was like Woahā€¦ I was figuring out who I was in those really quiet moments. Thereā€™s a lot of relief having it out in the world as the first album that I was offering, and it has a little bit of my pop background in writing for other artists and my words and my songwriting and Iā€™m very proud of it.

 

What would be your favorite lyric from any one of your songs, if you had to pick oneā€¦which would you choose?

 

My favorite lyric is probably from Note to Selfā€¦itā€™s the second verse and it goesā€¦

 

ā€œYou donā€™t think that itā€™s a mess, itā€™s just glitter all on a dress thatā€™s the power you possess inner child.ā€

 

I smile every time I perform that live because you donā€™t think anything is the worst thing in the world you just think itā€™s all beautifulā€¦thatā€™s really what the little kid in me feels all the time and Iā€™m so hard on myself in my adult life, like if I make a mess, Iā€™m always so pressured.

 

Do you think the pressure ever goes away?

 

No! I think people need the pressure to push through it, but I also am a really big advocate for mental health.

 

As an artist, what are your views on mental health?Ā 

 

Speaking from my own perspective, I am still on my mental health journey, and I wish it was talked to me more about as a kid, that there were places I could go to address certain things and I feel like we grow up so fast these days and so much is put on us at such a young age, especially with all the expectations on our phones and everything, and as an artist, I have to be on my phone all day, and only now in my late twenties Iā€™m realizing how important it is to put your phone down and have social media etiquette and really live life. Living and internally doing the work of feeding myself with love and affirmationsā€¦figuring out the cocktail that makes me fill my cup so that I can go out into the world and contribute to being a positive person in society. I think after last year there are a lot of mental obstacles that are coming up and if someoneā€™s driving slow just assume they have a goldfish in their carā€¦just have patience with people because we are all going through it right now!

Ā  Ā 
photos / Jason Lee Denton story / Alexander Mays

 

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