Bre Kennedy Reflects on the Reckless Joys of Her Twenties on “Twenty Something (All or Nothing)”
[UNPUBLISHED:] Hey Bre! I am so excited to chat. For any of the Unpublished readers who may be new to your music, can you tell us how you got started in your music career?
[BRE KENNEDY:] I am a Nashville-based music artist, specifically a proud non-Country artist in Nashville. I moved about eight years ago from Los Angeles, and I tell everyone that Nashville helped me find my voice and learn how to tell my story. As an artist so far, it’s kind of like me weaving together the broken parts of my past and the trauma I’ve faced. I tend to write music to make people feel less alone when they are visiting the dark corners of exploring trauma themselves. It's a nice silver lining to the hard things I write about. I have two EPs out so far and I just put out my debut album last year, as well as a new project on the way!
[UNPUBLISHED:] That is such a beautiful way to describe your music and the release of emotions within them. I also want to give you a massive congratulations on “Twenty Something (All or Nothing)!” How are you feeling now that this version of “Twenty Something” is released?
[BRE:] It honestly feels like a celebration. That was the title track to my EP that I surprise released in January of 2020, just a few weeks before the world shut down. I didn’t get to celebrate that record at the time. “Twenty Something” was me really processing my twenties in a way that was so raw and real in that moment, and now getting to remake it feels like a celebration of the lessons I’ve learned. Getting the opportunity to make mistakes, look back, and find personal growth is so beautiful to me. I put the acoustic version on the EP because my twenties felt so heavy at the time as I processed those emotions. Now, I’m in the last year of my twenties and just so proud of making it through. It's so cheesy but every mess-up I’ve had has led me to where I am now.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Yes! I’m currently twenty-two, so listening to the original version of “Twenty Something,” I was fully relating to everything you were saying and how heavy the acoustic version feels. It’s so nice to see you learning the lessons of your twenties and getting to celebrate them now on “Twenty Something (All or Nothing),” and it’s also so reassuring to know I’ll get to have the same celebration in a few years.
[BRE:] I’ll tell you what, I moved to Nashville when I was twenty-two. I literally drove my car alone across the country, didn’t know anyone, and felt lost almost all of the time. I still feel lost sometimes. Twenty-two in particular is such a great year because everything feels very heavy but also really real. In hindsight, even though it was heavy and hard, I am so glad everything felt so real in those moments. As I get older and more things happen to me, I feel like I get a little bit more numb to those raw moments. Where you’re at right now being twenty-two is so righteous! You get to make mistakes and they feel so wrong at the moment, but those mistakes paint a beautiful canvas of life for you to look at later. Just recklessly do things. I promise it’s amazing.
[UNPUBLISHED:] That’s definitely where I’m currently at, and I will be taking that advice. Now as you said, “Twenty Something” was originally released acoustically on your 2020 EP of the same name, which sadly didn’t get as much celebration as it should have due to the pandemic. What was the process like creating this song then, and has that changed at all in creating this new version?
[BRE:] The first version on the EP was honestly just a demo version. I was so stuck in the thick of hard emotions and the rawness just felt right. Back then, everything had been independent and so full of pressure on top of my emotions. Creating this new version, I got to create it and put it out as my first song with my new label. Now I get to put out this dance version to celebrate the triumphs of my twenties with the support of my label. It’s the first song of a whole new chapter for me, so it feels open and welcoming and reminiscent. If you would have told me this a few years ago, I would have told you that you were crazy.
[UNPUBLISHED:] As a twenty-something myself, I found such a deep connection within the lyricism of both versions. Do you have any personal favorite lyrics or fun stories to share within the lyrics?
[BRE:] My favorite lyric is definitely the second verse, where I sing, “24 I found out how to fall/ And my parents are human after all/ Life hit me without warning/ I'll get up tomorrow morning/ But tonight I'm going to cannonball.” My dad is my best friend and he's young. When you’re a kid, you think your parents are the answer to everything only to find out that when you're twenty-two or twenty-four, your parents were that age when they had you! I’m still learning how to do my laundry and taxes, so I commend my father for even raising me. Also, the cannonball line…I have always loved the idea of fully giving yourself to something. It's so beautiful and reckless and righteous to be able to cannonball into everything even if you have to wake up the next morning and go to work, and that’s just so indicative of your twenties.
All the stories in the lyrics are true as well. I saved up all my money to buy a used convertible which I then crashed in a head-on collision on Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, and I stopped traffic for hours with it. Russell Brand was hanging out of his car behind me asking what was going on. My life felt like a movie at the time because every day was constantly climbing and crashing, so all those stories are true. “Twenty Something” is truly just an autobiography of me.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I was hoping the car crash line wasn’t a true story, and I am so glad you’re okay, but also…. Russell Brand was just hanging out of his car?
[BRE:] He was so frustrated with what was happening. I did fully stop traffic though, so I got his confusion. Just that memory alone is very much a moment of “what even is life in LA?” I was a leaf in the wind. I was in the most beautiful place in the world, but I just wasn’t happy. I hadn’t found the ground that was fertile for me, and that was a big wake-up call for me.
[UNPUBLISHED:] The music video feels like this blissful love letter to the reckless freedom that is your twenties. Can you tell me more about the video for “Twenty Something (All or Nothing)” and what it was like to create?
