Brittany Kennell – Drunk Lips Interview and 5 Quick Questions
Brittany Kennell first came to my attention in 2016 as a contestant on The Voice. As an avid fan of the show, it was cool to be able to watch a Canadian on the screen.
Since her time on the show, she’s been keeping busy.
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After spending many years living in Nashville, two years ago, the Montreal native headed back home to Canada to regroup.
At a time when things are anything but normal in the music industry, Kennell has been hard at work on her latest project.
In the past year, Brittany has released three videos, including her latest single Drunk Lips.
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As I started watching the video for Drunk Lips, I was filled with questions. Where was this shot? Who was the director? How do you safely shoot a video during a pandemic? Is that her guitar? Who came up with the story? It’s so intimate, and the slide guitar is beautiful, how’d it all come together? Well, now I’ve got some answers for you.
Brittany Kennell – Drunk Lips (Official Music Video)
Released November 20, 2020
I asked Kennell about the location of the shoot, and she responded that they’d shot the video at Montreal’s Bar Normandie. It makes a beautiful background. The video’s director checked around at a few places, but this is the one they settled on. Brittany has worked with director Charles-William De Melo for previous projects. She raved about the experience and talked at length about his attention to detail. This included things like having her last song You Don’t Get Me Stoned playing in the background at the start of the video and redecorating the stage to mimic a hotel stage in Nashville that she played four-hour sets on Mondays while she lived there.
So how do you film a video with the pandemic happening? Besides being very careful, you keep it in the family. The band family in this case. That’s Brittany’s drummer playing her love interest, and the bartender was her producer John-Anthony Gagnon-Robinette. Everyone wore masks when not rolling, and someone making sure everyone was hand sanitizing hourly. Keeping the bubble small was the goal.
You Don’t Get Me Stoned (Official Music Video)
Released July 31, 2020
Next on my list of notes was Brittany’s guitar. It’s a beautiful Guild Guitar. She’s been playing Guild guitars for a long time, introduced to them by her uncle. She has recently become a Guild Artist, and the guitar in the video is a Guild Starfire. I think it’s spectacular.
Kennell has always considered herself a rhythm player, but she told me that this new electric guitar is fun to play around on, getting new sounds, and inspiring her writing.
Eat Drink Remarry (Official Music Video)
Released February 6, 2020
Next on my list was the song itself and the story behind it. The singer-songwriter has always tried to keep her writing authentic, and the story comes from her dating experiences after a breakup and moving back to Montreal. She spent some time focusing on herself, keeping close to family and friends and then dipped her toe back in the dating pool. Dating in this day is an interesting prospect, COVID aside.
I was kind of just floored with the experiences that I was having, and I know other women were having. Learning to trust again and learning to open up to people again. Being unsure of whether you can trust that person or even trust yourself with how you’re feeling. The song came from a couple of experiences that I was disappointed in and a little broken-hearted. – BK
She took those experiences and expanding them for the video, including as many couples as they could with social distancing in mind. She wanted the video and the story to be inclusive.
There’s never just one storyline, people all live different lives, and so it’s important for me to as an artist to show that message because I want people to feel that they can relate, no matter what their situation is. – BK
When I asked her about the recording process, Brittany talked about trying to keep the sound simple. This is where the classic country sound comes from. After a playback, she felt like it was missing something. Enter the slide guitar. For me, this is the icing on the cake, the thing that brought it all together. The slide brings the sad feelings that are sitting behind the story. It rounds out the sound.
Photos by Lindsay Kennell Photography
Before I let Brittany go, I got her to do an audio round of 5 Quick Questions for us. Hit play to find out more.
5 Quick Questions
Brittany Kennell’s Links
Web | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
Writer/Photographer/Editor
Toronto Music Blogger
