EKMH Innovators Interview Series
An interview series spotlighting global tech influencers, disruptors, visionaries, and of course, innovators.
These last months have certainly proven difficult for everyone. As the world cautiously emerges from this health crisis, first responders continue to work harder than ever. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you to them, and to all those essential workers including those who have bravely kept us fed and our streets clean, and to those who are now gingerly reëntering the workforce and cautiously easing into the next phases of this “new normalcy.”
During the quarantine, we’ve all sought (re)connections with others and, if readers are like me, arts, literature, film and music have provided steadfast and reliable company, helping enrich the hours as well as inspiring hope and creativity during the lockdown’s expanse. During the last months I’ve gone back through the Innovators interview archive, read recommended books and listened to podcasts (especially Wired, Fresh Air and This American Life) while literally walking in circles to clock steps to stay active. I am thankful for these writers, artists and singers.
In order to show gratitude and to celebrate the gradual de-escalation of lockdown of my new hometown Barcelona, I reached out to Canadian singer-songwriter Lindsay Kay whose candid, ethereal and often melancholy music “dabbles in unreality while keeping gracefully attached to this world.” Based in Barcelona until mid-way through the quarantine when Calgary called her back, the Berklee College of Music graduate recently released her debut, full-length album For the Feminine, by the Feminine, an eight song meditation on femininity and womanhood, written and produced solely by Kay. The Kickstartered album was made entirely by a female-identifying team: every role, from studio musicians to engineers to album artwork design to mastering to PR, was filled by a woman.
Album cover by Anastasia Lebedeva
In 2019, For the Feminine won Kay an Independent Music Award for her rendition of “Lush Life,” and the music video for her song “Too” was an award-winner at the Calcutta International Film Festival, Open World Toronto Film Festival, ARFF Barcelona International Awards, Feel The Reel Film Festival, and was an official selection in the Cleveland Film Festival, Newport Beach Film Festival, Bellingham Music Festival, Pentedatillo Film Festival, and several more. For the Feminine has been called “a manifesto of solidarity and inclusion,” by No Depression and “a record that gives comfort in hearing one’s own experiences mirrored back, and there is solace in knowing we are not alone in our pain and restlessness,” by For Folk's Sake.
An artist in residence at JIWAR Creation and Society in Barcelona (founded by visionary Mireia Estrada) , The Banff Creative Arts Centre in Alberta (twice), and La Porte Peinte in Burgundy, France, Kay has staged multimedia and interdisciplinary performances all over the world, incorporating dance and movement, light and stage design, and elaborate costuming into her concerts. Kay’s music is affecting, boundary pushing, and undeniably timely.
Full disclosure: Lindsay and I met while at JIWAR and she has since become a close family friend. Both of us made Barcelona our home shortly after our dynamic experience at the artist’s and writer’s residency. We’ve kept in close contact during the quarantine discussing the pandemic, the importance of creating and consuming art in these times of isolation, how she incorporated new tech and apps into her new music projects while quarantining in two countries, her reflections on social networking, and how innovative apps and tech will continue to disrupt and inform the Music Industry and ideally better empower artists. Our interview follows.
EKMH: Congratulations on releasing a new video for “Worship Me (In Quarantine)”! How did new tech help and/or hinder the process?
Lindsay Kay: Thank you! In this instance, technology did nothing but help me to express my creativity, which is when technology is at its best! Having the ability to make art without a middleman or buffer of any kind is special, rare, and in many ways my preferred way to work. The video is obviously lo-fi, which is half the charm of it (I hope), but I think it still comes across as artful and authentic, and it’s great to be able to make something that embodies those adjectives on an iPhone 6. The honest truth is that I am not much of a tech person at all. I have never been particularly interested in learning about advanced technologies (within or without music) or trying to master them; it’s just not where my affinities and interests lie.
That being said, the further I’ve traveled in my career and the more projects I’ve made, the more I’ve been fortunate to learn little bits and pieces about the tech side of things from my wonderful collaborators. It can feel at best limiting and at worst frustrating to have the ideas and the vision, but to not have the ability to execute them properly yourself (or the budget to hire folks who can do it for you.) So I’m grateful that I live in a world where user-friendly, simplified technologies exist for tech amateurs like me. I used iMovie to edit the video, and for the simple purposes of what I needed, the app worked great. There was no barrier to entry between idea and realization. I don’t even own a tripod. I just propped the phone up against books or mugs or whatever was around and did my weirdo thing. Sometimes I end up more satisfied by the things I create within limitations like this. Limitations can eliminate indecisiveness and preciousness, which is often helpful. Simplifying can sometimes be half the battle. Having anything and everything at your fingertips must be, in a way, torturous!
