“I find it healing and cathartic to sing about the things that are hard and the feelings that are hard,” says local musician Kimiko Dorey (who performs professionally as Kimiko). “And in doing so, you let people see behind the curtain.”

Kimiko will perform for the third time at the Powell Street Festival (PSF), an annual celebration of Japanese Canadian culture now in its 48th year, taking place on August 3rd and 4th. For Kimiko, the festival is a cherished opportunity to reclaim her Japanese heritage by connecting with her audience.

Powell Street Festival is one of a number of festivals taking place this summer which feature a heavy music focus. With events such as this, along with the upcoming Surrey Fusion Festival (July 20 to 21) and the Burnaby Blues + Roots Festival (Aug 10), there are a breadth of opportunities to connect with musicians across the world, here in the Lower Mainland.

Seeing behind the curtains

Kimiko was first inspired to perform at the festival after seeing her friends and choir colleagues take the stage back in 2019. Even though she had been performing from ages six to nine, she stopped singing in front of an audience when grieving the death of her vocal teacher. When she returned to performing after a fifteen-year hiatus, she remained drawn to relatable stories that touch on the sadness and pain of the human condition, including those that highlight the universality of women’s experiences.

“Our society praises being strong …, and I think it’s really powerful to do the opposite,” says Kimiko. “It’s really powerful to say ‘hey, I’m scared,’ ‘hey, I’m sad,’ ‘hey, I’m going through this thing’ and I’m going to invite you to come along with me.”

For her first two solo performances at the festival in 2022 and 2023, Kimiko used this power of vulnerability to cover emotive songs that spoke to her own experiences. With performances of Brandi Carlile’s The Joke, her past performances combined narrativity with music to explore social justice themes, such as marginalization and privilege. At this year’s festival, she will be performing on a street stage with a colleague from her full-time teaching position, Jonathan Sykes.

“This year is a little bit more unplugged, a little bit more of an acoustic vibe, and a little pared down,” she adds, noting their plans to perform some of Sykes’ originals.

With the goal of singing her own songs at next year’s festival, Kimiko recognizes PSF as providing her with a home that she didn’t know was needed. As a hafu (half-Japanese) artist who grew up in Surrey, she recalls how the lack of a Japanese community created feelings of being out of place but also not being Japanese enough. For Kimiko, PSF has allowed for a reclaiming of her Japanese heritage by providing a community with shared experiences and histories.

Diverse music tastes

Zada Szocs, who goes by ZADA, make her Surrey Fusion Festival debut this year. Inspired by a range of musical genres, including alternative, hip hop, and R&B, ZADA, who grew up in Whistler, started playing the piano at the age of 10 and soon began singing. With a recently released album in March titled Water in the Desert, her music draws from personal experiences and observations.

“I’ve always had the opportunity to express myself in multiple art forms, either through singing, playing, painting, and I really just gravitated most to music and the creation of songwriting,” she says.

ZADA’s songwriting inspirations often come from intimate sources, such as her poems or diary entries. Collaborating with other songwriters and producers, she transforms these intensely personal experiences into relatable songs touching on themes like mental health, immigration, and missing a loved one. She was originally hesitant to write about romantic love partly because it was an unfamiliar experience at the time, but also due to a desire to explore other forms of love.

“If you sing about peace, you are singing about love to some extent,” says ZADA. “I wanted to explore all the different options possible before getting there.”

Her performance at the Surrey Fusion Festival will feature music from Water in the Desert as well as a special demo. She notes that the album’s title is inspired by the feeling of a sudden realization that brings new energy. It also embodies her eclectic music taste, as she explains how the storytelling resembles a folk style, vocals reminiscent of R&B, grit instrumentals from alternative music, and percussions from afrobeat.

“The part that makes it afrobeat is that we’re getting down to the roots of not necessarily needing the fanciest things but using the tools around you and creating a story for that,” explains ZADA, noting that the percussions in some of her songs were first created from playing around with kitchen utensils.

Expanding a genre

For Lois Dawson, coordinator of festivals and special events at the City of Burnaby, this year Burnaby Blues + Roots festival has something for everyone, particularly with the shift to free admissions in recent years. For its 23rd iteration, the festivals will feature a diverse line-up of five musical acts – Mavis Staples, the della kit, Calexico, The Suffers and Crystal Shawanda – with different approaches to the genre.

“We really talked a lot about the broadest possible definition of blues and roots, wanting to look at folks who have defined the genre, like Mavis Staples, but also folks who have really expanded the genre to incorporate additional influences,” says Dawson.

Dawson approaches programming as putting together pieces of a puzzle with careful attention to how artists contrast and balance each other. With American blues icon Mavis Staples headlining, this year’s line-up is also diversified with indie rock band Calexico’s Latin influences and Canadian singer-songwriter Crystal Shawanda’s country feel. The city works with Live Nation Canada and First Up with RBCxMusic, a program supporting emerging Canadian talent, to source artists.

“In this case, the della kit was a natural fit for us,” says Dawson, noting the band’s participation in the RBC program. “They’re originally BC-based, they fit right into this blues and roots expansive genre understanding, so it was an easy pick out of the 2023 ones.”

Attendees can also enjoy a diverse food truck selection, an enclosed beer garden and a community zone showcasing non-profit organizations. For her, the festival not only fosters community, but also invests in local talent.

“You never know, maybe a kid who’s coming and watching the show this year is going to be our next RBC First Up performer and will one day be our headliner,” she says.

For more information on the Powell Street Festival, see: www.powellstreetfestival.com.

For more information on the Surrey Fusion Festival, see: www.surreyfusionfestival.ca.

For more information on Burnaby Blues + Roots, see: www.burnaby.ca/recreation-and-arts/events/burnaby-blues-roots-festival.