Meet the People in our Neighbourhood
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Kim Lake, January 18th & 21st, 2021 |
Tacha Reed: What brought you to Avondale?
Kim Lake: What brought me to Avondale is, firstly, family. My husband grew up in Avondale, Devin Lake, and his family, his parents before that, are from here. Multiple generations on his dad's side of the Lake family. So prior to moving to Nova Scotia we were living in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Once we had kids we decided to move closer to family, so when we first moved we moved to Wolfville, which is where Devin now works, but yeah, we were feeling a pull to be closer to family and not knowing much about the area myself, we obviously spent time visiting here and I just immediately fell in love with the community, especially after being in Yellowknife. That was the first place where I really felt a sense of community and got to really experience what it's like to be part of a close-knit community where there's people always around to make events happen and just be there for one another. So after living in Yellowknife, I was really seeking that feeling again and it was really evident that Avondale has a lot of that, so it felt really natural to move here, and then of course having his parents close by with the kids was a huge pull for us.
TR: Now that you've been here a little while you've definitely kind of immersed yourself in the community, you recently took on the position of president of the Heritage Society and then you also are the coordinator of the Full Circle Festival. Given that we are in the middle of a pandemic you've been given a huge challenge to reinvent that event, how do you feel at this particular moment in time thinking about planning events for 2021?
KL: Yeah. It's certainly a challenge. I feel being Nova Scotia we're really fortunate compared to a lot of places and that we're still able to even consider the possibility of getting together in small groups. Some places in the rest of Canada it just doesn't even seem possible to be dreaming about that at all, but I think here, given our population size and kind of the effects that the pandemic has had on us compared to other places it seems more feasible to at least dream about some possibilities for the summer. So we are going ahead with planning some kind of event, what that looks like exactly we're not too sure, but given the amazing location that we have here and the ability to again collaborate with fellow organizations like the winery, and the Museum of course is an integral organization to collaborate with, and the outdoor possibilities, like the ability to be outside I think opens up some options for planning for the summer. So, yeah I think there will be something possible, but I don't want to say too much about what it'll be. We did try to do some online things last year, but recognize that that's kind of a separate skill set and itself to be able to host online events, that really takes a team of people who are very knowledgeable in videography and the online world, which is a little bit outside of I feel our board’s skill set because Full Circle is so much based on that in-person feel, people being together as a group. So we're really trying to think about ways to bring that in-person feeling again this summer, especially since it will be summer and you know our hope is that people will be able to be outside together enjoying live music.
TR: So ideally you need to recruit some new volunteers with technological skills to help out.
KL: That would be wonderful. If there's a plethora of volunteers in the area with technological skills, certainly the museum and Full Circle would be very keen to absorb your skills. But yeah, I think there is value in sharing, certainly arts and other forms of communication online, I don't think that’s going to go away whether or not the coronavirus goes away. There's, you know a real value in sharing that way, but like I said, it feels like a really tailored skill set to be able to do that in a way that's going to be really engaging so I think over the next year or so that could be an opportunity for growth for both organizations, Full Circle and the museum.
TR: It seems like the neighborhood we’re kind of going through this resurgence of having lots of young children. What would you like to see happening in Avondale to help accommodate all of the current youth that are now here.
KL: I would love to see a resurgence of the youth through the Loop Group..
TR: Avondale Youth, or Avondale Youth Loop Group?
KL: Loop Troop (laughter), whatever it was called, there's a poster inside of it in the hall and I would love to see that again. Part of the reason for moving to Avondale was obviously for our kids and to give them that sense of community, which I never grew up with, and yeah, there are lots of kids around and I would love to see more local events and opportunities for them to get around. There was an idea too that Glenn Parker suggested to me about starting a little theater group in the hall and having some local youth do an annual theater show, which would be really cool. I think whatever the interest of the youth probably should be driving what happens, but it would be really great to see some regular programming or even just get-togethers. You know, we are starting to collect rec supplies. So whether it's arts and crafts activities or physical activities, we've got soccer balls and frisbees and yoga mats. We're definitely starting to collect resources here at the Museum to make all of those things possible and recognize the importance of creating opportunities for youth to engage in that kind of stuff. So just getting the word out that the resources are available and hopefully we can see more things happen as they grow older. Well, I guess there are older ones, mine are quite young. I think it takes that old cliche saying it takes a village. I feel like we have the village and it's just a matter of continuing to host events and create energy around them.
