Kaley Bird

Written By:Fish Griwkowsky

As far as ambition goes, this weekend’s SOS festival is commendable and inspiring. The idea is a common enough daydream — build a multi-venue music festival, the likes of which we keep hearing about in other cities, full of choices normal and hip, daring and familiar. SxSW? Sled Island? Neither, yet. But it deserves a chance, covering up a pretty embarrassing hole in Edmonton.

At the centre of this creative initiative are a number of players. The city, the Edmonton Arts Council and Old Strathcona Business Association each have helped in their own way, and local promoter Brent Oliver had quite a lot to do with which bands are playing, including, just in the free Sunday street show which closes down Whyte, Shout Out Out Out Out, the Swiftys, Jeff Stuart and the Hearts, Dustin Bentall and a number of others.

You can find the entire list at sosfest.ca — it leans heavily toward the local, but there’s never been a showcase like this before, spanning dozens of venues over the entire weekend.

Wristbands are only $30, which is ridiculously reasonable — imagine the Fringe being that cheap with no pre-booking necessary, no rules about when you can show up for a show!

Which brings us to Kaley Bird, a local musician running the show as producer. She explains how that came about: “I was approached by Darb Erikson, who works for the City of Edmonton, last fall about the possibility of being involved in a new initiative between the city and the Old Strathcona Business Association. The initiative for the city, or Responsible Hospitality Edmonton, was to promote a more positive setting in the area of Old Strathcona, while the Old Strathcona Business Association wanted to work towards branding the area as a live music district, creating a place for musicians to play for an appreciative audience.

“As an independent musician, this sounded great. However, I was leaving on tour and told Darb I would be in touch when I got back. While touring over the next four months, myself and the two other musicians I was travelling with, Sidney York and Amy Thiessen, fell on some bad luck. I got swine flu, we were robbed in Montreal and totalled our tour vehicle. We were overwhelmed by the amount of support we received from the music community and were looking for an opportunity to say thank you. The idea of a benefit show was being tossed around and soon formed into what is now SOS fest.”

She’s thankful so many venues — basically any bar worth mentioning — is sacrificing their busy weekend. People drink less during concerts, it’s just a fact.

“I think they see the benefit of showcasing live music in the area. They definitely are taking a risk, especially with their regulars who will not be expecting music this weekend,” she said.

“That being said, if you don’t risk anything, it’s often hard to gain anything. I think the venue owners understand this and see the value in contributing to this overall community-driven initiative.”

The best part of all is shutting down 82 Avenue Sunday, which will hopefully spread out next year in every way.

For now, stages will sit at 103 and 105 streets, starting in the early afternoon, going till late at night. Rock, folk, country and dance music will take over the streets.

The OSBA wants to change people’s perceptions of Whyte, that the bars which help pay for their existence can serve a different purpose.

So will it work? I hope so. If you come on down, that’s the first step. - The Edmonton SUN

Album Review: Kaley Bird

Bryan Saunders, Entertainment Staff

Everything about Kaley Bird’s music seems to have been influenced by living in Edmonton. Indeed, everything about this local singer-songwriter’s debut album is reminiscent—in some way or another—of this fair City of Champions.
Take, for example, the way this record balances its urban sound with small-town nuance. “The China Song” has a distinctly metropolitan feel to it—like the type of music one might hear at the open-mic night in a Whyte Avenue café or a 124 Street teashop. Meanwhile, songs such as “First to Last” whisper hints of folk music roots, and evoke melodic visions of the beautiful and expansive prairies that exist just outside Edmonton’s city limits.
Bird’s record also makes musical allusions to the city’s extreme weather. Tracks like “Be Your Blanket” and “Northernline” speak of the long, dark, frigid winters that citizens of this city must endure, and the emotions that come with living in such a climate. Then there’s songs like “Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do” and “Dishes Ain’t Done,” which immediately bring to mind scorching summer days and the leisurely pace, while at the same time invoking the restlessness that bright blue days like these inevitably seem to bring with them.
However, Bird is at her musical best when she speeds things up. The relatively upbeat songs “Dress Me Up,” “Morningside,” and “Something Better” are no doubt the jewels of this record, and it’s a shame Bird doesn’t include more in this vibrant style. Indeed, the latter of these in particular evokes thoughts of a long and successful Friday night out on the town. - The Gateway

Week of June 26, 2008, Issue #662
MUSIC
KALEY BIRD
IF YOU WANT SOMETHING DONE RIGHT ...
BRYAN BIRTLES / bryan@vueweekly.com

‘I always played in the basement and I had so many songs written but no one is gonna hear them if you never play them. I enjoy things that are challenging for me and that make me uncomfortable and I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.”

