Hi Kelly great to meet you, can you give our readers some background information on yourself please?
Hello- I’m Kelly – I’m a playwright- originally from Dagenham in Essex- But I’ve lived in Wales since 2010. I studied my final year of my degree at Swansea Met and started theatre making/self-producing when I graduated. I took various solo shows up to Edinburgh, Norway PIT Festival and The Yard theatre in Hackney.

 
My passion for writing came from feeling like there were no parts for me or that represented where I grew up. Also as a gay woman I feel quite under represented on the stage, so I write to try and combat that. In 2014 I won the Wales Drama award and since have had plays produced by The Other Room, Sherman and Oran Mor. I’m about to start a year long writing attachment at The Bush Theatre In London, where I’ll be developing a new play.
This Thursday one of my short plays will be performed by Dirty Protest as part of ‘Here We Go Again’ an Election Night special at Outpost Coffee and Vinyl, Cardiff.

This chat is specifically about music and the role it has played in your personal and professional life. Firstly to start off what are you currently listening to? 
I love to listen to music when I write! And whatever I listen to has to feel like it’s the soundtrack to what I’m writing. At the moment I’m writing a new play and listening to Tom Waits and The Stranger Things soundtrack- a lot!
https://youtu.be/VL3jSgR9ySE
On my walk into work, I’m usually listening to songs for new burlesque routines I’m working on. I’ve been listening to Lady Sovereign Ft Missy Elliot ‘Love Me or Hate Me’ on repeat for a gig I’ve got coming up. If I’m not listening to that then I’m listening to Rag n Bone man’s album, Beatrice Eli or 90’s dance tracks!

We are interviewing a range of people about their own musical inspiration, can you list 5 records/albums which have a personal resonance to you and why? 
This is such a hard question! I think I had a list of about 20 albums and various shortlists. Here goes….

In the Mix- Dance Revival!
Not sure if choosing a compilation is cheating, but…
I’ve chosen this because it reminds my best friend back home. When we were teenagers, I used to go round his on a Sunday night and we’d drink Malibu straight from the bottle, play this CD (all three disks) and pretend we were in Ibiza! It has a very fond place in my heart and drunkenly dancing to ‘Call on me- Eric Prydz’ was the closest I’ve ever got to going to the gym
Luckily, I managed to track down a copy to give to him as a present when he was best man at my wedding last year.

Skunk Anansie- Post Orgasmic Chill
It’s hard to choose just one Skunk album, but Post Orgasmic Chill is epic. Skunk Anansie are one of my favourite bands of all time. I was very lucky to get to see them in Brixton a few months back, it was one of the best gigs I’d ever been to. I’ve wanted to see them for so long and kept having to pinch myself that I was actually there and Skin was literally in front of me! I was completely blown away.
Charlie Big Potato is a personal fav!
https://youtu.be/WfHhamXFlzI
Pink – Funhouse
I prefer her earlier R&B stuff, ‘There you go’ is a TUNE!!!!
This album is probably my favourite though, because it’s got my wedding first dance song on it- ‘Glitter in the air’.
Me and my wife have both grown up listening to her and we always do Rees duets to her songs in the car on our road trips.
https://youtu.be/NBe_3veI3c4
Ripple and Murmur – Reverie
These are a Swedish duo that I got introduced to when I was performing a show in Norway PIT festival. They were performing in a show called Underman by Cirkus Cirkor– which was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I kind of took a punt and bought their CD after the show and its been on my Ipod ever since. Their quirky lyrics are really charming and right up my street- Have a listen to ‘Riddles in the dark’ and their new album The Swimmer.
It reminds me of my time in Norway and what a step forward it was for me in my career to perform there.

Finally…
Funeral for a friend – Four Ways To Scream Your Name
So, I was a teenage emo and FFAF we’re one of the first bands I saw live and they’re welsh! I saw them in Camden Koko in 2003 along with 36 Crazy Fists and My Chemical Romance- it was the first time I’d ever moshed and crowd surfed, but definitely not the last.
Their song ‘This years most open heart break’ is still on my Ipod!
I’ve seen them live a lot, mainly at Reading and Download festival – and although I haven’t listened to them for a while, whenever I hear one of their songs I just want to dance.

Just to put you on the spot could you choose one track from the five listed above and tell us why you have chosen this?
Without a doubt it’s got to be: The Source feat. Candi Staton – You Got The Love (Original Mix) from In the Mix. Not only does it remind me of the Sex and the City finale but it feels very fitting, especially at the moment when there seems to be so much hate in the world.