Check Out Audra Kubat’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Audra Kubat.

Hi Audra, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory. 
I am a Detroit-born singer-songwriter. Self-taught, I began composing music on the piano at the age of eight. In my teens, I started putting words to the music. Teaching myself to play the guitar, I began performing in local coffeehouses. In 1999, I created the band, “Stunning Amazon,” and in November of that year released a self-titled album. The band became locally successful, and the CD paved the way towards bigger shows and media appearances. 

In 2000, I was nominated for five Detroit Music Awards, winning one for Best Folk Artist and another win in 2015 for Best Americana Instrumentalist. Since then, I have received nominations every year since. I continued to perform solo and wrote new material, releasing my first solo effort, “Elixir.” This record proved to be a pivotal force in my career and was followed by ‘Untitled for Now’ in 2003 on my own label, Remedy Records. 

This led to signing a record deal with Times Beach Records, with whom I recorded two national records – ‘Million-Year-Old Sand” in 2004 and “Since I Fell in Love with the Music” in 2006. Both records earned positive reviews, appearing in Time-Out NY, NME, Harp Magazine, Hour Detroit, Metro-Times, Real Detroit Weekly, The Detroit News, and Detroit Free Press. 

Local radio appearances include in-studio performances on WDET (National Public Radio), 89x Homeboy Show, the Mitch Albom Show on WJR, Songwriter’s Symposium on WHFR, and the River. Television performances include an appearance on Backstage Pass/PBS, Crystal’s Motown Cafe, and ‘Detroit Counsel of the Arts Presents: An evening with Singer-songwriter Audra Kubat’. 

Some notable performances have been at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Detroit Festival of the Arts, Detroit Tastefest, Arts, Eats, and Beats, Dally in the Alley, Ferndale Art Fair, Hamtramck Blow-out, The Ark in Ann Arbor, the Michigan Theater – opening for the great Aimee Mann and opening for Rodriguez at the famous Amsterdam coffee shop here in Detroit. Nationally, Kubat has played in NYC’s famous Bitter End, The Living Room, The Bowery Poetry House, and The Sidewalk Cafe, as well as Chicago’s Common Ground. She has drawn crowds along LA’s Venice Beach, on the streets of New Orleans, and along the world’s largest garage sale off Highway 127. 

I’ve composed music for independent films, The Death of Michael Smith, In-Zero, the surfing documentary High Surf, and scored music for local theater productions at The Players Club, Cliff Bells, the Zeitgeist Theater, 1515 Broadway, and the Abreact Theater. She created and performed an original score to accompany a massive projection-mapping spectacle on the facade of the Detroit Public Library’s at last year’s Dlectricity, Festival of Lights. 

My current project is called ‘A Detroit House of Music,’ and it is a musical hub located in my home. I teach workshops present artists to community in my home space and offer artist-in-residency programs for touring performers. 

As a dedicated and involved member of my community, I’ve been a member of the local Non-profit group, United Peace Relief, where I helped feed the homeless living in the city by distributing food and clothing. I also teaching music to children from the area, donating lessons and time to help create inspiration within young people. In addition, I taught at the nationally recognized School of Rock. There, I helped young musicians develop their skills in writing, performing, and technical proficiency. Further, I taught music to 5- and 6-year-olds at Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit. 

Currently, I teach songwriting as a part of InsideOut Literary Arts Project, a local arts organization that helps place artists in classrooms to share, teach, and help inspire. I also works with Living Arts Detroit, where I teach Science through Music and Movement and work with pre-k students in collaboration with the national organization – Wolf Trap. In addition, I am a songwriting tutor for OU, where I instructs young songwriters to hone their craft and develop storytelling strategies. I also work for the DSO, where I develop musical experiences for educators to use in the classroom. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Two of my biggest challenges are emotional input/output and financial deficits. As an artist, I move through vulnerability, and my work focuses on developing work that speaks directly to the heart of things. This kind of song-making takes a lot of emotional space, so I am still working on taking time for myself and putting my needs in balance with the work that I must do. 

Working in a system that seems to have limited space for artists to thrive, there is always the struggle to continue the work. I am a proponent for localizing how we work in our communities and how we can inspire a local economy around hiring local artist to create a more equitable and thriving system. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am known for bringing community together around music and activism. I specialize in connecting those with talent to those that need it or are looking to connect through the arts. I love teaching songwriting to Detroit youth, and I love writing songs that inspire folks to think about their power and their own voice. I love leading, singing and cooking, and breaking bread with others. I think what sets me apart from other artists is that I am centered around bringing others forward is how we make a better whole, and how we build a solid Detroit artist base. 

What matters most to you? Why?
Community, connecting, collaboration, care, compassion…I took to planting trees and have started a community garden behind my house as a way to connect with my neighbors and my greater Detroit folks. During the pandemic, I started planting fruit trees and build 5 large garden beds. I meet folks that were driving and walking by, 3 years later, I know most of my neighbors and have had many volunteers offer help in building the garden! 

Pricing:

• All music is available for purchase!
• House concerts range from $15-50

Contact Info:

• Website: www.audrakubat.com
• Instagram: @audrakubat
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/audrakubatmusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@audralynne
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/audrakubat
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/77UQztH4JDwgLRVXJOur8q?si=zlFtFsOHQdqOBhPe9M–3A

Image Credits
Doug Coombe