Kitty Brucknell - God Sees Inner Beauty

When it comes to singing, raw power is something you either have or you don't. Generally speaking, it's not something you can develop, you either have the God given talent or not. Kitty Brucknell is a an example of someone that has been blessed with an incredibly powerful voice. She sings with a lot of passion and seems to belt out the high notes effortlessly.

Kitty, who lives in London, England is a pop / country singer with a strong following on YouTube. As of today, her channel has a whopping 1600+ subscribers, which is very impressive and is the result of a lot of hard work on Kitty's part. Her slogan "God Sees Inner Beauty" is the mantra for all of her supporters on "Team Kitty."

Kitty was kind enough to take some time and answer a few questions for me:

NSW: What got you started with singing? Did you take formal lessons?

Kitty: Actually it’s a really weird story. I was always singing from a really young age but I was more into acting than anything. I knew I could sing but I was singing classical stuff and I never even listened to pop music until I was about 12 years old. Funny, huh? First album I bought was Boyzone (appallingly bad boyband popular in the 90’s in the UK). Ouch.

There was this girl at my school who had a really good voice, and she was always getting picked for stuff. Plus, she was blonde and really popular so it really bugged me! I started writing my own songs when I was around about 13 and it really grew from there. I wanted to be picked for things too (!!) so I ditched my classical teacher and started doing my own thing, which started to pay off and people said that I should continue singing professionally. I got a job singing and playing piano in this restaurant for $100 (£50) a night – (I thought it was a fortune!) and did that from about 14 to when I was about 17 and I got this development deal which although eventually fell through it gave me a lot of confidence, and by then I knew I wanted to sing professionally.

NSW: You have an amazingly powerful voice. Did this come natural or is it something you had to work hard to achieve?

Kitty: Haha! Well... um... I’ve always been pretty, um... loud. But my voice I think definitely started to develop dramatically from about 17 onwards, my range increased half an octave (that’s 4 notes) in a year, and it’s been getting stronger ever since. Practise makes perfect I guess but I just enjoy singing those high notes! But I’m never satisfied, I’m always trying to reach higher and higher notes!

NSW: Do you write your own songs and if so, are you working on an upcoming album?

Kitty: I do write my own songs and hopefully I will get a chance to record them – but everything costs money. It’s really difficult but I’m hoping that someone else will pay! I guess that’s why I started with the whole YouTube thing, but it was really a way to connect with people who liked the same kind of music that I do. Country music isn’t really very big here in the UK, so it’s been fantastic talking with people from all over the world! I’m thinking about releasing some of my popular recordings onto iTunes though or something like that. Maybe ;-) I’m also working on a TV pitch idea with a few people so I guess watch this space!

NSW: Tell me 5 facts about yourself that your fans might not know. (Borrowed this idea from the YouTube 5 facts game)

Kitty:
1. My favourite dessert hands down is Tiramisu. I could eat this all day long.
2. I do a badass Dolly Parton impression. It’s really funny!
3. Well, my fans might know this, or figured it out already (!!) but I have an obscene collection of wigs. It’s a bit nuts…it just keeps growing. My most expensive one cost $1000…
4. I’m a bit obsessed with US TV. I watch way too much of it. Favourite shows…(are you ready?) Dirt, The Riches, 4400, 24, Charlie Jade, Desperate Housewives, Six Feet Under, Prison Break, Heroes, Lost, Alias, Carnivale, Invasion…it just goes on and on and on. Oh…and Jericho! See my point? Basically any US Sci-Fi or thriller TV series and I’m there. Although I could never get intot CSI. It just seemed like the same thing over and over again…
5. I’m also a bit of a Britney fan. Team Britney! Yay!

NSW: Name 5 songs that you think are so great you wish you would have written them. (Borrowed this idea from Leesha Harvey who asked her YT subscribers to answer this question)

Kitty:
1. Alone by Heart. Love that high note!
2. Independence Day.
3. Ain’t No Other Man
4. Any Britney Spears song (they are so much fun to dance to)
5. At Last

NSW:If you could go on tour with any singer, who would you choose?

Kitty: Maybe Martina McBride. She’s one of my favourite singers – I just love her music. Shania Twain was awesome in the 90’s…I wonder what she’s up to now?

NSW: It must be exciting to see the subscriber list for your YouTube channel grow to over a thousand people. What got you started with YouTube? Do you enjoy posting videos or is it something you see as necessary to making it in the era of digital entertainment?

Kitty: It’s really important I think to have a really big web presence, so much nowadays is down to your popularity online, but I really started posting just to put myself out there and see what people thought of my singing. I was so nervous the first time I had a comment, but it’s been so exciting to see my subscribers just grow and grow every day. I get around about 100 subs a week…it’s just way too cool! I love posting new videos, I try and mix things up a little, and I try to post something different every week. We’ll see if I can keep that up though!

NSW: Can you recommend any other indie musicians that I should feature on New Sound Waves?

Kitty: Well... there are these AMAZING kids on Youtube called Ice cold Idiots. They are a fantastic rock band, and they are only about 12/13 years old! Amazing. Do check them out.

NSW: Thank you VERY much Kitty for chatting with me.

Now that you know all about Kitty, it's time to listen some of her fabulous singing. First up, here is a really touching performance of Martina McBride's Concrete Angel. This performance shows not only the power Kitty has but the control she has of her voice:



(Note to RSS readers, embedded YouTube video posted above)

Next up here is a cover of Natural Woman. I was really impressed with this one when I stumbled upon it a few months ago:



Last up, here is a cover of Carrie Underwood's The Night Before. Kitty looks beautiful in this video:




Links to Kitty Brucknell:

Official Web Site
http://www.youtube.com/kittybrucknell
http://www.myspace.com/kittybrucknell