Kinnie Starr says she wants her new music to inspire ‘a better society’

Kinnie Starr released her debut album Tidy in 1996, mixing together punk, pop, rock and hip-hop, as well as her spoken-word poetry and 25 years later, she’s still releasing new music with very powerful messages. 

Earlier this month, the Canadian artist released her new single “Win Or Lose,” and she told etalk’s Sonia Beeksma that the new song speaks to the times we’re living in. “Even before the pandemic, I feel like collectively, as societies, [we] have kind of reached a boiling point, so that’s what I’m trying to communicate in music is like we collectively have the opportunity to be a better society,” she explained.

Kinnie, who is of Dutch, Mohawk, Irish and French descent, began to sing the lyrics to her new song: “The new song that’s coming out is like, ‘I’m telling you I’ve got you, and I’m asking, begging you to get me too. This world’s better than the both of us whether we win or we lose,’” Kinnie sang.

In 2015, the Calgary native was involved in a car accident during a rainy April afternoon in Vancouver. She was in a taxi when it was hit by a car that had rolled through a stop sign. After the accident, Kinnie was suffering from a traumatic brain injury that resulted in her having debilitating headaches, slurring her words and walking differently. 

“I sustained a head injury, and it was undiagnosed for the first year, so because there was so many physical injuries from the impact. I couldn’t even look at a guitar without almost needing to vomit,” she told Sonia. “I couldn’t even look or think about instruments for a solid three years.”

Now, Kinnie has opened up about her road to recovery and celebrating her career in music that was almost taken away from her. “My first record deal was at 27 years of age, which, everybody kept telling me that it was too late to start a career in music,” she said. 

When Sonia told Kinnie that she feels like she still looks 27 years old, the singer was quick to remind her that she’s actually 51. Our jaws are on the floor! We need her secrets, and she was ready to share them with us. “I do a lot of cold water bathing. It’s sort of a spiritual practice because I connect with water, but it’s also a physical practice because it feels like it makes me strong.”

Kinnie posted about the interview on Instagram and she thanked her fans for supporting her throughout her music career. “Thank youse to all those who continue to listen to my music after 25 years in the industry. This song is about how different we can make the world if we come at each other with compassion rather than assuming the other person is less informed, less intelligent, less valuable, or any number of assumptions that create divides when there could be bridges,” she wrote, adding, “Why put others on the ropes when you could reach a hand out instead? THIS WORLD’S BETTER THAN THE BOTH OF US WHETHER WE WIN OR WE LOSE.”

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