Hailing from New England, Pat Kennedy has taken his ear to the sounds you heard growing up in your dads car. The big feel of a booming voice and brass section mixed with the lyrics that feel like a conversation with a good friend, Kennedy is a promising figure out east. I sat down with Pat at Minnesota Yacht Club after his electric set on July 17th.
Logan Melia: I asked a few people about your set earlier today. Confirm or deny that you did play “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen.
Pat Kennedy: I can confirm I played “Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen.
Logan: Okay, big Springsteen guy. I think we both are. He’s got so many hits, how do you decide which hit to go with?
Pat: I chose the one that was tattooed on my leg.
Logan: Where’d you get that tattoo?
Pat: Right here. Boston. Or Worcester. Worcester got a tattoo It’s like one of my favorite songs of all time, one of my favorite artists of all time. The reason I play music.
Logan: Absolutely. Yeah. Obviously “Born to Run”, big classic, “Dancing in the Dark”. If you had to pick some deep cut to perform on a big stage like this, what are you ripping out of the repertoire right there?
Pat: Out of Springsteen’s.
Logan: Yeah, like “Highway Patrolmen”, you doing anything?
Pat: Some of Nebraska is crazy, but I feel like that it’s not lively enough for, I mean, it’s still hit. I’m going to go with like a weird, like, it was kind of, I forget when it came out. It’s kind of like semi-recent, like not an older one. “Mary’s Place”.
Logan: Love that song.
Pat: You know that one.
Pat and Logan: ‘Meet me at Mary’s Place, we’re going to have a party’.
Pat: No, I love it because I feel like that’s not like a big one but it’s so good. I love that one. I heard that for the first time when I saw him.
Logan: When’d you see him?
Pat: Gillette Stadium. Nice. It’s pretty solid. That’s so shaking.
Logan: Was that, we played July 2023.
Pat: Yes.
Logan: Okay, that’s when I saw him on that tour too. That was my first time seeing him. All right, now about someone else’s music, your music. I mean, hell of a start right here. I mean, this is just the way to kick it off. Obviously, you had this big brass band sound, this big feel to it, but you have the storytelling of what feels like a book that you’re reading alone in a room. When you’re writing down, do you blend yourself knowing that you’re going to be doing this on some big stage? Or do you start with the knowledge that it’s just you and this acoustic guitar and that might be all it’ll be?
Pat: See, that is my issue is because I feel like I do write, when I’m writing a song, I’m hearing the full band as I’m writing it. So I feel like I typically write songs for the full band. So I guess that is what I’m imagining when I’m writing a song. I mean, I guess maybe a couple of the slower acoustic ones that I’ve written, like those are for that. But I feel like I’m always hearing what I’m going on. So I’ll show someone a song and maybe they’ll be like, oh, okay. And then I’m like, they don’t hear the whole thing. And then I show them the finished track and then they’re like, oh, okay, you get what you meant. But yeah, for sure, I feel like I am imagining that big, big sound.
Logan: When you’re setting up that, do you know the part by part or are you just like, there’s a swell here, there’s a repeat. How detailed do you get it there?
Pat: I’m an arranger. That’s what I studied in college, like composition and arrangement. So I feel like I really am hearing just every instrument at once somehow. I don’t know, I’m hearing all the horns in their little lines. I’m hearing the full sound of like all the guitars. all the background vocals. So I guess I definitely string it out to all these moments, like hits or big swells and stuff like that, like you were saying. But sometimes I feel like when I’m writing a song, I do too much of that. And then I’m like, oh, it just sounds too arranged. And then I got to dial it back a little bit. But yeah, I feel like definitely, imagining it. Yeah, that’s awesome.
Logan: When you’re doing these different arrangements and stuff like that, has it always been this full arrangement thing? Or is that something you grew into through your education or through other things?
