08.12.05 - Volume 1, Episode #6 - Length 39:26
Kym is no ordinary singer/song writer. She possesses a unique ability to warm you over with her lush sweet voice and touching lyrics. She is a hidden musical jewel in the forest of Pacific Northwest sounds. Listen as Kym talks about her inspirations and challenges being an independent musician.
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MP3 36.1 MB
( ♪ Bird Song – Recorded Live by BSB ♪ )
Kym: I’m the daughter of a piano player, my father was a piano player, my moms father was a piano player and band leader in D.C. I started taking piano lessons. When I was 5 when I was in my teens, when I was 13 I had one of those huge Yamaha CP35 keyboards, that you need 2 people to lift. It was back in the day before they were smaller. I was visiting a friend in LA, their teenage son and the baby sitter were playing guitar, they were learning to play “Under My Thumb” by the Stones. They would go out by the pool, of course they were in LA, so they were out by the pool with the guitar and I’m in the living room with my keyboard alone and so I said, “Teach me how to play the guitar” That’s when I first learned, the first song I learned was “Under My Thumb” which I couldn’t play for you if I tried.
( ♪ Bird Song – Recorded Live by BSB ♪ )
Kym: I came up here to go to school. I went to a fine arts school called Cornish. I studied jazz piano and comp, composition and I kept writing on guitar but I was more like a side instrument, like I would fiddle around on it. Then after I graduated I was really burned out on the piano. I couldn’t sit down for more then 5 or 10 minutes I was so sick of it. I started playing a lot of guitar, I started writing a lot. That’s kinda of where it started, and honestly really delving into it in the last 5-8 years.
( ♪ Flood – Recorded Live by BSB ♪ )
Kym: I just try to write well, my hero is Paul Simon and he’s the dude. He is like the highest standard. I have been trying to write like him. (laughter) Yeah, good luck. I just try to write well, try and be true. I am really hard on myself, if it does not seem right to me I won’t let it go. My last record was very personal, very me and you kind of writing. I have been trying to break out of that a little bit and break out of the confessional song writing mode. More into being in a place, or being in a moment or describing a place or telling a story in a different way. I’m finding that really interesting and very challenging, but good. I like to be challenged and grow. I want to keep growing as a songwriter and player.
( ♪ Flood – Recorded Live by BSB ♪ )
Kym: I don’t have to necessarily be in a emotional space to write. I do have to be aware, I have to be paying attention. I have to be a place in my life where I’m not feeling crazy. Over worked, over stressed, doing too many things because the more chill I can be the more I can pay attention to what is going on around me to the little moments, the little descriptions that fly through my head as I watch something happen. Or paying attention to how I’m feeling. We have so many things that fly through our head every mini second, but if we are not paying attention to them because we are so swamped and crazy we all could be writing books. That’s what I find for myself. I actually just recently decided I need to make more time for writing. I was writing more but I had been a little bit swamped and crazy. So I have been chilling a lot and just paying attention to what is going on. Its always a really nice destination to try and head to. Not just for writing, but for sanity. That’s when I feel like I’m in my zen living space. I feel like I’m connected to myself, connected to the planet, connected to people, connected to my music and its very circular, definitely.
( ♪ Summer – Recorded Live by BSB ♪ )
Kym: I have actually been home pretty much since April. I was supposed to do a cross country but I got sick, I got this really bad flu so I was home. I am going to start going out on the road again this summer, just a little bit. I’m going to New York next week. I’m going to the Midwest and Boston in August. Then I’m coming home and make a new record. I won’t do any heavy touring until spring and summer. I’m looking forward to being home during fall, playing more regionally and starting the new CD.
( ♪ Summer – Recorded Live by BSB ♪ )
Kym: I started doing something in the last few years which I never thought I’d do on guitar. I started kinda delving into jazz again. I cover some old standards, sweet little jazz tunes. That has been influencing my writing and playing. So there is going to be that vibe on there. One of the main things I am really excited about, is every time I make a record I want it to sound different from the last record. Its kinda hard because on the last record, which was On The Mend, that was my favorite instrumentation of all time. I loved the instrumentation on that record and how that record came out. That’s going to be a challenge as I look at these new songs and saying “OK, I’m not going to do as much instrumentation that I did not the last record” That’s a creative challenge, finding different voices and different shapes of how to be true to the songs to make them sound like the record before, which is a personal pet peeve of mine. When people make the same record over and over and over. I love it when people take risks and come out with something completely surprising. That you know they are being true to their musical journey and they are not worried about pissing off their audience or making money. I’m an indie and I get to do that and hopefully people will appreciate it.