EKMH: How does art take on greater significance in difficult times like these?
Lindsay Kay: It seems to me that we are all massively fatigued, and art energizes us. I think most artists would agree that practicing your craft, creating new work, and/or sharing work with other people is life-affirming, nurturing. And as the art lover/consumer, art can be a life raft in difficult times, a way to feel connected to something greater and more important than the small ecosystem of you and whoever is in the house with you (or whoever has broken your heart, fired you, bullied you, made you feel small, etc.).
Yes, we know that globally we are all going through the same thing at the same time, and as comforting as that can be, it can also become exhausting when the only topic of any conversation revolves around this virus. Sharing art, whether it was made in these strange days or not, is another universal truth - another thing we all share and a way we can connect with our communities in a meaningful way. And, when artists are good at their job, they can act as a loving mirror to make people feel understood, less alone, reflect their own experiences and feelings back at them. This is crucial! Loneliness is one of the great battles we’re fighting during this pandemic, and making/sharing/consuming art is an important tool to fight it with.
EKMH: During the quarantine, which social networks have you found to be most useful when sharing your newest work and also keeping connected to the Music Industry?
Lindsay Kay: Instagram is definitely my preferred social media platform to use, even more so during quarantine. It pains me to say so because Instagram, like pretty much all other platforms, do very little to help artists, but I do find the connections with the people who listen to my music to be most meaningful there. Because Instagram is a visual platform, and marrying visuals to music is a huge part of my artistic identity, I’m able to find ways to be artful within the app, and I get inspired often scrolling through the profiles of like-minded artists I’ve chosen to follow. I’ve met several of my frequent collaborators through Instagram, and the app is quite conducive to connecting and facilitating collaborations. I enjoy the ability to be more casual and fun via stories and to show more of my life and personality that way too. So that’s mostly where you’ll find me being active these days. Otherwise, of course I have Facebook and Twitter accounts for my music because it’s industry standard, but I don’t particularly enjoy engaging with either, and, to be honest, I can’t bring myself to get excited about many other platforms.
EKMH: I remember a conversation last fall when you explained how you sourced collaborators via social networks— could you speak to that a little and what type of tech would better these connections?
Lindsay Kay: Yes! The collaboration possibilities feel endless via social media, however that can sometimes be the problem. How do you find the right people? There are so many incredible, brilliant artists working under the radar, not hashtagging or being showcased by the platform or other accounts, and those are the artists I’m most interested in working with. The truth is that it hasn’t always been easy to do, and it has often taken a great deal of searching and many, many hours online. That said, my searches have been very fruitful and therefore absolutely worth the effort. But it would be fantastic if a platform like Instagram, which does tend to be the preferred app for creatives, could provide a way to make it easier for likeminded artists to find each other.
The hashtagging feature used to be a good place to start, and certainly when I was in the early stages of hiring for my album, I would peruse hashtags like #femalemusician or #LAindependentartist or #womeninmusic. One of my closest collaborators, Anastasia Levedeva (with whom I created my first two music videos and the album artwork for my last album), found me via Instagram, I believe just by looking through Los Angeles creative hashtags. She had a visual concept she wanted to try and reached out to me to model/muse for the project. We did the photoshoot together and clicked instantly, and she agreed to make a music video with me on the spot without even hearing my songs! Now she’s a dear friend and we’ve made a lot of art together (and will continue to for years to come), which just goes to show that you truly can make meaningful, exciting connections through these types of apps.
I’m also a member of various creative Facebook groups and communities, which has been another way I’ve found collaborators. I found Theresa Baxter, the wonderful illustrator and designer who helped me create all of my album merchandise and some single artwork, through a “Creative Women in LA” Facebook community, and she led to my screen printer, and on and on. I don’t necessarily think social media can or should be one’s only way of finding collaborators, as in-person connection and community is still a big part of my life, but it’s undoubtedly a phenomenal place to start, and can often lead to creative connections that otherwise wouldn’t have been. I would love to see Instagram implement ways of making it even easier to find like-minded artists; something similar to what hashtagging and geotagging were initially but lost the plot on with over-saturation. Something for specific artistic niches or styles. The explore page can sometimes be helpful, but a lot of garbage gets in there too, so seeing something more focused and curated would be fantastic.
