A Conversation with Kieran Brown
on her upcoming album, "Loving You"
Jazz vocalist Kieran Brown’s debut album Loving You (available July 11) takes its title from a Sondheim gem. The collection blends jazz standards with musical theatre classics, crafted as an emotional journey through love, loss, and young adulthood in New York City. It was great to sit down with Kieran to discuss all this and more. Our conversation begins below:
It’s great to be speaking to you about Loving You. Why did now feel like the right moment to release your debut album?
It’s something that I’ve been thinking about for a very long time. I’ve been working on this album for over two years now, so now it feels like my everything. I’ve been in New York for a little over two years, and I feel like I’ve now established myself as a jazz artist in the community, and found musicians that I really love making music with. I’ve really grown a lot in the past few years.
This album is a reflection of the past few years of my life, navigating a lot of different types of things: love, loss, change, stuff like that. The album really reflects the lifespan of all of that, and it invites you to step into my shoes a little bit as a young woman in her twenties, experiencing the world for the first time as an adult.
Do you have an ideal listener in mind?
That’s really thought-provoking, because I do think about that sometimes. I think because the music is so versatile, there’s something on this record for everybody. There’s musical theatre, there’s some pop, there are jazz standards. And I think that the themes are very universal. A lot of the music talks about heartbreak, talks about love, loss, change—everything.
From the first song to the last, it’s also a tribute to the lifespan of a relationship, whether that be with someone else or with yourself. All of the songs flow strategically in that order. The last tune on the record is “Somewhere” from West Side Story, and so it ends very hopeful and positive for the future. These songs withstand the test of time because anyone, young or old, can relate to their messages.
And your title track, of course, is “Loving You” from Passion. What made you zero in on that particular song?
It’s so interesting, because I didn’t really know much about the musical Passion. I think it’s fair to say it’s one of his lesser-known musicals, as opposed to something like Sweeney Todd or Into the Woods. But I knew that I wanted a Sondheim tune on this record. I just didn’t know which one would really suit where I was in my journey and where it would fit in, because I do feel like there is a lot of Sondheim that I can’t accurately sing as a young person. Take “Send in the Clowns.” I could not do a song like that justice at my age.
I have a few arrangements of Sondheim tunes. I’ve done “Being Alive,” I’ve done “Not a Day Goes By,” I’ve sung a bunch of his songs—but “Loving You” in particular really encapsulated how I felt in the moment of really being in love with somebody. It was the perfect example of what I wanted to make this album about. I was in love with somebody, and it was euphoric, and I felt all of the incredible emotions that Sondheim expresses so profoundly and intellectually. Its lyrics are honestly quite simple, but the meaning is so rich and full of depth, and there are so many different ways to interpret it, so I thought it would be a really good choice for this record.
I actually came to the tune from the Barbra Streisand recording that she does on her album, and she has Patrick Wilson singing on it as well. I knew I wanted to do something like that. I really love having two different voices. I start, and then I have an incredible vocalist named Nathan Farrell join me. He has just such a piercing, beautiful, powerful voice that I thought would really make this music sing off the page.
Imagine you’re speaking to a potential listener who loves musical theatre but might be less familiar with or knowledgeable about jazz. Other than “Loving You” and “Somewhere,” are there tracks on this album you’d be particularly excited to share with them?
There is an amazing album—I don’t know if you’ve heard it before—by Cyrille Aimee. She’s a jazz vocalist, and she does a whole collection of Sondheim tunes, which are all wonderfully reimagined. And as a fierce protector of musical theatre works, and of Sondheim, I get a little nervous that the musical theatre people are going to come for me and be like, “Hey, what are you doing with this music?” Sondheim’s music is so perfect, it doesn’t need to be arranged, it doesn’t need to be changed.
But with this arrangement, I wanted to do it very tastefully and really honor Sondheim’s music, and not strip away all of the incredible melodic and rhythmic moments that he has written already. I think that the rest of the album, too, is done very tastefully.
