Coffee & Creatives #4: Kaya Herstad-Carney

Co-Director of Liverpool's Threshold Festival, leader of Lamp Scientist's as part of her band Science of the Lamps and possibly the busiest person in the world, Kaya Herstad-Carney gave us a piece of her mind on coffee and music for this edition of Coffee & Creatives...

What inspired your song "High on coffee, low on life"?

The song is written about a limbo situation with an ex where we weren't sure if we were just friends or more which was horrible (especially since we were living together at the time and I was hoping for the latter. There were a lot of sleepless night…hence a lot of coffee…

What about any other coffee themed songs you’ve written?

There's the bonus track 'Drinking Game' from my first album that opens with the line “You said ‘You want a cup of coffee’, meaning ‘Do you wanna stay?’”

Then there's the one I did with Karma Motiva

“There’s me and there’s my notebook in a diner

There’s two cold cups of coffee and no words

I know they’re doing all their best to find her

But it’s the fact that she feels lost that makes it hurt”

What's your best experience with coffee?

I am a coffee snob and enjoy coffee on a (too) regular basis.  A best experience is probably more abstract. As in sitting in the streets of a French town watching life pass by as Chris (Carney, her fellow Festival Director and partner) and I were driving down to Cognac for our wedding.

Or even discovering it as a barista while in college working in a little cafe/bistro in Norway. My family always drank coffee and it is NEVER instant, but learning about the different burning, how to create a smashing cappuccino or macchiato and even a good Irish coffee.

What's the best coffee you've ever had?

That's like asking for my favourite musical moment. But a black well made Americano or filtered (milk is for babies). I like it to be fair trade, medium to strong and in good company.

What link is there for you between coffee and culture?

Cafe culture is particularly important for freelance creatives, so more than anything it's there for me. Meetings in cafes saves on business overheads. I used to get a whole day of meetings set up in a couple of cafes. I do that now when I go home; full day at some cafe saves me running around town meeting everyone. Might not stay on coffee all night though!

Interview by Andrea McGuire. Image by SpeakEasy.