EKMH: What would be some new tech and app innovations you’d like to see for musicians/artists?
Lindsay Kay: What I would love to see more than anything is an app or social media platform that facilitates musicians’ monetization of their work in a significant way. What that would or could look like, I don’t know, but I feel very strongly that streaming as it exists today must change, and soon. Spotify and Apple Music and the like are absolutely destroying musicians’ ability to support themselves financially.
Every independent musician must also be a social media and marketing expert, a brand, their own manager… We have to curate frequent content on no less than three social media platforms, and somehow we are expected to hone our craft too? When does one have time to practice one’s instruments or write one’s songs or live a life worth writing about? How much more brand focused can we get whilst still being musicians? Or how much more music focused can we get without being broke? Last month my streaming royalty check came in at $4.25 and I had thousands of streams. Thanks for the oat milk latte Spotify, much appreciated!
We need to get paid when people listen to our songs, period. $0.001 per stream is frankly criminal. What I want to see more than anything from technology as it relates to music is something being put in place to support and protect us. Something that enables us to focus on doing what we do best and, if people are listening and engaging with the work, to get paid fairly.
EKMH: A few years ago I interviewed you for Crowdfund Insider, as you were a crowdfund insider, crowdfunding on Kickstarter for a new album. What was your overall experience with crowdfunding? Why would or wouldn’t you consider fintech as a way to raise funds for a new creative project?
Lindsay Kay: Well, certainly I would have to call my crowdfunding campaign a success, as I met my financial goal and in turn was able to make my album! I’m very grateful for that experience and looking back I wouldn’t change a thing. It was a totally viable way to finance my music and maintain creative control, and I found myself connecting on a deeper level with fans and listeners once the album was finished which was lovely. That said, it wasn’t an easy or simple experience, but I was warned in advance by other artist friends who had been through the process. A crowdfunding campaign truly can be a full-time job, and for a few months of my life it was! And as an introvert, I found it challenging to aggressively contact everyone I had ever met and basically beg them for money. That was a tough ego hurdle to get over at first - really outside of my nature. Would I do it again? I’m not sure. I’m not opposed to it, but I would take pause before diving into another campaign, just due to the sheer amount of time, energy, and math (lots of shipping cost calculations).
EKMH: How can musicians stay connected with their audiences? Are live-streamed concerts becoming the way of the future?
Lindsay Kay: In the midst of this pandemic, I’m trying to remind myself that these are unprecedented times, that none of what we are experiencing is normal, and that there is so much out of our control, including our health and the health of our loved ones. It’s scary as hell! It’s exhausting!
Of course, we all want this time to be productive. We all want to emerge from this quarantine with our heads held high and our great American novel or symphonies or finished screenplays in hand. People keep bringing up how Shakespeare wrote King Lear during the plague and I’m just like… and?
It somehow feels shameful to take rest or to not have each day filled with tasks, and I’m not immune to those pressures. But I want to give myself permission to just… not. I made a music video in quarantine because I genuinely felt inspired to do so, and once I was finished making it, I felt uninspired all over again. I haven’t yet played a live-streamed concert in quarantine because I genuinely haven’t felt called to do so. Yes, being a musician is my job, but a) no one is paying me to do it right now, and b) being an artist is a bit deeper than just a job, and people can tell when you’re faking it.
Authenticity is paramount, and it’s starkly obvious when it’s absent. So when the day comes that I feel genuinely excited about playing a live-streamed concert from home - and that day could totally come at any time! - that’s when you’ll see me do it. I think my audience, small and mighty as it is, is composed of really smart, wise people who get that. I never feel pressure from my listeners to deliver anything, but rather I get encouragement and gratitude when I do share.
Today I decided to cross a life-long goal off of the bucket list and I baked croissants from scratch. I shared the whole process on Instagram, and I got an overwhelming amount of engagement and super enthusiastic responses from my followers. It had absolutely nothing to do with music - the presumptive reason they starting following me in the first place - but it was something… fun. We’re all just doing our best!
