Kansas-Lee Hatherly has always been able to pick up any instrument and figure it out.
The Osoyoos-based musician is putting the finishing touches on her new piano-based album that was recorded with a USB microphone that hangs from a chain above her piano, and with the viola and violin 鈥渟prinkled in.鈥�
The follow up to her first album, Letter in the Pocket of the Jacket, will debut at the Fireside Festival to be held at the end of the month.
鈥淛ust a voice and piano is beautiful but when you add all the other things it expresses more,鈥� said Hatherly. 鈥淚鈥檓 adding full-on operatic haunting vocals on the background and I played it thinking is this weird? No, it鈥檚 cool and awesome,鈥� .
The musician left Osoyoos years ago to busk in San Francisco and then moved to Victoria where she busked along the harbour. She said that is where she grew as an artist, became a part of a busking group where she played the banjolele, accordion and used a suitcase as a kick drum, as well as a tambourine along with her kazoo. She has since returned to the little lakeside city.
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鈥淲hen I was on the harbour in Victoria, I was playing tonal folky music and played kazoo. It鈥檚 entertaining but these (piano-based songs) are really my heart telling these stories I can鈥檛 even tell through my own mouth and they just flow and come through and I just have to tweak them a bit,鈥� said Hatherly.
She learned her unique way of writing songs when she was busking in Victoria and she says that she would just make up the lyrics as she went and eventually the lyrics came together on their own until they were the same every time.
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鈥淲e all knew the chords, we knew where we picked up and then would slow down, I would change the words slowly and then it became the same every time. It just developed every time I was sitting there in front of 50 people at the harbour. It was crazy but it also gives you confidence and the feeling to be free.鈥�
On her forthcoming album, Hatherly explores songwriting in a similar way, free-styling at the piano, hoping to record something exceptional.
鈥淧laying piano, if you don鈥檛 judge yourself and you let yourself go, it鈥檚 like free-styling but singing,鈥� said Hatherly. 鈥淲hen I play sad piano music, it鈥檚 not as wild and fancy free but it鈥檚 the same energy there and it鈥檚 still really me truly believing what I am saying.鈥�
Hatherly will perform at the Fireside Festival at BNA Sunday, Jan. 27.
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