Kinnie Starr: Born to Shine

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Being of native background and being open about your sexuality can be seen as an obstacle for one’s success but not for Canadian born rap/folk artist Kinnie Starr. For Kinnie it’s not stereotypical background associations, or sexual orientation that defines who we are, it’s what we accomplish in life. “I don’t really think that my ethnicity played too heavily into my musical art because it’s only a small part of who I am.  Every side of me is going to influence what I do but I don’t think my music or art is particularly native although I know others would disagree.  I’ve been more influenced by Canada and the Prairies then by the fact that I’m native.”

Staying true to yourself seems to be Kinnie Starr’s motto: she has been in the music business for almost 15 years now and nothing has stopped her from doing what she wanted. In addition to creating music, she has also been teaching young kids and writing a book.

She describes her new album ‘Different Day,’ as being “a focused collection of optimistic head nodding songs exclusively about love’s 2009 ticket for mass reconstruction.” When I had the chance to discuss this with her, she explained that she had never done a theme for a record before and that what she wanted to do with this record was zoning in on one theme. Since Kinnie lives by the principle that if you use love as a conflict resolution tool, you can avoid a lot of conflict. That is what she means when she describes her album as being a ticket to mass reconstruction. As Kinnie explains it, when you look at global politics, if negotiators used love as their fundamental exchange status, like the concept of extending yourself for the betterment of another person, then conflict could be revolved easily.

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