Since I've been home...

As we get older life gets harder. But as long as we live our lives for the desires of our hearts and we keep the ones that keep our smiles stretched from ear to ear, our lives will be filled with purpose and beauty....

From Kenya to the Orange County coastline...

So here I am sitting in a cozy condo living with my brother and our friend Joe. I haven't spent time on my blog website since I was camped out in the middle of the Great Rift Valley, but after weeks of thinking about starting to write again I finally brought my computer to my lap and the keyboard to my fingertips. My original plans for travel after I graduated college was to take place over a span of a year. I wanted to really experience culture and make life-long friends. Instead, I ended up changing my plane tickets to come home early in order to keep the music in my life constant.

You see, this was my life before I decided to leave the country- I studied music composition at the University of California: San Diego. I worked as a bartender at this pub called Wits End in Hillcrest to make extra cash and to save money for my traveling adventures after graduation. I played in a fun indie-pop band called Team Abraham and I was finishing up a year long project of writing for a string quartet for the Conrad Prebys Music Hall at UCSD. Out of everything I did with myself leading up to the last days in San Diego, I have to give a lot of my happiness credit to Team Abraham.

The birth of a life long friendship: During my last year in college I met Abraham at Wits End and immediately became friends. He was the Monday night DJ at Wits while I served drinks. At the time, I was a lounge singer at Hotel La Jolla while he played in a new band called Team Abraham. Every Monday night we would try to get each other to come to each others shows for support. Finally one Saturday night I was convinced to see this new band of his play at the Whistle Stop in South Park and since that night my heart has been with Team Abraham. Before I left the bar that night I walked up to Abraham to tell him how much I enjoyed his bands music and he immediately said to me, "Cool. When are you gonna be a part of the band?" Quickly I responded with, "When are you going to let me be a part of the band?" and from that point on I was a part of the team. About a month later Team Abraham and I opened for Blitzen Trapper at the Casbah in San Diego. Months after that night we toured the country, came out with a 10' vinyl as well as a debut EP and had all become great friends.

The beginning of summer 2009, I was ready to graduate, I was ready to leave my home of 23 years, and I was ready to live in Kenya. The only thing I wasn't ready for was to leave the music. I couldn't imagine myself leaving the excitement or my band... but I did and as my previous blogs have stated, it was absolutely incredible. It was so wonderful, in fact, while abroad I almost began to forget about my life back at home until I received an e-mail. While sitting on my bed under the stars in Olkerii, I read an e-mail from Abe about how we were nominated for Best New Pop Band in San Diego at the 2009 San Diego Music Awards. Not only that, but the band made plans to record an LP first thing in Fall then travel to Washington on a West Coast tour. As happy as I was for the band, my heart sank. All of this was so exciting for my old band. I only wished that I could enjoy all of these exciting adventures with them. What made my heart ache even more was another e-mail two days later from Neil (our bass player at the time and still good friend) telling me how different the band was without our original team and how things were different. It was then that my heart and instincts gave me the right-of-way to return home and continue my life writing and working with music. I changed my tickets to come home early and let me tell you, it wasn't cheap. Careful about your airlines.... anyway. I moved to Orange County since that is where my family lives. I thought that since I would be figuring my life out from the cleanest slate possible, I might as well be around the support of my family. Besides coming home early from traveling to pursue a life in music, being consumed with family has been one of my best decisions yet because things haven't been easy.

So I came home. I got to go to the 2009 San Diego Music Awards. We recorded and toured. I couldn't have imagined doing anything better.

I understand what music means to me and I understand how it influences my life. Everyday I open my ears to the sounds and pieces created and composed by other people. I'm constantly inspired. You know how there is a part in each of us that wants to do something monumental, something life changing at some point in our lives? Like some of us set out to protect the rain forests in South America while some of us bring awareness about hunger in America or AIDS in Africa. I have a similar desire to help throughout my life. The truth is, I really just want to inspire and bring beauty to people with my music in the same way that others have brought inspiration and beauty to me through theirs. It's taken me years to be able to say this but I do believe in my music. I believe in its honesty. And, I want to believe that I can touch at least a few peoples lives with the songs and pieces that I write. This is the new adventure I am aching to embark on as of today.

I guess the real reason behind me starting to blog again is to allow myself to reach out to readers who are interested in my music as well as my life behind the creation of. I've found that music is one of the greatest tools to connect complete strangers and to continue on the exploration of life.

Currently my music life has been saturated with writing. I just played a show in January with Team Abraham and debuted a new song called "Kate Said" which I wrote in November after having a conversation with Aunt Kate about making choices and listening to gut instincts. Team Abraham has played "Kate Said" for a few different shows including Club Congress in Tuscon, AZ. All of which the audience has made great comments about. There is a great video that was taken at the Echo in LA of us playing the song on Youtube. If you're interested, just type in Team Abraham Kate Said and it should pop right up. There is also an acoustic version of me playing it on Youtube as well. Instead type in Kim Lynette Listen to the Pull. If you're interested, of coarse. I've been writing other songs recently as well. My friends Kellen and Taylor are helping me put bass and drums to my new stuff. I'm planning on professionally recording my very own stuff sometime in March. Once that victory is reached, I will be able to finally get my music out there. I'm so excited to see where it goes!

If you have made it to the bottom of this blog then I have to thank you for your interest. This blog was so long and drawn out but I really felt like I needed to give some background. So... thank you.... I'll keep my blogs updates with new information behind the music that I find, write and love. So keep reading and feel free to subscribe to my blogs so that you get the updates. I'll keep them coming!

Bye for now!