EKMH: Soon you will be beginning your graduate studies. Why did you decide to go back to school?
Lindsay Kay: My last album was a meditation on femininity and womanhood and was made from top to bottom by a team of women and feminine-identifying people. That experience was extremely important to me as an artist and a woman, and when I began to think about my next steps and the next body of work I wanted to create, I wanted to ensure growth and evolution. I didn’t want to say the same things or open old wounds, and I want my music to be capable of creating change. I realized that I needed more context and more knowledge about the women in art who came before me. I want to know how female artists historically have ignited real, impactful forward motion with their work, and as a result where my work can fit in the tradition. I applied to the most interdisciplinary and self-directed Master’s programs I could find that would allow me a great deal of freedom and flexibility. I’ll be combining my compositional and musical practice with creative writing and critical studies of the works of contemporary female artists in all mediums. After graduating from Berklee, I didn’t imagine myself ever going back to school, but I feel excited about the prospect of studying female-made art through the lenses of psychology, anthropology, activism, and gender/sexuality studies. I think it will help me to communicate my own message most effectively and powerfully in my future work.
EKMH: Which songs, films and books have become essential reads during the quarantine?
Lindsay Kay: Truthfully I haven’t been particularly interested in listening to music during quarantine, and have mostly turned to other mediums. Somehow it’s hard to connect with what anyone is singing about these days - nothing feels applicable to what we’re living through. When I do have something on, it’s been music that is totally familiar, albums I’ve heard a thousand or more times. Beyonce, John Mayer, Joni Mitchell, Coltrane, Leonard Cohen…
As for books, I read Ottessa Moshefegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation and absolutely loved it. I bought her collection of short stories and will check that out next. I’m currently reading Eve’s Hollywood which is a biography of sorts about one of my favorite writers, Eve Babitz. I’m really enjoying it, she was a fascinating woman.
I’ve been watching lots of films and TV as well. As you know, I finally watched the Almodovar film Dolor y Gloria last week after our conversation about it. I loved it, as predicted! Watching his films has the added benefit of helping me maintain my Spanish while I’m not in Barcelona, and for that reason I’ve also devoured a couple of Spanish teen dramas (Élite anyone?!). I really love the BBC show Killing Eve, and I’ve been watching the new season during quarantine. I just finished watching The Final Table on Netflix with my family (I love a good cooking show).
And, as always, I’ve been freely indulging in all of my favourite low-brow media. We’ve discussed many times and in much detail my love of trashy reality television, so I, like everyone, blew through Tiger King, Love is Blind, etc. Now I’m on to Too Hot To Handle. I’m loving it and I’m 100% sure you would hate it!
**Innovators Update!
EKMH: I just saw that you opted for tech again and launched a Patreon. Can you share more about your decision?
Lindsay Kay: A couple of months into the pandemic, I started to entertain the idea of starting a Patreon account for my music and art. The platform had been brought up to me several times by friends and followers of my work, but I was never convinced that it was the right medium for me and the type of artist I am. But after seeing some other creators whose work I love and respect join the platform in these times of isolation, I looked into Patreon further and found myself feeling quite inspired and excited by this way of sharing work. I knew that building a subscription-based community online would be a long, uphill battle, but the accountability component alone - having a schedule to keep and a certain amount of output to uphold each month - was fantastic and needed.
I'm genuinely excited to sit down and work on the music and writing I have promised my Patrons. I'm thrilled to share monthly, Patreon-only live-streamed concerts, which have proven to fill the touring/live performance shaped hole in my heart quite well and keep me practicing on a daily basis. I'm sharing my non-musical written work (some personal essays, poetry, etc.) exclusively with my Patrons, which feels vulnerable and therefore very worth doing! And every two weeks I put together a curated list of art, music, film, TV, media, reading, and more that I have found inspiring or enriching. I'm donating 100% of the proceeds through the end of September to Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, The Bail Project, and The ACLU, and it feels like a real privilege to be able to create and connect with Patrons while also contributing financially to these great organizations. $1 all access memberships are available for BIPOC, and I welcome the Patronage of any and all!
**For the latest updates, check out @crowdfunderin and @ekmhinnovators.
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