( ♪ Pendulum – Recorded Live by BSB ♪ *)
Kym:* Julie Wolf who used to work with Ani, she’s basically been a side person with so many people. She’s a side person. She didn’t produce, she is on both of my records we actually went to school together. We went to Cornish together. She was towards the end of her school when I was coming in. So we have known each other for years. She is phenomenal, an amazing talented musician and also tremendous songwriter and performer. She is just starting to perform on her own again and do her own stuff again and I’m really excited about that. Julie is phenomenal. I have been really blessed to work with music people, some people that have a wider reputation, but some that don’t but they are all amazing. There is a guy named Dan Tyack who is on this record. He plays pedal steel and dobroh, just amazing. He is going to be on the next record. He was on the last record, but I don’t care. He is going to be on the next one. He is the hit maker, he is just amazing. We all call him the hit maker because he just goes in “OK, I’m going to try this” and your jaw drops. He made one of my least favorite songs on the last record, which I won’t name. He totally made that song for me just by playing on it. He just made it for me.
Kym: There is no place like Seattle, I love Seattle. I almost left Seattle last year, but I ended up staying. The one thing that is hard is touring. You can tour the west coast and then the mid west and east coast. There is little region that’s in the middle that you have to drive several hours, its like a day drive. I’m probably going to get a lot of flack for saying that. I tend to do a lot of touring on the East coast and mid west, I started going to the southeast. So I was looking at a place, buying a place in the Midwest so it would be easier so I could go on tour and not have to leave my house for 2 months. I love being in Seattle, there are so many amazing people, so many amazing people. Artists, musicians, my base is here. I have been here since ‘87 so this is home. This is more home to me then California where I grew up.
( ♪ California – From the album, Kym Tuvim ♪ )
Kym: I appreciate technology, I’m grateful for it, but I’m not a big user of it. Except for the very common. I have my iBook, I’m on e-mail, the web and all that. I love wood and strings, I’m very low tech but I have friends who are very high tech so that’s how it all works out. I’m very low tech, I think it will change at some point, but for the time being its kinda where I’m happy being. I’d rather play an acoustic guitar then an electric. I’d rather play an acoustic piano then a keyboard. It feels more real to me. It resonates in a way that makes more sense.
( ♪ California – From the album, Kym Tuvim ♪ )
Kym: This beautiful guitar is a Larrivee. It’s a Larrivee jumbo. I had a Taylor small body guitar, my very first nice guitar. The guitar that I grew up with, the first steel string guitar my dad bought for me was a Alvarez, which I still have to this day. Its a really great guitar, but I wanted something that had a little bit finer tone to it. So I got a Taylor and I had that for several years. It was a small body and it was just not cutting it for me. I was starting to really strum and really hit the guitar a bit more intensely. So I was in the market for a different guitar. I didn’t know what I wanted. I went up to Trading Musician and I got this. Trading Addition, great store here in Seattle great place to buy used instruments. The people there are fantastic. It was really ironic, because they have incredible instruments that are for consignment that are for sale there that are used, but the really nice ones don’t stay, they don’t last very long. I happened to go in on a day when this guitar was in there and they had just put new strings on it. Actually the funny thing was I was trying out this fancy capo, because I use capo’s all the time. This guy was trying to talk me into this gadgety capo, well I got to try this out. So I went to find a guitar and I saw this, and I tried it out. The stings were new, so they kept going out of tune. 3 hours later I’m still playing this guitar, 3 1/2 hours later I bought it, walked out with it. Its a phenomenal instrument, I think that there are very few instruments that can handle such a variety of playing. It handles very fine hand, finger style, it loves to be strummed. Its beautiful. Its traveled really well, because I’m terrible. I don’t coddle it at all. When I tour, I tour with a soft shell case, I mean its a nice soft shell case. Its handled going all over the country with all sorts of humidity and weather. Its phenomenal.
Kym: Of the people who I like, big people, Joni Mitchel, James Taylor, Rickie Lee Jones, I love Peter Hamilmen, Eliaz Gilkyson who was just in town and I missed her show. The list goes on. Just people who are really good writers, and who have so much heart and it just comes through and they always continue to grow. Aimee Mann, she knocks me out and Michael Penn her husband too. I liked him back in the day, when he put that first record out. Remember that first record, it was so good. Honestly a lot of my favorite songwriter’s are people like me. People I have met, friends all over the country. Songwriter’s, I could give you a long list. Hopefully they will do these interviews too. Just incredible songwriter’s in town, I could just tick off several. Holly Figueroa, Sunmay, a new duo with Deborah Bartley & Chris Pew, Jean Mann, Paul Benoit, just so many incredible songwriter’s, and then all over the country. Eventually I’m going to redo my web site and I’m going to have a list with links of all the people that I come in contact with who knock me out, because there are so many. I am really fortunate because I get to call a lot of those people my friends, which is really nice.
