In Conversation With #226 - Kuri
Vancouver based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist producer Kuri has just released his sophomore solo album ‘I Love You, You’re Welcome’.
‘I Love You, You’re Welcome’ is the follow up to Kuri’s 2019 debut, No Village, a tongue-n-cheek to his prior musical project, Oh Village. The album garnered praise from the Vancouver Sun, Dominianated, Atwood - the latter calling it, as “...dazzling as it is bewildering. A lyrically ingenious, musically mystifying cinematic folk masterpiece.” Since, Kuri has produced albums for Jenny Banai, Syd Warwick and Joel Brandt, while scoring two Bruce Willis films, 2021’s American Siege and 2022’s Gasoline Alley, and along with his upcoming final film. On I Love You, You’re Welcome Scott played every instrument and produced, inviting in friends to provide backing vocalists at the end.
He took a moment to talk to us about how the album came together.
Hey there Kuri - how are you? So your album is out now - how does it feel to have it out there in the world?
The time around an album release is always pretty strange. I started this process in 2019, which is very strange. Some of the songs are even older than that. My mind naturally runs over the whole process and it’s kinda fun to go back in time while also acknowledging that this is very much a brand new thing for everyone else. But it really feels good to put music out.
It is called ‘I Love You, You’re Welcome’ - what is the meaning behind that?
I Love You, You’re Welcome” was the title before I wrote a single piece of music. It has meant several different things to me along the way. It was initially meant to be a funny jab at how we often subconsciously expect/demand praise in return for something that should be given freely. To say I love you, you’re welcome to someone is basically saying, “aren’t you so lucky to have me”. But as I started writing and creating during the pandemic, I went through a very intense personal transformation and started relating to it very differently, and the songs came out differently. There was this sense that I was writing these songs almost as a farewell to a past self. The change in me came from a place of love for my former self, and was meant to honor where I had come from. “I Love You, You’re Welcome” transformed into a sort of loving farewell saying “I love us and where we’ve been, but it’s time for us to step into something new.
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the creative process you are happy to share with us?
I recorded this album in my childhood home - my parents basement. I think it was pretty special for that reason alone. I grew up playing floor hockey in that basement, it also had a garage so my dad worked on cars in there as well. I learned how to drum and play guitar in that space as well. To really dive in and put my energy at this point in my life into something creatively in that space felt really fulfilling. But also, it’s a basement and not a world class studio, haha, so that meant a fair amount of work getting things to sound the way I wanted them to.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
The key themes are reflection and healing toward my past selves. As the world slowed down in 2020 a lot of people began to examine how they had been living, me included. I just wanted to give myself the space to ask questions about how I’ve come to be where I am now. What has been good, what has been hard and needs to be healed.
If the album could be the soundtrack to any film - which one would it be and why?
Jeepers…. I’m gonna say Song of The Sea just because the visuals are so amazing.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album - if so, which one and why?
It changes all the time honestly. right now it’s “body aches when something dumb come pouring out your mouth.” I just remember that feeling so vividly from when I was younger. The feeling that EVERYONE noticed you when you didn’t want to be noticed.
Now the album is out there - what next?
I’d love to do some touring at some point, but for now I just want to enjoy having made something and shared something with the world. It’s wonderful to share things with people. And then I’ll go and do it again.
