I first came across The Kennedys’ music
while I was still living in England in the 90's. I was in a music store
and there was this great song playing. I asked a staffer and he said
“They’re called The Kennedys. Never heard them before but they ain’t
bad are they?” An understatement, indeed. So I left the shop with Life Is Large and it entered high rotation in my CD collection.
Photo by Hub Wilson
Fast forward to 2002 and I’d just started Harris Radio, with The Kennedys on the first playlist. I remember inviting them to the launch party at Arlene’s, though since they lived in Virginia, I didn’t expect a reply. But one came, saying they’d just moved to NYC and they’d be there. It was great meeting them and I was kinda in awe of having people so “famous” come to my party! Now, after an interlude in Northampton, they’re back in the city again. A great reason for Indie Sounds to catch up with them …
Indie Sounds: So, after years of releasing albums as The
Kennedys, you both have solo CDs released or in the works. What
gives?
Pete Kennedy: Well, if you picture a bell curve with our duo music in the
middle, there's those two extreme sides that fall outside of that sound. Maura's
really into vocal arranging and current pop music, and I'm really into guitar as
a distinct voice in itself, and roots and contemporary classical stuff. The
blend that we have as a duo is created by tempering the extreme edges of those
interests, and using the things that we have most in common. I think that's true
of any band that stays together. So by doing solo projects, we can focus on
those things that fall a bit outside of our usual blend. Think of Charlie Watt's
big band jazz albums, or George Harrison's Wonderwall Music.
IS: You are recently back living in New York
City. What brought you back?
Maura Kennedy: We had been living in Northern Virginia, and were looking for
a place to live in Brooklyn on September 10th, 2001, and when 9/11 happened, we
were more determined than ever to become part of this community, and we
re-focused on Manhattan. We played at the Bottom Line for years, and that part
of town, between the East and West Villages, really feels like home. We did
leave for two years when we got priced out of our rental, and we settled
temporarily in Northampton, Mass. Everybody there is an exile from NYC, and we
kept doing our Sirius Satellite Radio show at Rockefeller Center, so the
connection was never broken. Now we're back for good ... just bought an apartment
in the East Village!
IS: Let's rewind a bit. How did you both get
started in life, and get interested in and involved in music?
Pete: I just always loved music. There's an ancient Irish fiddle tune
called Peter Kennedy's Fancy, so maybe it's genetic. When I was a kid, I loved
rock 'n' roll, and also Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, and I was always quite sure
that I would spend my life combining those things. It never occurred to me to
put on a suit and pursue some kind of financial security, so I've always just
followed the muse. It worked out fine.
Maura: I'm from a large family. There's nine of us. All the kids are a year
apart in age, some exactly a year apart, as in the case of me and my older
brother Vince. We did a lot of stuff together, all of us, as kids -- wrote and
performed plays, we were a whole softball team, a gang, really. I had a great
childhood. When I first saw The Partridge Family and The Monkees reruns on TV, I was
instantly jealous that these people who all lived together also sang together.
No one else in my family was as interested in music as I was.
I used to try and
get my siblings to play a game I invented called "Guess the A-side," where I'd
play side 2 of a single and they had to guess the hit. The more different the B-side, the better. My fave was the B-side of They're Coming To Take Me Away,
because it was the same as the A-side, except played backwards. I loved this
game, but couldn't get anyone to play it with me for more than one or two
rounds.
I was a record geek from way back. Then when I was in college I went
to work at a used record store at Syracuse University campus. All the records
were open, so I could play anything that caught my eye. I had a voracious
appetite for new music, and newly discovered music, and that's remained with me
to this day. Now instead of browsing the used record store, I'm on iTunes and
Pandora all day long.
Lastly, I should say that when I was growing up in
Syracuse, there was a terrific live music scene. The drinking age was still 18
then, so college kids could get into bars, and live bands flourished. A lot of
talent came out of that scene, and for me the notable thing is that all my
favorite bands did their own songs, so that was always the norm in my mind. If
you wanted to be in a band, you not only had to play and sing, but write as
well. And wear cool clothes.
IS: And it was music that brought you together?
What's the story?
Pete: I was playing in Nanci Griffith's band, The Blue Moon Orchestra,
and during a few days off, I went down to Austin, Texas and played a few solo gigs. I
was jamming with a friend who kept telling me I had to meet this woman who was
great, and liked the same music I did. That's essential, as you know. Sure
enough, Maura came to my gig at the Continental Club, and we hit it off
immediately. We wrote a song right away (Day In and Day Out), and I took off
for a gig in Colorado. I'll let her finish the story.
