Recording Connection grad Lindsey Kappa: Pragmatic Dreamer

Lindsey Kappa of Austin, Texas is nothing if not diligent. The audio engineer and DIY artist released her debut EP, World’s Collide, a completely self-produced affair. She wrote, sang, and played all the various instruments as well as recorded and produced the album.

Some of the songs appearing on the album, reflect a stage of growth in her journey both professionally and personally:

I first started writing the album when I was 19 and I was at my first college which was at the Institute of Production Recording. I never intended to have an album you know, that the far in the future at that time, and I wrote the first song on the EP, “World’s Collide,” four times which was the first time I ever had to do that. Usually, when I write music, I get everything done within a day. But for some reason, I was having such a block with that first song. Then I ended a toxic six-year relationship and also then I was just in the studio one day and it all just came out of me, and I laid it all down and it was…that became “World’s Collide.”

…I knew that I wanted to release an EP and start making my music so that when I started engineering people, I could show them ‘Hey, you know this is my stuff too, you know? Then once that whole idea came in mind I re-wrote a couple of parts of the “World’s Collide” song and then the two other songs. “Please Don’t Go Away” is the second song that was written in I want to say two days but I kind of just popped up with that when I was at work actually. I was just doing my job…and all of a sudden, I just had this kind of chorus in my head.

When asked how Recording Connection has helped prepare her for the process of creating an album, Lindsey names her mentor Chris Frenchie Smith at The Bubble Recording as someone who taught her a number of valuable lessons, including learning to work with what you’ve got:

He invited me to his house where he was recording vocals for somebody in his living room, and he told me ‘you’re here so you can see that I can record at my house too. You just have to kind of find a way to reconstruct the room with the tools and resources they have…It definitely boosted my confidence, because [at the other school] I didn’t have too much hands-on experience by myself. I was always around other students or I was around a teacher. But then, being at the studio and around Frenchie that kind of helps you. You got to pull up your pants and really take charge. You know what I mean? So, the Recording Connection did help a lot.”

Today, Lindsey’s out there, collaborating with and recording other Austin-based artists, building her credits and experience:

Austin itself it’s very community-oriented which is awesome, you know? It’s one of those situations where you talk about one band, and they’ve at least worked with almost every band in the Austin town. It’s like kind of like everybody knows everybody even though it’s a big town…The two bands that I met, I actually met the lead singers, just through friendships and that kind of stuff, you know? And I found out they were both in bands, and I was like ‘Hey, so you know so I record, you know? I can help you out,’ and they were totally down for it.”

Lindsey is doing it wholeheartedly and in a pragmatic fashion, one step at a time. When asked it she’s thought of a backup plan, her answer is a resounding no. “There’s no Plan B for me. I can’t picture myself doing anything else. Everything that I do is a way to get where I want to be.”