Kaley Bird might never have been across a coffee shop table from me if it weren’t for a particular moment where she screwed up enough courage to step onto an open stage and play some of the songs she had been working on in front of an actual audience, but she did. And once she did, things started falling into place for her almost immediately. The reaction was good, she was offered a couple of return gigs, she was able to put a band together and recently she recorded a CD that will be released this Friday at Alberta College’s Muttart Hall. But none of this would have come to pass if Bird hadn’t picked up her guitar again after being frustrated by it in the first place.

“I got it for Christmas in grade six from my dad and I think he showed me three chords, but when you’re first learning the guitar you suck and it doesn’t sound like anything and it’s brutal, so I kind of quit and didn’t play it for a while,” she remembers. “Three or four years later I sat down and my dad taught me this cool lick with barre chords and it sounded like something so I thought, ‘Sweet!’ and I started playing every day.”

It hasn’t been as easy as it sounds, and though she can be endearingly self-deprecating, Bird has worked hard to get to this point and doesn’t plan to stop until she gets to where she wants to be.
“I do everything myself. I book myself, I organize all the shows, I have my own PA, I rented all the lighting, I get all the tickets and put up all the posters,” she explains. “It’s ambitious, but I think if you work really hard and put in the time—I mean, you can always go with a booking agent or a manager but, y’know, I always know how hard I’m working to get gigs and to get my music out there, but I would never know how hard someone else is working on my behalf. I guess I’m kind of a control freak that way. For me, I think you make your own opportunities and you make your own breaks.” V

Check out this article online @

http://www.vueweekly.com/article.php?id=8860
- VUE WEEKLY

The Ubyssey: University of British Columbia Student Newspaper.
Tuesday,Nov. 4, 2008. : Alexis Stoymenoff

Kaley Bird’s music is just as pretty as her name seems to suggest. The self-titled debut from this Edmonton songstress mixes folk influences with sweet-sounding melodies, putting her in the same category as Fleetwood Mac and Joni Mitchell.
Light, happy tunes like “Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do, Do” and “China Song” seem to be Bird’s specialty, as they showcase her gentle vocals and catchy songwriting. With songs like “Morningside” she offers a more upbeat alternative, but her voice really shines in emotional acoustic tracks such as “Northernline” and “It’s Just So.”
The up-and-coming Canadian singer has been busy since she gained local popularity in 2007. Not only did she write and perform every song, she also co-produced the album and released it independently on her own label.
The finished product is an easy listen, perfect for sunny days and lazy afternoons.

- The Ubyssey

A singing Bird finding her wings
Jonn Kmech, Arts & Entertainment Editor

The Edmonton songstress talks about managing her career and peculiar fans

“Life’s good,” exclaims Kaley Bird with a smile.
It’s a sentiment that wouldn’t be tough to determine even if she hadn’t said it. The 21-year-old Edmonton-based singer and guitarist seems genuinely happy and her sunny, humble personality shines through in everything she says.
She radiates a small-town charm, which syncs with both her roots and her music—even though it contrasts with her desire to reside in a more urban setting.
“I grew up in Vegreville, but I don’t like talking about that. No, I’m just kidding,” Bird laughs over a latte at the Sugar Bowl. “They have a giant Easter egg and great people, but it’s just too small for me. I like [living] where there’s more to do. Can you imagine trying to have a music career in a small town?”
True, it’d be pretty difficult to break out past the coffee house circuit, and even though Bird has played her share of open mics in front of small, devoted crowds, she’s moving up within Edmonton’s dynamic local scene, mainly due to her propensity for running the business side of her career herself.
Even before she released her self-titled album in June on her own record label, Box Records, she was booking her own shows, running her own promotions, and “chipping away at the ice block,” as she describes her overall efforts.
“If I can build a career independently and on my own, without having to hire someone else to do that for me, ideally that’s what I’d like to do,” Bird, who is taking classes by correspondence at the U of A in arts management, explains. “As of right now, I’m having a lot of fun doing all that stuff. You just roll with the punches, see what comes your way, and how everything unfolds. I’m just winging it, really!”
Avian-related puns aside, Bird’s fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants attitude has undoubtedly worked. Through word of mouth and her resilient pounding of the pavement to forward her own career, she’s been charting on campus radio stations across the country, as well as CBC Radio.
Even with that type of exposure, Bird remains modest when it comes to referring to her fanbase, but she’s already attracting an element essential to any artist’s claim that they’ve “made it big”—eccentrics.
“I didn’t really know that I had any fans—at all,” Bird says. “But there was this one guy [at one show] who, from start to finish, was on the floor dancing, and he was singing along to all the songs. I was like, ‘Sweet, this guy’s like a diehard Kaley Bird fan!’ Then I played a new song and he didn’t know the words but he was still dancing. In the middle of the song, he started swearing—I can’t even say it because you couldn’t print it. I would feel bad.”
After informing her that it could undoubtedly be printed, Bird mouths the word “motherfucker” before laughing again. “This guy was just going off. But hey, that man is a fan. Swearing is fine as long as they’re swearing in a positive way—and there’s no children in the audience.”
Having cut an album and established a devoted group of fans in Edmonton and western Canada, Bird is moving to Ottawa for three months next year to begin touring eastern Canada.
But first, the entrepreneurial singer will complete the music video she’s working on for her song “Dishes Ain’t Done.” Keeping with her style, she asserts that the video will have nothing to do with dishwashing—or herself, for matter.
“I really don’t want it to be about me,” she chuckles sheepishly. “That sounds lame, because it’s my song, but I don’t know. I just want people to say, ‘She really enjoys what she’s doing and she has fun making music and isn’t taking herself too seriously.’ Which, I mean, you have to at some level, because if you want to make a living making music, you have to take it somewhat seriously. But you can’t just be like, ‘Aw, I’m such a huge deal!’ Because I’m not; I’m small potatoes. I’m just getting started. But it’s fun.”