TR: So like many of the people that live in this community, you're incredibly creative and during the pandemic I would say you were able to find a bit of a silver lining and you took the time to put together your first album, which you actually are going to release tomorrow. So you've been dropping a few songs lately, what does this album kind of represent to you?
KL: Mmm. Well, it's true. This is the first album that I've been working on. I've been writing songs since I was a teenager, but the timing just kind of came together in some ways due to the pandemic. It's always something I've had in the back of my mind, but yeah, definitely with the pandemic shutting everything down, it just allowed for time to spend focusing on music, but also kind of gave me the sense of urgency around wanting to actually put something out to share with people. It felt like a time when a lot of people, especially my creative friends were kind of turning towards their arts and their craft to kind of find a sense of calm and peace in the world, and that's definitely something that music has always given me, so yeah, it was kind of dual purpose in that it was selfishly giving me something to focus on and create to bring calm, but also I just had time to work on it as well. But what does it represent to me is really connection and coming together with like-minded people is ultimately what this album represents. It's called Flesh and Bone and the song that I wrote called Flesh and Bone, the title track, I wrote in May during the pandemic and it's about that idea of of wanting to be with people in the flesh (laughter) and the whole process of making an album really would not have been possible without a number of other people, primarily Jesse Griffith, who I know is a good friend of yours too, but for those of you who don't know he's an incredible musician in his own, right. He has countless projects under his belt, but currently Wandarian is the project that he's working under and he's just such an incredible inspiration to me. As soon as I mentioned to him that I wanted to make an album he was right on board immediately. He was like, all right, we're going to make it happen. And if it weren't for him saying that I really don't think it would have happened. So I'm so, so grateful to him and 2020 will always be about making this album together with him. And then he put me in touch with Charles Austin who did a lot of the recording for us, both at his studio in Halifax, Ocean Floor Recording and then he also came out to Avondale. So I just have so many incredible memories from that time, even though it was hard in a lot of ways, like you mentioned, silver lining, so many of my memories are positive because of the process of making this album and being with other people. Other friends like Tony Wood from Windsor, who owns the Spoke & Note, and a new friend now, Gina Burgess, who I would not have met without going through this process either. Charles put me in touch with Gina to play fiddle on the album and now she's become a dear friend of mine, too. So yeah, ultimately this album is really about connections with others and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to have done this
TR: So now that the album is ready, actually you have copies.
KL: Here it is, iIt even features the Avondale wharf on the back.
TR: So what's the next step with this? I mean, it's a pandemic, so normally in previous times you would have probably gone on tour or something, but how do you deal with launching an album in this new version of the world?
KL: Well to be honest performing is never something I've done a whole lot of, to me music has always been very personal and performing is very new to me. So I didn't have a huge vision ahead of the pandemic of what releasing an album might look like, but now that it's here I feel like we are lucky that there are a few venues around that are hosting some music. So tomorrow, for example, I'm playing at the Wine Grunt in Windsor with Jesse and Gina, so that should be really fun. I've heard from a lot of friends that are going to be there. So hopefully it's just a celebration with some of the people that I love and beyond that the music is going to be available online, so I'm just really hoping that as many people who are interested will have a listen to it and to connect to it in whatever way they feel and it will be available for those who want to listen. I'll be looking for other places to play, probably not in the imminent future, but hopefully, yeah, we can get a whole band together. That's really what, again this album has shown me, is that I love playing with other people. I don't love performing by myself. I find it really intimidating, but I love playing with other people so hopefully when it makes sense to do that, they'll be opportunities to perform as a band.
TR: Since you’ve completed this album have you still been writing, is the second album halfway done already (laughter)?
KL: Maybe it is (laughter). I wouldn't say halfway done, but yeah, definitely this has been inspiring to encourage me to continue writing. Yeah, it's something that I don't think I'll ever stop doing and I do have a few more songs under my belt that we’ll be playing tomorrow at the Wine Grunt.