Maura: After about ten days, Pete called me. By then he was in Telluride
Colorado just finishing up the festival there and he had a few days off before
he had to drive back to DC. I had a few rare days off myself, so we came up
with a plan to meet in the middle, and fate would have it that the equidistant
point between Austin and Telluride was Lubbock, TX, home of Buddy Holly, who's
always been a favorite of mine. Pete loves Buddy too, so we decided that our
first real date should be at Buddy Holly's grave. Of course, we sang Not Fade
Away at his grave site.
IS: When did you start performing together as a
musical act?
Pete: Iris Dement was touring with Nanci, singing background vocals and
opening shows, and when she left the tour, Nanci tagged Maura to take her place
as guest harmony singer in the band. Just before we left for the tour, Nanci
told us that we would be her opening act on the tour, alternating that slot with
other Blue Moon Orchestra guitarist and fellow New Yorker Frank Christian. We
spent that summer in England, Scotland and Ireland, doing gigs with Nanci at
the Royal Albert Hall and other venues, and spending lots of time writing the songs
that make up our first album, River of Fallen Stars.
Photo by Steve Moore
IS: So far, I think it's ten studio albums as
The Kennedys. How has your music and the recordings evolved over the
years?
Pete: Well, there are two ways to configure a long series of albums. You can
consciously create a recognizable style, a "brand," and keep selling it every
year, or you can create something that reflects who you are in each year. That's
likely to be different, based on the music you're listening to, and on your own
experiences during the year. We've followed the latter course, because we look
up to Marvin Gaye, the Beatles, the Byrds, U2, Dylan, Richard Thompson, Miles
Davis, etc., all of whom re-invented themselves continually on record in an
effort to always be totally honest with the audience.
Our first album was very
ethereal, coming as it did out of the mists of Ireland, and the second album was
an American road album, a very different feel. We followed that with a very
acoustic album, Angel Fire, and then Evolver, which was heavily influenced
by club music, and the melange that you hear on the streets of NYC. Needless to
say, some of the people who liked the acoustic stuff didn't dig that, but we
were honestly portraying who we were that year.
Since then, we've had a blend of
influences, with the most important move being away from a pop-culture visual
image, toward really strong songs. Once we moved away from experimenting with
production and formalism, our following started to solidify around the songs.
That's the audience we have now.
IS: Your latest album is Better Dreams. What's the story of
that?
Maura: I've been lucky enough to have always been able to write from
dreams. In some cases, I'll dream whole songs as in our song Stand. As it
happens, we teach a week-long summer music camp for adults up in New Hampshire
every year, and one of my students asked if I'd think about teaching a course in
writing songs from dreams after she heard me talking about writing Stand. I'd
never considered that it would be something I could teach, but I put together a
well-thought-out plan in the form of a once-a-week-for-six-weeks workshop. I had
ten students for the first session, and immediately got more interest from
word-of-mouth, so I did another series for twelve students. Everyone made
really cool dream journals that they were dedicated to writing in each day, and
I developed exercises for them to do in and out of class.
Now, as I was
teaching this course, Pete and I continued to write, as we always do, but there
was this strong focus on dreams because that's what we were immersed in at the
time. Both sessions were a big success, and every student came to class with
one, two, sometimes three or more songs that they had written during the week,
and they were all impressed that their songs no longer had to be
autobiographical. The dream imagery allowed them to tap into subjects and
archetypes that were more universal and artistic. I was also able to teach my
students how "come awake" in dreams (a.k.a. lucid dreaming). The key is to train
yourself to notice whether you're awake or dreaming at will.
In my case,
whenever I hear someone singing, I try to figure out if I'm awake or dreaming.
Because this is my regular cue, I've been able to capture whole songs from these
magical (and much appreciated) dream characters. One case on our Better Dreams
CD is the song I Found A Road. In my dream, Leslie Gore was singing this song
to me. Because I was able to become lucid, I "made" her sing the song over and
over so that by the time I awoke I had the whole thing memorized. Thanks,
Leslie!
Buy Better Dreams, and other Kennedys CDs @ The Kennedys Store.
Or download Kennedys albums from iTunes.
IS: So in this age of iTunes, etc., are physical CDs still
relevant?
Pete: I don't think CDs are relevant at all. That's not to say there was
anything wrong with them in the 80's and 90's, but that era has passed. I don't
really need to "hold something in my hands" while I listen to music, and how are
those tiny liner notes better than an interactive web site? I love having access
to millions of songs just by clicking on iTunes, and I've learned more about
music in the past four years than I did in all the time prior to that, because I
can hear samples without spending thousands of dollars that I don't have on CDs.