And I think if you are a lover of Sondheim, then you are a lover of rhythm, and you are a lover of characters and emotions and complex themes and interpersonal relationships and self-reflections—all these complexities of the human experience. I think that lovers of Sondheim will like the other music on the album too, because jazz also explores similar things as well. And jazz standards, of course, come from musical theatre. A lot of the Great American Songbook does. There are so many parallels there.
The other music on the album gives you a taste of everything. But at the center of all of it is exploring complex human emotions, and lyrics that tell a story, and I want people to dive into that and have fun with that. I think that’s the beauty of listening to an album front to back, from the very beginning to the very end. I really wanted to tell a story, almost like a musical.
As vocalists, as songwriters, as performers, we are storytellers and ambassadors of song. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just picking a bunch of random tunes I love. There was a deeper meaning there.
Are you planning specific live shows around the launch of the album?
For this record, it’s a little tricky, because I have so many instrumentalists involved. I have a full rhythm section with guitar and piano—so two comping instruments, which is sometimes hard to get on the gig—and I have four horns and a whole string quartet. There are a lot of moving pieces. So for my album release shows, I’m going to have to tailor and curate a little bit and change the instrumentation of certain things. It won’t sound exactly like the record. It’s going to sound a little bit more stripped down—but I think that’s also beautiful, because then the songs will shine through in a different way.
I have an album release show in New York at this cool venue called the Zinc Bar, and that is going to be piano, bass and drums, and one horn—a saxophone. I teased some of the album music when I was in London in September. I was performing at The Pheasantry, which is part of the Pizza Express jazz organization. It’s such a cool venue in Chelsea. And I’m looking forward to sprinkling this music into my repertoire going forward.
I’ve spoken to lots of Broadway people about making the transition from being on a large theater stage to doing more intimate, cabaret-style shows. Speaking to you, I’m curious about the reverse: do you have theatre ambitions? Is that a direction you see yourself going in?
It’s so funny you say that, because in the past year or so I’ve really been getting more into doing musical theatre. I actually come from a musical theatre background. But in college, I don’t think I had the confidence to do it. I was confident about my voice, but I wasn’t confident with acting and dancing. It was something that I loved so much, but I didn’t think it was an attainable goal for me.
Since being in New York, I’ve been very inspired. I see Broadway shows all the time. I’m seeing one tonight, actually. I am a huge musical theatre person, and it’s something that I really want to do. I’ve been auditioning for some things. I’m in acting classes and dancing classes. But I always want to continue performing and singing jazz and making my own records, no matter what. I would always want to be able to work on my own music as well. But it’s something that I would absolutely love to do.
And being in your twenties in 2025, you have to be more than just one thing, don’t you? And you have to be so proactive, to really drive projects yourself.
Oh my God, yes, and I have a nine-to-five job, too. It’s easy just to dream big and think of all these things. But no one’s going to hand anything to you. Especially in New York, it’s such a cutthroat city—you really have to be ambitious and go for what you want. Every opportunity that I’ve gotten—and I’ve been blessed with so many incredible things—I’ve worked hard for. And so even thinking of musical theatre, I’m putting in the work myself to set myself up for potential opportunities there.
I think the album touches on this, too. It’s confusing and hard as a young artist to feel like the world wants to box you in as one thing. Are you a jazz singer? Are you a songwriter? Are you a musical theatre performer? What are you? Recently, I like just saying I’m an artist. I sing, I dance, I act a little bit, I wear a multitude of hats. Really living in that world a little bit, and having that mindset, is freeing and liberating. You can do whatever you want. You have one life to live. Do whatever you want.
There’s a book that I’ve been reading recently with one of my good friends. It’s called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I think every artist should read it, whether you’re a painter, whether you’re a singer, or a dancer or actor. It’s a beautiful book that really helps you tap into that creativity.
For more information about Loving You, and to stream/buy the album, click here.