By Ella Coulter | May 25 2021 |
Hey, KSS music lovers! Are you ready to add some new songs to your playlist? Meet Claya Way-Brackenbury, a local singer-songwriter who goes by the stage name Piner. Piner has performed all around Kingston, at bars, the Wolfe Island Music Festival and the Juvenis Festival. She has recorded two albums, The Breaking Point, released in July 2018, and Root Bound, released in June 2019. Root Bound features a full band, including other local musicians you may recognize!
Piner’s love of music began at the age of 3 or 4, when she and her dad would “jam” together at night or on road trips. “When I was 4 my family drove to Mexico and we lived out of our van, ‘Casita Rosalita del Norte (Rosie)’ for 9 months, volunteering with different service organizations along the way,” says Piner. She says the car rides were great for listening to mixed tapes and cassette albums, and of course, singing. She gets her inspiration from Bob Dylan, The Replacements, The Clash and Wilco. Piner wrote her first song at age 9 and has been writing “ever since.” Performing began for Piner at age 12 when she “played to a couple of family friends, at a small event and then for an audition for LCVI’s AAEP high school arts program.”
Having been “involved in many different school clubs and sports teams,” Piner knows that balancing music during high school can be tough. The first half of her high school experience was more focused on extracurriculars, until her grade 11 year when she decided to record some of her songs. “I focused on writing enough songs for a small album then I emailed my brother’s bandmate and dear friend Dylan Lodge to set up a recording session at Zane’s NOP Studio on Pine Street,” she says. She released her debut album, The Breaking Point, in 2018. Although Piner was nervous to record, she says she was happy to discover that “the songs that I had held inside were given life.”
As a resident of Skeleton Park, Piner was surrounded by artists who were “very supportive in helping people to share their work with others,” such as Michael Broadhead, Annie Clifford, Greg Tilson and Matt Rogalsky. “I was so incredibly lucky to be surrounded by such incredible artists and supportive neighbours,” says Piner. She says that her “genuine, generous, caring, and supportive arts community” inspired her and gave her perspectives to build her “musical character.”
Piner knows that creating music during high school can be daunting. “I was constantly battling feelings that I wasn’t good enough,” says Piner. “I think these are natural feelings as a young person and especially as a girl/woman in the music scene.” She overcame this hurdle after releasing The Breaking Point, when she discovered that her “passion for music and to be heard was stronger than” anything else. She describes the release of her album and the shows she has done around Kingston as “a dream come true.”
As for actually writing her music, Piner says, “my process for writing music definitely has no formula and varies with each song.” Whether or not she writes a tune or lyrics first, she often bases her songs off of other people. “I like to step into the stories of others and find a part of myself that relates to them or imagine myself in their shoes,” says Piner. Through her songs, Piner hopes to convey “vulnerability, honesty and life experiences” to all her listeners.
Piner wants all KSS aspiring musicians to know that “the most important part of the music is not necessarily being the most talented or popular singer/musician; but, rather it is about the sincerity and soul expressed in the song.”
Instagram: @pinermusic
Spotify: Piner
Bandcamp: https://piner9.bandcamp.com/
By Ella Coulter
Sources
Piner’s Spotify page
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