Pat: 100% grew through it. Berkeley was awesome for that. I feel like I learned a lot of arranging there. I think I chose the correct path at the school for letting me do it. I mean, I used to write songs in high school. I think without the knowledge of how big something could sound like that, I think I heard it. in my influences, like we were talking about. But I feel like definitely something I grew into. Because I would write songs on the piano in high school, and then when I went to go finally get them recorded, my producer friends could help me flush them out. And then I feel like I really grew and learned in that way.
Logan: Did you start off with piano? Was that your first one?
Pat: No, I did guitar lessons growing up. But piano was a self-taught thing. I never took lessons for that. But it feels easier to compose on for me. Okay. Because I feel like when you’re playing guitar, writing a song, it kind of, I don’t know if this is like true at all for what I’m saying, but it feels like it’s putting it in a box almost. I feel like piano is such a base composition tool that like it can become anything after that. Yeah. So that’s typically my favorite composition instrument.
Logan: That’s awesome. Table 42, table for two, pardon me.
Pat: Correct.
Logan: How long was that process right there? Were these songs that you wrote specifically for the album? Were you picking and pulling from the past?
Pat: The album has been a goal for such a long time. Yeah, it was a cumulation of songs that I feel like I had written starting earlier in my college career. And then as all these songs formed, I was like, obviously, like 100 songs and then throw away 99 of them. But as I started accumulating these songs and I was like, I really liked these and started kind of feeling a pattern of like a subject or like a theme going on. I kind of tried to develop the album and spent time like really figuring out like what more songs I needed to finish it and like finish what I was trying to say. So yeah, I think from when I decided I was going to make the album, it probably took a little under a year, maybe a year, but I think It is the accumulation of like three to four years of writing.
Logan: Do you remember the day you were like, ‘okay, we’re actually gonna do the damn thing’.
Pat: I don’t know if I know the day, but it was a little bit before, a little bit before November, 2024. Cause then I was like, ‘oh, we gotta get going here’. And then we went and recorded “Eve” live in like a studio and I was like, with like a newer band that I was working with. And I was like, oh, We’re going. It’s just fun.
Logan: How many musicians were in the room for that recording video? Because that’s a big sound.
Pat: Yeah, we had… All right, we had myself playing, singing and rhythm, and then we also had my buddy playing guitar rhythm on acoustic.
Logan: So you were playing electric rhythm there?
Pat: Yeah, electric rhythm, even though I typically play acoustic live for that song because, you know, we can’t pay that many players. But we had me and my buddy playing acoustic, we had electric lead, we had bass, Drums. and three horns and keys, I think. So either 9 or 10, around there. Yeah, we had a lot of people in the room, and then more people in the control room, we’d have a blast.
Logan: That’s incredible.
Pat: It’s important to have a good time.
Logan: You mentioned kind of writing 100 songs, 99 of them not being good. Do you just write everything down on paper, or are you a little more selective?
Pat: Recently, I’ve been trying to. I struggled with this thing of like, If I found a cool thing which made me start writing a song, I struggled with like not letting it go unless until it was done or what I thought was like perfect, which is not true. But yeah, no, I feel like I struggled with that. I maybe still do struggle with that, beating a song to death, trying to revive it in any certain way. But I think I’m learning that it’s more important to just like get ideas out as fast, like get them down, get them down and move on. Maybe come back to it if you think it has some like stuff, but It’s something I’m working on definitely is trying to get those ideas down and move on because I’ve heard from a lot of people and feel that it’s definitely a better way to find the best part of what you’re trying to say.
Logan: When you’re playing a big show like this, does that like inspire you to like start writing again or does that like wear you out a little bit? Because I feel like I’ve heard whole things.
Pat: Yeah, I’m definitely inspired. I mean, I think I’m more so inspired to play again, because I mean, as much as I love writing, and I do love writing, playing live is just the best thing of all time. If I have a crowd in front of me, that’s all I care. I have so much fun. I just love to entertain. But I would say for sure, after today. I feel like this almost felt like accumulation of where this album has taken me. And we played a new one today, one that isn’t out and so that went really well. And I’m really excited about that because we started writing with the whole band that everybody that plays with me. So like fleshing it out better.
