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Back History

In 1991, Alida Kinnie Starr took a trip to India to study yoga formally. Extremely underweight and constantly in pain, Starr had been introduced to yoga by a friend at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. Relief and newfound strength were the immediate result of formal yoga practice. Starr returned to Canada with a little less pain, a great deal of inspiration, and a growing interest in “truth though art making”. With an acoustic guitar and a hate on for corporate TV culture, Starr spent the next few years hitch hiking, dumpster diving, teaching herself how to play guitar, listening to rap music and stenciling street art all over the United States and Canada. Pocket change was made from selling her homemade T shirts and stickers to independent bookstores. Enter tri-lingual rhymes thrown over basic acoustic guitar, and you have the first stage of Kinnie Starr’s career.

By the mid nineties, Kinnie Starr’s street presence began to resonate with tastemakers in the USA and Canada through self-produced, beat slamming, multi-lingual hip hop/rock/folk recordings. Outspoken race and gender politics, guerilla street art, decidedly unorthodox performances and stunning good looks made Starr a household name among underground, liberal thinkers. Today, the tri-lingual Starr is set to release her fifth album, "A Different Day", thru her own Violet Inch Records and Last Gang Labels (Metric, Death Cab for Cutie).

"A Different Day" (produced by Chin Injeti) is a focused collection of smooth, optimistic head-nodding songs exclusively about LOVE; 2009’s ticket for mass reconstruction. Often pegged for her fierce intelligence and ability as a rapper, "A Different Day" turns the page onto Starr’s chanteuse-like grace. Tired of the bravado and inauthentic posturing that goes along with hip hop, she delves into her love of songwriting with tenderly paced phrasing, electric and acoustic guitars, and soaring melodies evocative of originals like Neil Young, Tom Petty, Cat Power and Sade.

* The New Yorker calls her “…edgy and enchanting.”
* Japan Times notes, “…never didactic, always intelligent.”
* Canada’s Globe and Mail cites her “…raw and feral talent.”
* Philadelphia’s The Record calls her a “sensual, spiritual, self-possessed original … blazing her own influential trail.”

Emerging from a background of visual arts and a degree in Women’s Studies from Queen’s University, Kinnie Starr originally signed to Mercury/Island/DefJam after a massive bidding war in 1996. Clive Davis flew out to personally dine her in Vancouver in an attempt to bring the young artist into his roster of pop stars. Starr politely declined the offer to maintain privacy and authenticity, and has since enjoyed slow building working relationships with Lakeshore Records USA, Maple Music Canada, and Maple Music’s flagship 2006 label, Fontana USA. A prolific and gifted writer, Starr is currently signed to a prestigious publishing deal with Ole Publishing.

* Starr has worked with industry heavy hitters Wendy and Lisa (Prince), David Campbell (Beck’s father), Carmen Rizzo (Alanis Morisette), Chris Bruce and Earl Harvin (Seal, The The), Tegan and Sara, and Nelly Furtado who acknowledges Starr as one of her key influences.

Her music has been featured on The L-Word, Thirteen, and in Zeller’s advertisements, as well as on Le Chateau’s regular playlists (Canada) and Fashion Television Canada. She has toured Germany, Japan, Spain, England, the USA and Canada, and performed in Canada’s National Aboriginal Achievement Awards twice. In 2003 she was headhunted for her “rare and unique frame” and cast in Cirque Du Soleils’s naughty X-rated show, “Zumanity”. That same year she was nominated for a Juno as Best New Artist (and lost to Micheal Buble). Most notably, Starr was recognized in 2008 by the Royal British Museum as one of BC’s cultural icons.

* Starr is a ‘behind the scenes’ social activist, working with youth whenever possible. She visited over 60 schools in 2007/2008/2009 as a mentor through ‘Artstarts in Schools’ promoting literacy and authentic expression through hip hop and poetry. She also teaches part time for the Manitoba Audio Recording Industry Association, and co-founded Vancouver’s ‘Aboriginal Music Lab’ with Sal Fererras and Vancouver Community College in 2006 --- a week long intensive for emerging native musicians seeking international level songwriting and performance skills.