TR: Awesome!
KL: And yeah, I would love to make another album at some point in the future.
Kim Lake: What brought me to Avondale is, firstly, family. My husband grew up in Avondale, Devin Lake, and his family, his parents before that, are from here. Multiple generations on his dad's side of the Lake family. So prior to moving to Nova Scotia we were living in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Once we had kids we decided to move closer to family, so when we first moved we moved to Wolfville, which is where Devin now works, but yeah, we were feeling a pull to be closer to family and not knowing much about the area myself, we obviously spent time visiting here and I just immediately fell in love with the community, especially after being in Yellowknife. That was the first place where I really felt a sense of community and got to really experience what it's like to be part of a close-knit community where there's people always around to make events happen and just be there for one another. So after living in Yellowknife, I was really seeking that feeling again and it was really evident that Avondale has a lot of that, so it felt really natural to move here, and then of course having his parents close by with the kids was a huge pull for us.
TR: Now that you've been here a little while you've definitely kind of immersed yourself in the community, you recently took on the position of president of the Heritage Society and then you also are the coordinator of the Full Circle Festival. Given that we are in the middle of a pandemic you've been given a huge challenge to reinvent that event, how do you feel at this particular moment in time thinking about planning events for 2021?
KL: Yeah. It's certainly a challenge. I feel being Nova Scotia we're really fortunate compared to a lot of places and that we're still able to even consider the possibility of getting together in small groups. Some places in the rest of Canada it just doesn't even seem possible to be dreaming about that at all, but I think here, given our population size and kind of the effects that the pandemic has had on us compared to other places it seems more feasible to at least dream about some possibilities for the summer. So we are going ahead with planning some kind of event, what that looks like exactly we're not too sure, but given the amazing location that we have here and the ability to again collaborate with fellow organizations like the winery, and the Museum of course is an integral organization to collaborate with, and the outdoor possibilities, like the ability to be outside I think opens up some options for planning for the summer. So, yeah I think there will be something possible, but I don't want to say too much about what it'll be. We did try to do some online things last year, but recognize that that's kind of a separate skill set and itself to be able to host online events, that really takes a team of people who are very knowledgeable in videography and the online world, which is a little bit outside of I feel our board’s skill set because Full Circle is so much based on that in-person feel, people being together as a group. So we're really trying to think about ways to bring that in-person feeling again this summer, especially since it will be summer and you know our hope is that people will be able to be outside together enjoying live music.
TR: So ideally you need to recruit some new volunteers with technological skills to help out.
KL: That would be wonderful. If there's a plethora of volunteers in the area with technological skills, certainly the museum and Full Circle would be very keen to absorb your skills. But yeah, I think there is value in sharing, certainly arts and other forms of communication online, I don't think that’s going to go away whether or not the coronavirus goes away. There's, you know a real value in sharing that way, but like I said, it feels like a really tailored skill set to be able to do that in a way that's going to be really engaging so I think over the next year or so that could be an opportunity for growth for both organizations, Full Circle and the museum.
TR: It seems like the neighborhood we’re kind of going through this resurgence of having lots of young children. What would you like to see happening in Avondale to help accommodate all of the current youth that are now here.
KL: I would love to see a resurgence of the youth through the Loop Group..
TR: Avondale Youth, or Avondale Youth Loop Group?
KL: Loop Troop (laughter), whatever it was called, there's a poster inside of it in the hall and I would love to see that again. Part of the reason for moving to Avondale was obviously for our kids and to give them that sense of community, which I never grew up with, and yeah, there are lots of kids around and I would love to see more local events and opportunities for them to get around. There was an idea too that Glenn Parker suggested to me about starting a little theater group in the hall and having some local youth do an annual theater show, which would be really cool. I think whatever the interest of the youth probably should be driving what happens, but it would be really great to see some regular programming or even just get-togethers. You know, we are starting to collect rec supplies. So whether it's arts and crafts activities or physical activities, we've got soccer balls and frisbees and yoga mats. We're definitely starting to collect resources here at the Museum to make all of those things possible and recognize the importance of creating opportunities for youth to engage in that kind of stuff. So just getting the word out that the resources are available and hopefully we can see more things happen as they grow older. Well, I guess there are older ones, mine are quite young. I think it takes that old cliche saying it takes a village. I feel like we have the village and it's just a matter of continuing to host events and create energy around them.