Logan: Does the new one have a name?
Pat: “Babylon”. Yeah, we ripped that one today and it went really, really good. I heard some good things. I guess.
Logan: I’m going to ask around the crowd about “Babylon” next.
Pat: For sure. But no, I’m definitely, excited to write, especially if you’re like Sinker Dying Down. Very excited to hop in the writers’ room.
Logan: Do you have a favorite show you have ever played personally? And do you have a longest show you’ve ever played?
Pat: Favorite show I’ve ever played is today. Absolutely by far today. I mean, there’s definitely been some special moments, you know, like my album release show in November. This past November, the day the album came out, we had a show where we rented out this, not even like a venue, but like a space that had like speakers. It was basically packed this office building with all of my friends and family and, you know, our fans that turned into friends in the Boston area packed into this place and we did our album release. That one was, I think, the most special because it really showed how like much love I have for all those people and how much like, reciprocated that is, and that just feels, that felt really good. So I gotta say that one, because just the community of it, but today was… it’s gonna be hard to talk today for a little while. It went way better than I could have ever hoped.
Logan: Yeah. Oh, that’s incredible to hear.
Pat: Yeah, it was awesome.
Logan: Okay, well, hey, you mentioned new music. We got everything. The only thing I have to ask left is Loretta’s last call. I was told to ask you about that.
Pat: I feel like this is the beginning of this haunting me for the rest of my life. No, not haunting.
Logan: I was just told to ask you about it. I was asking people around about Pat Kennedy today. And I was like, all right, you know, thoughts on Pat Kennedy’s set. And there’s like, ‘oh, it’s electric. You know what you should bring it up to him. Ask him about Loretta’s Last Call’ So it’s really the most recent thing I’ve written down.
Pat: Oh, nice. Yeah, I mean, that’s where All right, so I got to college in 2022, and I was like, I need to find a place to work. So I got a job at this bar called Lorena’s Last Call. It’s right outside of Fenway. It had a stage, which is the reason I applied, because I was like, let’s work our way into this. And like I said, I love playing live. So as soon as I could, I made friends with whoever does it and convinced them to let my band have a go. And we started playing weekend gigs every once in a while. It’s a lot of cover music, obviously, but you work in the originals you’re working on. And then we moved forward and after that, we had weekly residencies for like 2 years, playing like every Wednesday, doing some of our stuff and some line dancing music too, like, because of the bar. And I feel like we’ve gotten a lot of our Boston fans from there. You know, people coming out like pretty regularly to see us, which has been cool. But I have toned that to like, I have toned our performance today to that. It’s so important to me that the live show is the most important thing to me ever because live music is the most important thing. And you know, we’ve been honing our craft. I’ve been honing my craft. The band has been honing the craft. And I think that’s a big reason why we’re, I feel we’re so tight today and like why we’re such good friends and also why we’re playing better than we ever could have imagined, like compared to what we thought two years ago. So I think that’s a big part of how we came up.
Logan: Any advice to a college kid in a band?
Pat: Trying to play a show. Play a show, play a show, keep playing shows, play a cover gig, play a house show, whatever. And I know people have their different paths and everything out like that. My biggest pet peeve is just wasting time not playing. If you want to be an artist, you want to play shows, go do it. Play at a coffee shop. Don’t wait five years to release a single or five years to go play your first show ever. Just play. Nobody’s playing anymore. Everyone’s just online. And I know I need to get online because I’m bad with socials, so they should tell me that. But I’m telling the people that are online to go play a show because you need to play live. That’s my advice. That’s my pet peeve and advice.
Logan: And they’ll probably listen to this.
Pat: I hope so. If they’re online, they’ll listen to it. I hope so. Someone give me marketing advice?
If anyone wants to jump on the Pat Kennedy train before it leaves the station, now is the time to hop on. And any marketing advice you bring is a plus. You can follow Pat Kennedy on Instagram and check his website for updates.
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