Kym: Right now you would find Karen Sovoca. Do you know about her? She is a fairly well established indie songwriter. I think she is based out of the east coast somewhere. She and her partner, I don’t know if they are together personally, but musically this guy name Pete Heitzman, I think. Just incredible. Incredible song writing, incredible voice. I just finished painting. I spent a week painting my house and so I was listening to a lot of music and she was the last installation. Its very good to listen to Karen while doing trim. Very chill while you go and get the fine points. I’m part of a very nice community of friends who I love and adore. It has been really nice being home, connecting with people here in Seattle because I have been connecting with all my community out in the rest of the country. I have not been home in so long, so people have really been digging that. “Kym do you want to come over?” “Yeah” “Alright” I don’t have to say “I can’t because I’m going on tour” I love working in the garden, I love going for walks, I love reading. I’m an avid reader. I would love to take a short fiction class. I would love to learn how to write fiction. Be able to write something longer then what takes 3 minutes. You know its an interesting, those are the things that come to mind really quickly, but I’m actually going through kind of reassessing what my life is right now. I’m home, I’m not touring as much. Music is such a crucial part, its a huge cornerstone of my life. It always has been. I’ll always write, I’ll always play and I think I’ll always perform because I enjoy it. I also want to have more balance in my life. I have been kind of looking at that and saying “OK, what do I want to work on, what do I want to develop, what do I see myself doing” I am getting up there age wise and I’m thinking “I want to be a parent” How do I figure that out, how do I have that part of my life come together. Its hard to do those kind of things when you are traveling around. So that is something I am paying attention to. Usually when I am home, I am very politically aware. I do a lot of web and phone call activism. I wish I could do more, but is pretty overwhelming some times. One of the things that is really important to me is create in my small circle, my small world, just trying to bring life back to some sort of reality check. Life gets so big and crazy. There is always so much going on. There is a lot of madness in the world right now. Its really troubling. I try in my daily life to keep it real. Its real important to me.
( ♪ Mystery – Recorded Live by BSB ♪ )
Kym: I really think the fundamental thing you have to ask is “What going to make you happy?” Understand that what makes you happy changes. If a person wants to be a touring artist, a songwriter, recording and performing and traveling around. There are so many different steps to each accomplishment. I would say the first thing is practice, be prepared. Play your instrument well. If you want to be a songwriter, work it. If you are not performing and performing is daunting, start playing open mic’s. There is an incredible community of every city I have been in with open mic. Just a whole open mic community of people who go out and play open mic and you start getting your chops and getting your experience and connecting with folks. What is incredible right now is because of technology and the web, just amazing creativity on the part of so many people. We have an amazing ability to release records independently, to tour independently, to promote independently. The web is a phenomenal tool. There are incredible companies like CD Baby, which is out of Portland where you can sell CD’s. They have whole programs designed to help independent people get their music out to companies like iTunes and to record stores and what not. There are lots of great organizations, indie-music.com. If you are folk, there is the folk alliance organization. They have conferences all over the country through out the year. There are so many ways, you basically have to be hiding in your room to not know what’s going on. All you have to do is type into google “songwriter, folk, independent performer” You get so many hits. A great thing to do is if you are out there and you are not sure what step to do first, go connect with songwriter’s that you like who are independent. I had, when I was coming up, there are people in town who I knocked on their doors and called them and was “How do I write a bio?” “How do I book a gig” I have been really happy to help whenever I can with the experience I have, which is actually not much. I have learned enough, and I think its one of the things that makes the independent community so tight and wonderful is I think a lot of people give back whenever they can, which is a good thing. There is so much out there that is really helpful. So many tools that weren’t even there when I was starting out, which wasn’t that long ago. We have come so far with the web its amazing.
( ♪ Don’t Give Up – from the album, On the Mend ♪ )
Kym: What makes a great show for me is, I could have a great show playing for 3 people there, as long as they want to be there. Its really nice to show up at a place you have never been to before and people come out and they are excited to hear you. Its in a space that’s real. Some clubs kinda’ feel like there is this instant distance that is hard to bridge between the stage and audience. I play a lot of house concerts. I like that. I think a lot me comes through my music and I hope that people stick with me as I grow and change and diversify a little bit.
Kym: I’m going to come back in the fall and start making the record. I hope we will have it done by the end of January, February. Once the record comes out I’ll probably be back out on the road a lot more. My records can be found on CD Baby, they can be downloaded from iTunes. Pretty much if you just google me you can find links to go to. You should also be able to find me in record stores. Go to CD Baby because they are a good company to support. www.cdbaby.com.
Kym: I am heading to the Midwest at the end of August. I am going to be in Chicago, Minneapolis, just all over that area. I am heading to Boston over Labor Day weekend. Those dates are on my web site, www.kymtuvim.com.
"I feel like I'm connected to myself, connected to the planet, connected to people, connected to my music and its very circular, definitely." - Kym Tuvim
Official Website
http://www.myspace.com/kymtuvim2
Get the Album Kym Tuvim.
Get the Album On The Mend.
