Finding the joy

County musician Kat Burns releases new songs

The onset of the pandemic forced a halt to almost every type of public live music performance. Tours were cancelled, venues were closed. Musicians had to learn new ways of getting their music out, with many providing solo live sessions via social media such as Facebook or Instagram. County musician Kat Burns was among the first to bring live online music to listeners and viewers, with an eight-week series of concerts from her home. One of the unique things that Kat did was to invite other musicians to join her online from places as far afield as London, England and Vancouver, BC. “Everyone that I knew who was an artist and performer, we were looking at very uncertain paths over our shows being cancelled for who knows how long, all of our communities being fractured, and it was really a down time,” she says. “To avoid going into a depression, I thought it would be nice to have something to look forward to every week and curate wonderful songwriters that I want to also lift up. So it was a great way to connect with them and something to work towards with a little bit of routine and schedule.”

By the time Kat wound up her online sessions, many more musicians were livestreaming their work and she felt she had achieved her goal. However, the uncertainties of the pandemic left her in a creative limbo, and for many months she felt unable to write new songs and music. “I didn’t really start feeling creative again until the last couple of months and I started working on songs that had been percolating in my mind for a little while, and incorporating some field recordings from the last year, sounds from outdoors,” she says. “So I set a deadline for myself to get to work and really get a lot done. As I was working on it I started to feel better, and I really liked the songs, and to me that’s all that matters right now. I found the joy of making music again, because I had been a long time feeling down. It was a way of feeling good and positive and finding joy and thinking up new songs, which was pretty awesome. I really hope that the songs resonate with other people and they can find joy in them as well.” Kat recorded all of the songs in her home, and she asked a few of her friends, including Annelise Noronha, Lisa Bozikovic and longtime collaborator Katie DuTemple, to contribute some backing vocals. The result is a new EP titled soft that will be released on February 5. Kat also partnered with Vanessa Rieger to shoot a couple of music videos at Macaulay Church. A preview of the EP is available on YouTube at youtu.be/KP7H_GQxdjA and showcases Kat’s beautiful clear and lyrical voice, as well as her fine songwriting skills.

Kat has been very involved in the County music scene over the past four years. She has performed at County Pop, at concerts in Wellington and Cherry Valley, and at numerous community events, including Ice Box and the Women’s Day celebration at Macaulay Church. She misses the musical community and says that working alone at home has a completely different feel. “It’s always lovely to go to a different studio, to be a little bit out of your zone. Another challenge I found was the lack of feedback. Because I was doing everything by myself there’s no one to bounce ideas off of. I wasn’t working with engineers or producers or anyone in the room, so I did end up sending a few of my songs to friends to listen to and ask if they had any suggestions. I ended up getting most of it mixed by Heather Kirby, who lives in the County, so it was nice to have some kind of community around. It’s pretty weird when you realize that no one has heard this at all, aside from my partner and a few friends. There’s no workshopping it live, no trying things out. It’s all at home.”

In preparation for the release, Kat will be hosting a virtual listening party on February 3, where she will play the songs, talk about how they were produced and the meaning behind them, and have a live chat with the online audience. “Basically, we’re going to listen to the songs together. I’ve never done a virtual listening party before, and to be honest I don’t know if I would if it was normal times, because there would be live avenues to do this, but everything is online right now, and we have to make do. We’ll see how it goes. I’m excited to share songs with people. Eventually, I’ll do a live concert, but probably later in the month.” For more details about the listening party, please visit kashkamusic.com. The EP will be available at kashka.bandcamp.com, and on streaming services at a later date. A CD can be obtained by contacting Kat at her website.