I need tell you about my bandmates! I was blessed to work with wonderful musicians in creating How to Say Sorry and Other Lessons. Let me start with this character: Victoria-based drummer Kelby MacNayr.
Kelby is an old friend of David’s. In fact, Kelby cat-sat for David about 20 years ago in Toronto, but they lost touch after Kelby went back to live on Vancouver Island. In 2017, David and I were at the Gastown restaurant Chill Winston when we saw a guy pass by outside in the twilight, carrying a drum throne down some stairs outside our window.
“I know that guy!” David exclaimed. “That’s Kelby MacNayr!” We didn’t realize we were sitting right above the hopping music venue Guilt & Co. After dinner, we went down to see if we could catch some music, but the show was sold out. We could hear great music spilling through the doors, though, fun New Orleans style jazz.
Soon after, David had some gigs in Vancouver, so he reconnected with Kelby and they did a small tour together on Vancouver Island. Kelby is one of the most active musicians in the area, producing concerts at venues all over the Gulf Islands.
When I was invited to perform at the Atlin Arts & Music Festival in 2018, David knew that Kelby would be a great fit for the band I envisioned.
Kelby arrived in Atlin at 2:00 am, enveloped me in a giant hug and said, “I love it here!” After a few hours of sleep, we headed for the Festival grounds for breakfast, a brisk 20-minute walk. Two minutes into our walk Kelby exclaimed, “I have to run!” and he took off to the end of the road for the sheer joy of movement, then turned around and ran right back to us.
That is Kelby in a nutshell. I’ve known him to leap into snowbanks to make snow angels (while wearing jeans and sneakers) and jump into freezing Atlin Lake in his underwear just to try out the water. He has the beautiful, enthusiastic, spontaneous energy of a child.
But he is also one of the most emotionally mature and sensitive humans I have ever met. He was with me when I was preparing to showcase at BreakOut West in October 2019. I was rattling off the list of things we had to do to help get the venue ready, like moving pianos and chairs and sound equipment. He looked me in the eyes and said with a steadying voice, “But YOU don’t have to do all that.” “Oh, but we have to help out with it because we need to…” He interrupted me, “But YOU don’t have to do it all. How much time do you need transition from business Fawn’ to ‘performer Fawn’? You should take the time you need to do that before the showcase, and let the rest of us do that work.”
From our first rehearsal of How to Say Sorry and Other Lessons, Kelby has been a stalwart supporter of the project. After he heard the stories and songs for the first time he said, “These are really important things you’re talking about, and there just so much heart in this show.”
So that's the kind of human Kelby is: sensitive, loving, joyful, and playful. I've always found that a musician's playing reflects their personality, and that is certainly true of Kelby. I still get a thrill whenever I hear the tracks he plays on, delighting in his creative choices and attunement to his fellow bandmates. And when I see the videos of our show, I can see how he transitions so smoothly between sticks, brushes, and mallets, that the changes in sound are absolutely seamless.
I'm so happy and grateful to have Kelby on this album. He is a gem of a person and a wonderful musician!
For more Kelby, visit http://www.kelbymacnayr.com/
To purchase music: https://fawnfritzen.bandcamp.com/merch
Photo by Christian Kuntz Photography