- The Gateway, University of Alberta Student Newspaper

A singing Bird finding her wings
Jonn Kmech, Arts & Entertainment Editor

The Edmonton songstress talks about managing her career and peculiar fans

“Life’s good,” exclaims Kaley Bird with a smile.
It’s a sentiment that wouldn’t be tough to determine even if she hadn’t said it. The 21-year-old Edmonton-based singer and guitarist seems genuinely happy and her sunny, humble personality shines through in everything she says.
She radiates a small-town charm, which syncs with both her roots and her music—even though it contrasts with her desire to reside in a more urban setting.
“I grew up in Vegreville, but I don’t like talking about that. No, I’m just kidding,” Bird laughs over a latte at the Sugar Bowl. “They have a giant Easter egg and great people, but it’s just too small for me. I like [living] where there’s more to do. Can you imagine trying to have a music career in a small town?”
True, it’d be pretty difficult to break out past the coffee house circuit, and even though Bird has played her share of open mics in front of small, devoted crowds, she’s moving up within Edmonton’s dynamic local scene, mainly due to her propensity for running the business side of her career herself.
Even before she released her self-titled album in June on her own record label, Box Records, she was booking her own shows, running her own promotions, and “chipping away at the ice block,” as she describes her overall efforts.
“If I can build a career independently and on my own, without having to hire someone else to do that for me, ideally that’s what I’d like to do,” Bird, who is taking classes by correspondence at the U of A in arts management, explains. “As of right now, I’m having a lot of fun doing all that stuff. You just roll with the punches, see what comes your way, and how everything unfolds. I’m just winging it, really!”
Avian-related puns aside, Bird’s fly-by-the-seat-of-her-pants attitude has undoubtedly worked. Through word of mouth and her resilient pounding of the pavement to forward her own career, she’s been charting on campus radio stations across the country, as well as CBC Radio.
Even with that type of exposure, Bird remains modest when it comes to referring to her fanbase, but she’s already attracting an element essential to any artist’s claim that they’ve “made it big”—eccentrics.
“I didn’t really know that I had any fans—at all,” Bird says. “But there was this one guy [at one show] who, from start to finish, was on the floor dancing, and he was singing along to all the songs. I was like, ‘Sweet, this guy’s like a diehard Kaley Bird fan!’ Then I played a new song and he didn’t know the words but he was still dancing. In the middle of the song, he started swearing—I can’t even say it because you couldn’t print it. I would feel bad.”
After informing her that it could undoubtedly be printed, Bird mouths the word “motherfucker” before laughing again. “This guy was just going off. But hey, that man is a fan. Swearing is fine as long as they’re swearing in a positive way—and there’s no children in the audience.”
Having cut an album and established a devoted group of fans in Edmonton and western Canada, Bird is moving to Ottawa for three months next year to begin touring eastern Canada.
But first, the entrepreneurial singer will complete the music video she’s working on for her song “Dishes Ain’t Done.” Keeping with her style, she asserts that the video will have nothing to do with dishwashing—or herself, for matter.
“I really don’t want it to be about me,” she chuckles sheepishly. “That sounds lame, because it’s my song, but I don’t know. I just want people to say, ‘She really enjoys what she’s doing and she has fun making music and isn’t taking herself too seriously.’ Which, I mean, you have to at some level, because if you want to make a living making music, you have to take it somewhat seriously. But you can’t just be like, ‘Aw, I’m such a huge deal!’ Because I’m not; I’m small potatoes. I’m just getting started. But it’s fun.”

- The Gateway, University of Alberta Student Newspaper