Laura Kelsey’s raw and reflective storytelling engages new audiences via ‘Hunting Season’ EP release

Over the past decade, Nanaimo-based vocalist Laura Kelsey has honed her skills in a variety of musical realms: metal, blues, and folk, as but a few examples. Fronting and performing in each of these genres have shaped her approach to creation, and resulted in a unique catalogue of songs inspired in equal measure by the natural world of the West Coast and Laura’s own dreamscapes.  As a solo artist, her sound is emotive, raw, and real, with honesty at its core.

Recent funding from the Career Development program has enabled Laura to build out this catalogue through the recording and production of Hunting Season, her debut four-song EP.  The album was completed throughout 2022 at The Treehouse Studio on Bowen Island with the support of producer Winston Hauschild. Vancouver-based drummer Flavio Cirillo was featured on several tracks; studio owner Robert Bailey contributed pedal steel guitar performances to the EP’s title track.

Hunting Season will launch on April 29, 2023. The special release event will be marked with a celebratory performance from Laura and her band The Cosmopolitik at the historic Globe Hotel in Nanaimo. Pauline Edwards (Vancouver) and The Honest Frauds (Nanaimo) will also appear on the bill.

When asked about the timing and impact of this release in the context of her current efforts, Laura is effusive.

“Having been featured as a vocalist on so many other artists’ projects, it’s been a dream come true to release my own work as high-quality recordings. In the past, I’ve put out a few singles and home-recorded collections on different platforms. But, I’ve never had the opportunity to put together a high-quality, cohesive album, and I’m grateful.”

As with much of Laura’s music, the inspirations and themes behind many of Hunting Season’s tracks are both personal and universal.

Laura elaborates, “The first single from the EP, called ‘Your Stormy Ways’, is about someone you never want to see again, whether that is someone in a relationship, or some aspect of yourself. This track was released in October 2022. ‘Beyond the Tide’, the second single, released in January of this year, is about searching for the truth in people and situations, and the stark realities that can be waiting on the other side of many illusions.”

A recent promotional shoot of Laura’s that commemorated the Winter Solstice.

Beyond their dedicated musical releases, these same two Hunting Season singles have notably also been adapted into short films – more nuanced and complex than a traditional music video – that are helping Laura build an increasingly diverse and sustainable audience base.

Laura clarifies, “Both of these singles happen to have received film treatments, which is something I really enjoy doing. I had the idea to film a thriller-style short film on a boat, and paired that with ‘Your Stormy Ways’. At the end of that video, I make an appearance that ties into the video for ‘Beyond the Tide’, which I filmed with filmmaker Jessie Zhang on Protection Island, in BC. Both videos recently screened at the Avalon Theatre for CineFest, Nanaimo’s short film festival.”

With a vocal range and style that has been described as ‘powerhouse’, and compared to artists like Amy Lee (Evanescence) and Janis Joplin, Laura’s past musical experience as a vocalist and lyricist continues to underpin her approach to new projects. With a robust history of performance, songwriting, and musical collaboration throughout BC that extends back to her childhood, she has released numerous home recordings and music videos. In 2014, she was the lead vocalist for a symphonic metal band nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award (Best Hard Rock/Metal Album of the Year). That same year, she released “My Time”, a single, with all proceeds going to WAVAW (Women Against Violence Against Women) in Vancouver. More recently, she has also released poetry and chapbooks, with her debut chapbook west coast shorts published by above/ground press in May 2022.

Laura in rehearsal, circa ~2014/2015.

Laura notes, “I write songs from the heart for listeners interested in thoughtful views on real-life situations, but also for people who want to escape into fantastical worlds. A lot of my life has been devoted to creating poetry and power ballads. I’ve also had the opportunity to perform throughout BC at hundreds of venues and events – both with bands, and as a solo acoustic artist. Last year, I performed at festivals like Islands Folk Festival (Duncan) and Sonic Summer Nights (Vancouver). I was also the opening act for Matthew Good on his fall 2022 tour of Vancouver Island.”

When asked to reflect on past projects that have helped to inform the planning and strategy behind Hunting Season’s development and release, Laura’s response is uniquely specific.

“In 2015, l wrote and produced a ten-song rock musical that premiered at the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre. It was called the pool, the moon, and the string. It was about a character who starts at a very low point in her life, and then reaches a higher state of being. It mirrored my life in many ways: things weren’t going well for a while, and then I really turned things around by focusing on writing, and re-learning how to enjoy life’s everyday magic.”

Laura continues, “The musical also revolved around the idea that, somewhere underground, there could be a cave with millions of strings above a pool (hence the title). Each string held the energy of a living thing on Earth — whether human, plant, or animal — and, when a life ended, its string would snap, and its energy would join the pool below to be reformed into a new life, and a new string. So, it created this mythology, which I carried on into the title track of Hunting Season. Although the song wasn’t originally included in the musical, the song ‘Hunting Season’ embodies its ideas.”

Laura onstage in 2022.

When asked to share what inspires her resilience, creativity and resourcefulness, Laura reflects, and offers, “I am inspired by anyone who works hard at creating. In a world where many of us are simply trying to survive, here are people taking their pain, their struggles, and making something new out of them that – in turn – comforts and inspires others.”

During this interview, Laura offered, “I used to listen to the radio and think, ‘How can I get on there? What am I doing wrong?!’ But since then, I’ve met so many amazing musicians who are out there touring, or recording at home, and who have never won any awards or had airplay. My best musical experiences happen at festivals where I get to hear so many different artists, and discover new favourite songs.”

In the same spirit of generosity and appreciation, Laura’s advice to others contemplating a future application to an Amplify BC program is simple:

“There are so many opportunities for support available through Creative BC over and above funding itself: information sessions, community events, and guidance from people in the creative industry. I had an awesome Creative BC grant coaching session with artist Rae Spoon before my successful application. Rae had some great advice, but was also simply very encouraging.”

Laura concludes, “Sometimes, a positive push from someone who has seen the success you are striving toward may be all you need.”

A candid backstage shot from 2022, at the Sid Williams Theatre in Courtenay, BC.

You can order your copy of Hunting Season, and learn more about Laura and her music, here.

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Photos and artwork courtesy of Laura Kelsey.