Diandra Interviews Kara Connolly (Part 2): How Music Empowers Your Life As Yours

My GOD! I could hear Kara Connolly’s responses for days. She could write a self-help book for young women trying to figure out how to “figure out” their life. Sometimes, we believe our wisdom is the only wisdom, but Kara proves, in music and thought, that the reason Wisdom is endless is because so is every experience. We all are going through life, in our own way, and, as I continued to talk to Kara, I realized the life is about accepting and empowering that truth.  

Diandra: As Life in Rear View was inspired by a break-up and a feeling that you childhood was gone. What would be your message of hope to so many who understand such sentiments? 

Kara: Thank you for saying that it isn’t just me who thinks about this. I truly appreciate that. I have an interesting relationship with time in that I’m hyper-aware of its passage. That said, my message would be that our inner-child is always there, available to access at any time. I had a beautiful conversation with a few friends the other day about how we all felt like we hadn’t lost that inner-child, which allowed us to be friends and spend a magical day laughing, talking about life, and frolicking around in the mountains. I’m a total weirdo and constantly crack jokes or do things that (probably only I) think are hilarious. I love animals and had many pets as a child so being around dogs, or animals of any kind, always brings me back to that place. I think everyone has something that does and so my message would be to spend a day and get in touch with those interests that we so easily forget about when dealing with the practicalities of life.

Diandra: Follow-up: were there any artists, songs, or albums that, particularly, spoke to you during these trials? 
Kara:  Oh gosh, so many! I love all different styles of music and I remember a lot was speaking to me during this time. One song in particular comes to mind – Say Something by A Great Big World (the version without Christina Aguilera). It’s so simple and quite sad, but sometimes art that allows you to just be in whatever space you’re in and acknowledges those hard emotions instead of saying “everything is going to be okay” is just what you need to grieve. It helps to know we’re not alone.

Diandra: Your music really promotes love and self-love? How would you describe love as a feeling? What was your best memory of when love and music felt like one? 

Kara: Love is the best feeling in the world. It’s this warmth that just envelops your entire body and makes you feel like everything is going to be alright after all. I think I’m obsessed with it. And hopefully that’s okay. I’ve definitely written a lot of songs about falling in love because I’m just so fascinated by that period of a relationship, but all forms of love are just as good.

Very early in our relationship, my now boyfriend, surprised me and took me to an Ed Sheeran concert at the Hollywood Bowl. It was summertime, the weather was perfect, we brought a picnic basket, and the light show and music were incredible. We took a bus to the bowl because he was trying to throw me off as to where we were going and so we also took buses and walked around the city after the show, just skipping and singing songs we had just heard. It was a pretty magical night. I was on the verge of accidentally slipping the words, “I love you,” and so I just sang Ed Sheeran lyrics loudly instead.

Diandra: Having a pretty difficult time adapting to post-grad life, do you think such hardship pushed you further in solidifying music as your career?

Kara: I think I would have come to music as a career regardless. I picked up the guitar quite late, my senior year of college, and began writing a bunch of songs on the instrument, as opposed to just melodies in my head. I quickly realized that I could hear the chords that went under the lyrics and melodies I was creating. I’m sure the hardship definitely inspired a period of consistent writing and thus necessary growth as a musician, but songwriting is something I’ve always done as a form of therapy.

That said, the struggle of adopting to post-grad life probably expedited the process as nothing else was truly making me happy or made me feel as alive at the time. I was stoked to graduate and be done with school, but so many other difficult changes fell within the same few months. I’m an actress, and I wrote plenty of songs while waiting for auditions that never came. I loved that with music I could create my own world and wasn’t told who to be or what to say. It sort of just happened. People started asking me to record and co-write with them, acquaintances approached me about playing shows, opportunities opened up — I love that I didn’t have to force it in a way I felt I had to force other things in my life. There are, of course, still challenges and I’ve had to work very hard to get past those, but I really started to feel as though there was no other option but to walk down this path and see it through.

Diandra: How has your family advised and guided you as you pursue music? What is your favorite performance memory with them? 

Kara: My family has been nothing but supportive, and I am forever grateful for them. My mom is my biggest fan. She screams all of the words to my songs at the top of her lungs at my shows. Sometimes, she will share things on her social media that aren’t out yet. I get mad at her and have her take them down, but it’s just because she’s so excited. She keeps me grounded and reminds me that everything worth doing is one step, one day at a time. Sometimes she will send me inspirational quotes that encourage me not to give up and that persistence is key. She’s really made so much possible for me and I don’t lose site of that.

My Dad is a doctor, but recently took up the ukulele and is great at it. He has such a natural rhythm, consistent work ethic, and appreciation for songwriting and music. He bought me a beautiful ukulele to encourage me to learn the instrument and play. In fact, he is playing the ukulele on one of the songs on my record, Fall, and is singing the background vocals on a few tracks. He’s really talented and although he discovered an instrument later in life, I think could have gone into music had he chosen to back in the day (and still can). He wants to open a music venue and I think that would be so cool for me and my musician friends.

My brother truly encouraged me to make this album. I had my doubts and was stalling in moving forward. He sat me down one day and told me that the time is now to make a move and that he felt I could accept that where I was at was enough, acknowledged I would continuously be writing more and consistently be getting better, which he felt was expected and okay, and that he supported me in taking the necessary steps to create this project. There were a lot of decisions that felt big and scary to me. He helped me pick my producer, as well as find production examples and the technical words to communicate exactly what I was liking within those song samples. As a kid, he was in a band that played the House of Blues ,and I remember feeling jealous because I wanted to be up there doing that.

My family is amazing and I am so lucky. My favorite performance memory with them was at The Hotel Cafe for my first single release. I have a song I wrote called, WTF, that I wasn’t planning on playing, but everyone kept yelling and requesting it. It’s a lighthearted and silly song about WTF?! moments. Finally, at the end of my set, I called up my friend, David, from the audience, to play the guitar and also unexpectedly called up my Dad to sing the song with me. I mean, he was practically volunteering. I say the F-word probably 21 times throughout the song and there was my Dad, an MD, singing right along with me. There’s also a line about my parents within the song. It was hilarious to have him up there and definitely a highlight of the night.

Thank you for asking such beautiful and meaningful questions!

Thanks for the meaningful responses Kara Connolly! For More Information On This Artist Click Here.