To stifle a certain smug Kryptonian, Kim Beggs attempts to prove her songs are, in fact, more powerful than a locomotive
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It’s clear from her music that Beggs knows a little something about community — as she should, being from a family of six kids. But being constantly around that many people growing up, she’s also learned a thing or two about the value of solitude.
“When we’re all together (as a family), you have to find a way to mentally escape in a roomful of people,” says Beggs. “I find comfort being around people but still being able to drift off into my own world.”
Perhaps that is what led her to live in Whitehorse, fabled for both its individualism and community spirit. But Beggs took the long and winding road to get there. Growing up as the daughter of a mining engineer, she travelled around northern Ontario and Quebec as a child before her family eventually settled in Toronto when she was about 10.
“There are lots of things I like about living in the big city — I loved TO, and as a teenager, you could always get a job,” Beggs says cheerily. “When I was 13, I used to hang out in my grandmother’s store. They sold old, used, interesting things — silver tea sets. I could spend hours looking at all the stuff.”
These days, the thing Beggs loves most about big cities has changed. “They’ve got cafés,” she laughs. “It’s the perfect place to sit around people and be in your own world.”
When Beggs finished university in Guelph, she went to the Yukon to visit a sister living there. She intended only to visit for a few months. Fifteen years later, it’s clear that the north country has cast a permanent spell on her. “I’ve always had family who lived up here,” she points out. “The family talked about it a lot when I was growing up; it almost felt like part of the family. The thing about the Yukon is, you don’t have a choice. It digs its claws into you, and you end up needing it. The land here gets into the people. Maybe it’s to do with all the gold under the ground, permeating everything with some kind of energy.”
Beggs got her carpentry ticket in Whitehorse and has used it to support herself. But making music was an ever-present passion for her, and eventually she began performing locally. After awhile, the carpentry began to take a back seat to the increasingly successful music gig, and now Beggs finds herself out on the road to support her second CD, Wanderer’s Paean. She’s currently her own everything — performer, promoter, manager and salesperson. She’s managed to recruit her dad as her mailer and webmaster, a thing that takes a huge load off her shoulders.
“I’ll always be a carpenter, that’s in my blood. But I want to take my music seriously. I’d like to find a way to do my music without going broke. I’m trying to find a good manager, so that I’m not doing everything by myself. I need to maintain a quality of life, so I’m hoping the right people come into my life. I feel like good things are right around the corner.”