[BRE:] That is a really beautiful way to describe what I wanted the song and video to be like. When the song was finished, my label gave me a pretty quick release date that we needed a video for. I was about to leave from a trip in LA to go to SXSW, so I knew I had to take a literal walk down memory lane and capture all the places where the stories of the song happened. A friend of a friend found that Mercedes for us to borrow, which was crazy. We just drove through Laurel Canyon and hung out in Venice for a day. I also got to shoot with one of my best friends who I’ve known for all of my twenties. We really grew through this period together, so we really wanted to capture that reckless abandon of knowing you’ll do whatever it takes in your twenties to have a memorable moment.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I figured that had to have been an actual friend given how readable your companionship and comfortability were with each other, even as you were out celebrating.
[BRE:] Can you imagine if I just pointed at someone on the street, told them to hop in, and then we went and just drank a lot? That would have been so funny. In all honesty, though, we were buzzed in that video, which I was too old for. When we went to Venice and were dancing under the sign, it was so ridiculous and we knew we just had to go 100%. We ended up dancing with all these people and it was so fun. None of it was scripted, we truly did this all in one day. The way it was edited looks so put together, but in reality, it was nonsense all day. It was great.
[UNPUBLISHED:] So it was truly the perfect day to encapsulate your twenties?
[BRE:] Yeah, it really was.
[UNPUBLISHED:] With “Twenty Something (All Or Nothing)” now out in the world and also an upcoming tour you’re going on with Rag’n’Bone Man, how are you feeling in this current era of your career, and what is coming next?
[BRE:] I am excited to tour with Rag’n’Bone. My favorite part of music is getting to perform. Nothing else is worth it to me unless I get to perform live and connect with people, so I am so excited about that. I’m excited also to get to take a band out on tour with me and play theaters. Rag’n’Bone also, like, his voice is just untouchable. It's so raw and beautiful.
As for what comes next, I am going to be putting out an album next year that is rad. It’s also great because it’s a happy album! We all deserve a happy moment. I’m going to be releasing a single at the end of July to kickstart this new album’s era called “Ribbon,” and I am so excited for everyone to hear it.
[UNPUBLISHED:] I am so excited to hear that, especially that your next album is happy! I love sitting in my sad feelings, but we all deserve some happiness every once in a while.
[BRE:] I’m literally in a session cutting vocals right now, and the album is a lot of being happy with where you’re at, which is hard for me. I think it's positive progress and growth for me as a person.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Out of curiosity, when you’re not making music, what else do you like to do in your free time?
[BRE:] I take my dog on so many walks that I might be the mayor of this town. I just walk everywhere. I love to travel as well. If I can just get in my car and drive a few hours to stay in a cabin, incredible. I just got back from Costa Rica and I'm going to Europe in a few months. I adore people-watching and getting to take in the world.
[UNPUBLISHED:] That is so fun! Another just random fun question, what’s your favorite song right now, other than your own?
[BRE:] I am loving “Eloise” by Penny and Sparrow. I don’t exactly know why, but there's something about the heartbeat of it that I am so inspired by. I also keep playing MUNA’s new record, it’s so good. Ethan Gruska’s last record was also fantastic. He has a line that says “if faith is blind, no wonder I keep getting lost” that just gets me.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Oh that hurts. I haven’t heard the record before but I have goosebumps at just that lyric.
[BRE:] It is truly so beautiful.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Digging a bit deeper before we finish our chat, is there any advice you wish you had been given when you were first starting your music career?
[BRE:] I was given a lot of amazing advice by so many people throughout my career so far. I wish someone would have told me to slow down a bit more when I was younger. I felt like I had to race towards my goals. I missed a lot of the good things happening in my life because I was perpetually unsatisfied with my growth. I needed someone to just tell me to take a deep breath and appreciate what was happening to me. I also wish someone had told me that roots are the most important thing you can lay down. That’s where I’m at now and I wish I knew it sooner.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Gotcha. I’ll definitely be internalizing that one and taking it to heart because I could use that knowledge of slowing down.
[BRE:] You definitely should. It wasn’t until I came to Nashville that I realized it wasn’t what I did that mattered or how much I did that mattered, but instead the energy I put into things and the people I do life with. That’s what makes up who I am, and I have to be thoughtful of it.
[UNPUBLISHED:] That is such a great way to put that.
[BRE:] Yeah! I just thought of this, but another piece of advice I wish I took earlier was to not compare myself to others. That’s a big one.
[UNPUBLISHED:] Is there anything else you want to share? You can talk about your music, your life, if you have a pet iguana named Stacy that you’re passionate about… anything you want.
[BRE:] Oh my god! How did you know about Stacy! No, I’m kidding. What I want people to know is that if they’re hearing about me for the first time, I would love it if you went back and dove into all the breadcrumbs that have led to now. Jealous of Birds to Twenty Something to Note To Self…. It’s all a mosaic of where I’ve been and where I am at right now. I cannot wait for the next album to be complete and come out so I can continue the story. I’m in a really amazing season right now of lifting myself out of the generational trauma and obstacles I’ve faced, and I would love to take listeners on the journey with me.