I just buy the music I want, and I've never downloaded a song illegally. It's
not about thievery it's about access.
Maura: I agree totally with Pete. I'm addicted to iTunes, Pandora and
eMusic, among other great online music resources, that invite you to discover
new music, and that actually lead you to music that you're likely to connect
with. When we were DJs at Sirius, I made a point to try and discover great new
songs on a daily basis by exploring these online digital music treasuries. It's
one of the good habits that I've maintained! And now that we're in New York for
good, and limited in storage space, I've uploaded my CD collection to my
computer (and backed it up!), so I don't need to store all those CDs. Still,
and much to Pete's chagrin, I've been unable (and steadfastly unwilling) to
purge my awesome vinyl collection!
IS: You've toured a lot over the years. Any
particular memorable gigs or moments?
Pete: We loved playing in England with Nanci, because she played
Hammersmith Odeon and lots of other venues that the Beatles played, and we would
stand in the "John" position (Pete), or the "George" position (Maura), etc
onstage. The Falcon Ridge Festival, upstate, is really great, too, and we really
miss Allan Pepper and the Bottom Line. That was a great venue, and I'll never
forget playing the "Gift of Music" show right after 9/11. The audience was all
local people from downtown, 'cause there weren't any tourists. The house lights
went down, and Jackie DeShannon walked onstage and sang, What the World Needs
Now is Love. That was a moment.
Maura: Yes, my favorite moments have always been unexpected ... that time we
debuted our pan-religious gospel song, Stand at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival
on a Sunday morning, and the entire mountainside spontaneously stood up and sang
it with us. I'm glad they were singing, because I was moved to tears at what
was happening and couldn't sing at all!
At Falcon Ridge, photo by Amy Putnam
I'll also never forget certain times in the studio, like hearing Roger McGuinn
play his 12-string Rickenbacker on Life is Large and then proceed to very
generously regale us with stories from his days in The Byrds ... that was like
being in a cathedral hearing the Pope give a sermon. Also, singing in the
studio for Nanci Griffith's Other Voices II album: I was in a circle around an
omni mic with Emmylou Harris, Carolyn Hester, Odetta! Talk about being in
church!
But maybe the moment I'll remember the most also involves two of my heroes,
Nanci Griffith and Emmylou. It was my first gig with Nanci, at the State
Theater in Austin, when she was taping the video release concert of Other
Voices, Other Rooms. I was so nervous...I'd never played with anyone else
before...just my own bands. I was actually sharing a microphone, on stage and
in front of cameras, with Emmylou, and it was the first time I'd ever met her.
I was so in awe of her that I didn't want my voice to get in the way of hers, so
I hung back. At one point while we were singing, Emmylou put her hand on my
back and gently nudged me closer to the mic. It was a beautiful, generous and
nurturing moment that she probably didn't think twice about, but it's a memory
I'll take to the grave.
IS: Now you're back living in NYC, where are you
playing out in town?
Pete: Well, the Living Room is kind of our home base, now. We do solo
gigs, duo gigs, multiple bills, in-the-rounds, whatever is going on, and if
we're off, I like to go down and sit in with whomever. It's more than a gig,
it's a scene, in the best sense; a bunch of artists supporting and encouraging
each other. We've also played the Cutting Room and Joe's Pub, as well as some special
events at South Street Seaport, Madison Square Park, and a cool, completely
unplugged show at the Rubin Museum. I did a solo gig at Banjo Jim's, and that's
a great little intimate room. Les Paul, in his nineties, recently said that his
lifelong goal has always been to play small clubs in New York City. There's a
wealth of great venues right now for original music.
Maura: I've been really getting into playing my solo shows, mainly at The
Living Room, and debuting my new solo material. I'm on a writing streak and
it's nice to be able to work out new songs for a friendly audience.
IS: And are you seeing any other great music here
of late?
Pete: We played a bill with Amy Speace at the Living Room, and she blew
the roof off with her great voice and songs. We have lots of local favorites. We
follow the Bedsit Poets, and I like to hang out and do a little playing at Abbie
Gardner's Slide Sessions at Googie's Lounge. We also search for cheap tickets to
film openings and Off-Broadway shows. This is New York, man!
Maura: I love seeing touring bands in New York clubs. Some of my fave
shows recently have been Tegan and Sara at Terminal 5 and The School of Seven
Bells at The Mercury Lounge. I have a thing for sister singers.
IS: You also play as part of a band called The
Strangelings ... how is that different from The Kennedys and your solo
music?
