Q&A: Luna Li talks performing at the Calgary Folk Music Festival and her rise to prominence
As the Calgary Folk Music Festival kicks off its 45th edition Thursday, over 70 artists from different parts of the world are gearing up for electrifying performances, including Toronto-based musician Luna Li.
The singer-songwriter is making her debut at the festival with performances scheduled for Saturday at Prince’s Island Park.
Li, also known as Hannah Bussiere Kim, has mastered several instruments, including the harp, violin and electric guitar, and is perhaps best known for creating stirring DIY music videos during the pandemic that cemented her status as a talented and versatile musician.
This year’s edition of the Folk Music Festival will feature numerous artists, including British singer-songwriter Ben Howard, Montreal multi-instrumentalist Leif Vollebekk and Winnipeg-based ensemble The Mariachi Ghost, along with numerous food vendors, an arts market, a vibrant family zone and more.
Ahead of the folk festival, Andrea Knight, co-host of the Calgary Eyeopener, spoke to Li about performing at the festival, her rise to fame and what keeps her inspired.
LISTEN | Luna Li talks about playing at the festival:
Calgary Eyeopener9:30Luna Li at Folk Fest
The Calgary Folk Music Festival kicks off tomorrow! We chat with Luna Li, one of the musicians performing.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Angela Knight: The Folk Music Festival kicks off tomorrow and there are some great musical acts hitting the stage for the four-day event. One of the artists performing this year is Toronto multi-instrumentalist Luna Li. How are you feeling about playing [at] the folk festival this year?
Luna Li: I’m just excited to spend a few days listening to music, hanging out with my friends. My band is going to be there with me and they’re staying for the whole time as well. So I think we’re going to have a really great time just enjoying some amazing Canadian bands.
You rose to prominence during the pandemic. You released a series of at-home jam sessions and they went viral. What was that time like for you?
LI: It was a really interesting time. I mean, it was over COVID, everybody was in lockdown. And so it was pretty interesting to be putting out these jams, having them be quite successful online, and then kind of close my laptop and get sent back into the quarantine. It was, yeah, a weird juxtaposition of, like, not seeing anybody in my everyday life and then having, you know, thousands and hundreds of thousands of people watching my videos online and connecting with new people all over the world.
You are so incredibly talented. You’re a multi-instrumentalist. You play the harp, the keyboard, the guitar and the violin. How did you learn to play them all and do you remember which one you learned first?
LI: I started on piano when I was five. My parents run a music school together in Roncesvalles [a Toronto neighbourhood] and so I was very lucky to grow up within a musical community and lucky enough to be able to try all these different types of instruments and different types of lessons.
And eventually, [I] kind of started getting interested in writing my own music and got involved with the Toronto music scene and started playing, you know, more contemporary music. So I was always very lucky to be surrounded by musical people, [a] musical family and community.
How does playing all of those instruments factor into your sound?
LI: I think it really just allows me to sort of tap into different moods. I mean, you know, sitting down at the piano and playing [the] piano alone is one of my favourite things to do. And that’s one certain mood. And then, you know, adding the harp onto something that I’m producing makes it very dreamy and magical. And then — adding some strings gives it sometimes a classical or like a vintage ’60s feel. And so it really does open these doors to try out different sounds and to mix many different types of sounds into the music that I’m creating.
Back in 2022, you released your debut record Duality. How did that album come together?
LI: That was created over the course of four years. I started making it in 2018 with my collaborator, Braden Sauder, and it came together very slowly. I was at the time working at my mom’s music school. And so it was kind of just on the weekends or whenever we had time. And then we were going to release it independently over the pandemic. And then a label got involved. And then the jams came out first and my career kind of took a whole turn. And then we enhanced the record a little bit near the end and, and brought it to its final form. And then it finally came out in 2022. So it was a long work in progress, but I’m very proud of it.
The title of the album, Duality, is a nod to your Canadian-Korean heritage. How do you incorporate your culture into your music?
LI: That’s a great question. I think that I really started tapping into my Korean side a little bit more over the pandemic when I started working with 88rising, which is a label that supports Asian creatives throughout the world. And it was really exciting to get involved with that community and inspired me to want to, you know, collaborate with other Asian creatives. I started learning Korean myself. I’ve yet to write anything or say anything in Korean [and] I’m not quite there yet, but yeah. And I also started learning how to play the kayagum, which is kind of like a Korean zither. It’s a Korean harp, basically. And so I was trying that out for a little while. So that might appear in my music coming up as well.
The Calgary Folk Music Festival runs July 25-28 at Prince’s Island Park.
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