TR: So like many of the people that live in this community, you're incredibly creative and during the pandemic I would say you were able to find a bit of a silver lining and you took the time to put together your first album, which you actually are going to release tomorrow. So you've been dropping a few songs lately, what does this album kind of represent to you?
KL: Mmm. Well, it's true. This is the first album that I've been working on. I've been writing songs since I was a teenager, but the timing just kind of came together in some ways due to the pandemic. It's always something I've had in the back of my mind, but yeah, definitely with the pandemic shutting everything down, it just allowed for time to spend focusing on music, but also kind of gave me the sense of urgency around wanting to actually put something out to share with people. It felt like a time when a lot of people, especially my creative friends were kind of turning towards their arts and their craft to kind of find a sense of calm and peace in the world, and that's definitely something that music has always given me, so yeah, it was kind of dual purpose in that it was selfishly giving me something to focus on and create to bring calm, but also I just had time to work on it as well. But what does it represent to me is really connection and coming together with like-minded people is ultimately what this album represents. It's called Flesh and Bone and the song that I wrote called Flesh and Bone, the title track, I wrote in May during the pandemic and it's about that idea of of wanting to be with people in the flesh (laughter) and the whole process of making an album really would not have been possible without a number of other people, primarily Jesse Griffith, who I know is a good friend of yours too, but for those of you who don't know he's an incredible musician in his own, right. He has countless projects under his belt, but currently Wandarian is the project that he's working under and he's just such an incredible inspiration to me. As soon as I mentioned to him that I wanted to make an album he was right on board immediately. He was like, all right, we're going to make it happen. And if it weren't for him saying that I really don't think it would have happened. So I'm so, so grateful to him and 2020 will always be about making this album together with him. And then he put me in touch with Charles Austin who did a lot of the recording for us, both at his studio in Halifax, Ocean Floor Recording and then he also came out to Avondale. So I just have so many incredible memories from that time, even though it was hard in a lot of ways, like you mentioned, silver lining, so many of my memories are positive because of the process of making this album and being with other people. Other friends like Tony Wood from Windsor, who owns the Spoke & Note, and a new friend now, Gina Burgess, who I would not have met without going through this process either. Charles put me in touch with Gina to play fiddle on the album and now she's become a dear friend of mine, too. So yeah, ultimately this album is really about connections with others and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to have done this
TR: So now that the album is ready, actually you have copies.
KL: Here it is, iIt even features the Avondale wharf on the back.
TR: So what's the next step with this? I mean, it's a pandemic, so normally in previous times you would have probably gone on tour or something, but how do you deal with launching an album in this new version of the world?
KL: Well to be honest performing is never something I've done a whole lot of, to me music has always been very personal and performing is very new to me. So I didn't have a huge vision ahead of the pandemic of what releasing an album might look like, but now that it's here I feel like we are lucky that there are a few venues around that are hosting some music. So tomorrow, for example, I'm playing at the Wine Grunt in Windsor with Jesse and Gina, so that should be really fun. I've heard from a lot of friends that are going to be there. So hopefully it's just a celebration with some of the people that I love and beyond that the music is going to be available online, so I'm just really hoping that as many people who are interested will have a listen to it and to connect to it in whatever way they feel and it will be available for those who want to listen. I'll be looking for other places to play, probably not in the imminent future, but hopefully, yeah, we can get a whole band together. That's really what, again this album has shown me, is that I love playing with other people. I don't love performing by myself. I find it really intimidating, but I love playing with other people so hopefully when it makes sense to do that, they'll be opportunities to perform as a band.
TR: Since you’ve completed this album have you still been writing, is the second album halfway done already (laughter)?
KL: Maybe it is (laughter). I wouldn't say halfway done, but yeah, definitely this has been inspiring to encourage me to continue writing. Yeah, it's something that I don't think I'll ever stop doing and I do have a few more songs under my belt that we’ll be playing tomorrow at the Wine Grunt.
TR: Awesome!
KL: And yeah, I would love to make another album at some point in the future.