Pete: Well, The Stranglelings are loosely based on the Sandy
Denny/Richard Thompson version of Fairport Convention, and we play in the USA
about as often as they did! We got together and made a really cool record, and
have played a few big festivals, but everyone has their own careers going on,
and you can't just hit the road with a seven-piece band. It's a great sound,
though. Maura singing with Chris Thompson and also Rebecca Hall from Hungrytown,
and I play electric sitar. Ken Anderson from Hungrytown plays bass. They're a
really cool duo, who were based in the East Village for a long time. I call
Rebecca the "Diane Arbus" of folk, because she always finds the dark, strange
side.
IS: How do you use the web to keep in touch with fans and get
your music ou t there?
Maura: I'm a big fan of ReverbNation. It's not just another social
network. It actually allows fans to help the bands that they love by taking part
in "Street Team" missions. The musician sets forth a mission, for example, to
get more plays of the artists' songs by having fans place a "tune widget" in the
fans web pages and blogs. The musician also decides what the winner will get,
and it can be anything, but it's spelled out in advance. Because it's all
digital, ReverbNation can keep accurate score. Since I've been only playing my
solo stuff around NYC, my first street team mission prize was a local one, and
was awarded to a girl from New Jersey, Tracy. I took her out to my fave East
Village coffee shop for cappuccino.
ReverbNation also has a newsletter generator
that's nicely formatted. The music, video, and concert date features are great
and the whole thing's free and really easy to use. You can interface it with
your Facebook and MySpace pages too. Clubs can have their own pages, which are
linked to the artists who play there. Musicians and venues can post turnout
numbers for shows, so promoters have a good idea of a act's drawing power.
There's a ton of other features that would take me too long to go through.
Just
check it out:
www.ReverbNation.com/MauraKennedy
www.ReverbNation.com/PeteKennedy
www.ReverbNation.com/TheKennedys
IS: Any wisdom on the state of the music business, and how to make a
living as an indie act?
Pete: The music business is in the best state it's ever been in, because the
music itself is finally out of the hands of the robber barons. Musicians have
been dreaming of this day since the early New Orleans jazz musicians wouldn't
record, because they smelled something fishy. Louis Armstrong did it and became
a star, and rightfully so. He was a cultural genius, but who made more money
from his music, him or the record label? We all know the answer to that.
Wouldn't it have been great if Armstrong, Holiday, Ellington, Parker, etc. all
controlled their own music and garnered the rewards they actually deserved? It's
possible now. David Crosby said, "you can be a slave, or you can be Ani
DiFranco," and Paul McCartney recently complained that every time he sings Hey
Jude, he has to pay somebody! That plantation system is now shutting down, and
as Leonard Cohen sang, Hallelujah!.
IS: What's next for The Kennedys?
Maura: Pete just put out his solo CD, Guitarslinger, and he's been
doing a number of solo shows around NYC, Boston and Philly. He's also teaching
guitar at First Flight music on First Ave at 10th Street in the East Village.
He's been doing a bunch of sessions as a guitarist and also mastering some
albums. He's been really getting into co-writing lately with a bunch of NYC
writers as well. He's got so much going on I can't keep track of it all.
As for
me, I'm just finishing up my debut solo CD, Parade Of Echoes. I wrote the
songs over the past year and posted them to my web site as they were written and
recorded. Some of the versions that are online are the demo versions, and the
CD versions will be different, so if you want the demo versions, get 'em now
before I take them down. When I started out, I didn't even want to do a CD at
all. I thought it was passé. I was embracing the new paradigm of online
delivery only, but alas, many of my enthusiasts are Luddites! So I'm going
ahead with the CD after all.
And as for The Kennedys, the sky's the limit. As you may have figured out
by now, we have more ideas than we have time. There's always something new to
explore, and always a new way to express yourself, and no matter how expansive
your creative vision is, New York City is the place to realize it!
Web: www.kennedysmusic.com
MySpace: thekennedysmusic
I have enjoyed several Performances by these gifted and gracious Artists over the last 4-5 yrs. My first and fondest recollection was a show in Eagles Mere,Pa. in the dining room of a Victorian B&B! Talk about intimate venues! From there it was on to Colorscape,(Twice)& Falcon Ridge mainly to catch Their act. The details of this interview have informed and enlightened me in a large way. I can relate to the Syracuse Scene as I used to Hitch-Hike there from Buffalo as a Teen for the annual "Syrcus" festivals.( I recall "getting served" @ a club called "The Orange" where local bands tore it up every nite. )
The hits just keep on comming and the solo work is superb! I will no doubt appear at future shows!
Posted by: Dean Marshall | February 08, 2009 at 12:14 PM