Kim Booth - Sound Healer, Yoga Teacher & Cosmic Space Holder

Kim Booth has a vast amount of experience and knowledge within both the music industry and the spiritual world. Faye Browne caught Kim at her mystical Ibiza home in the north of the island to find out how she made the transition from dancefloor raves to ceremonial circles. 

Faye Browne: Firstly, how did you find yourself in ibiza? 

Kim Booth: My first memory of acknowledging Ibiza was watching Ibiza Uncovered as an early teenager. When I was 16, my foster family sent me on holiday with my older friend Tracy and her friends, and I got my first taste of the island. It was an 18-30s holiday that a council estate girl’s dreams were made of. Including sunburn, hangovers and lusting over holiday reps. Something about the island called me though. When I got back to England I changed my college studies to what would have been hairdressing or drama (I am awful at hairdressing!) to Leisure and Tourism, so that I could become a holiday rep. I found dance music shortly after and that dream fell to the side.

FB: How did you get into the music industry? 

KB: Firstly through raves, listening to the radio and reading magazines. I always had a dream to work with words and music. As the dance music world opened up to me, I started to read all the main dance music magazines, at the time Ministry, Mixmag and Muzik. I wrote to them all asking for work experience and the only one to get back was Ministry, who then asked me to come to London for two week's work experience. I had bright pink hair and everyone called me Pinky, they liked me and kept me on. I then went on to write for Mixmag and Muzik, including writing a feature for Mixmag called ‘Dreams about DJs', because I had a dream about Pete Tong and some cows. The editor asked me to get other dream examples and we arranged for a dream analyst to analyse them. 

I kind of fell into PR. First it was Defected Records and then Underwater Records. Through Underwater I did my first season in Ibiza, and this was honestly the first time in my life I felt totally free. I worked at Pacha and partied at Space and DC-10 and was just loving life. I met a great crew of misfits who all just wanted to have fun and it was an amazing snapshot in time. 

In 2005 I went into an anxiety moment and wanted to quit dance music and go travelling. I went to Australia with my friend Cat. I tried to get a job as a waitress but couldn’t because I couldn't carry three plates at a time. I ended up meeting someone I knew via my old job and he offered me to promote my own night at his venue, Moulin Rouge in Kings Cross, which was a super seedy part of Sydney. I did a weekly party called 'Tonite Only' and Nick Littlemore (from Empire of the Sun) was the resident, it was a kind of electro, indie disco, punk and Italo funk party. It was a lot of fun! 

FB: How did you find the calling within the spiritual world? 

KB: It was right after Australia I then travelled to Thailand. Within one of the golden temples in Bangkok, I had my first kind of spiritual moment. It overcame me when I was reading a very simple book on Buddhism and some of the elements stuck out. One being that if you strip away all of your possessions, you are happy with what is left. 

And the other was something along the lines of, treat everyone you meet as if you have something to learn from them - be curious and compassionate. 

I came back to Ibiza that summer, got a job as a PR manager for Pacha and also started to promote music on the island via Caroline Prothero, one of my first bosses in music. I gave out all this amazing music from LCD Soundsystem and DFA etc, which was the sound of the moment, to DJs and promoters, and it was just magic sharing all this amazing music. That winter I moved to Paris, to immerse in French culture, and it was like a complete reset. I had to start again and it was a beautiful experience for the soul and ego. Go somewhere where no one knows you and start again, I promise you’ll find new layers of yourself. It was here I started my PR company, Rebel Butterfly (the name came from two songs - David Bowie Rebel Rebel and Mason Jennings Butterfly. Years later, as I got more into the shamanic path, I realised how significant this was also, as butterflies are a sign of transformation. And I love to travel and fly! And, as an Aquarian, I do not conform and will not be controlled.

FB: In PR which artists did you work with? 

KB: I started the PR company with Dan Ghenacia and Serge Santiago. I was 23 and, as I have Scorpio rising and have a wonderful quality of deep learning, I got obsessed with learning everything I could. I ran the PR company for 15 years, it was one of the first international PR companies alongside Mel Taylor and Nikki McNeil, and I remember how excited I would get at finding a new radio in a far off land and being able to send them music. I worked with artists like Josh Wink and Carl Craig, both of whom I worked with for many years and became family to me. I also worked with artists like Laurent Garnier for some special projects, and I worked with Acid Pauli, Ellen Allien, Danny Daze, Cassy, We Love… At Space, Cocoon at Amnesia and for a punk music charity called Strummerville. I also helped start the careers of artists like Jamie Jones, the Martinez Brothers, Apollonia and lots more. I was very good at spotting what was good and helping to make it bigger. 

FB: And you still do a little PR? 

KB: Yes, only for music with the intention to heal or give a strong message. 

FB: Going back to your spiritual path, you also hold sound healings, can you tell us more about this? 

KB: Yes... I started to work with crystal singing bowls in 2016, whilst on my second yoga training at The Mystical Yoga Farm in Guatemala. The teachings there were strong, and not necessarily in the way that you would expect. I found a little dome with crystal bowls and used to sit with them daily and sing mantras… from there I became a crystal bowl dealer for a while and spent a lot of time learning how my voice worked with the bowls and how the sound of the bowls dance together. This is my passion, you know. If you want to see me at my happiest, sit or lay with me and my crystal singing bowls. I have developed a lovely sound journey over the past eight years that has much the same energy as a good DJ set… a journey through sounds, feelings, spirits and emotions. I sing, I drum, I play the bowls and it is in this channel that my spirit is its happiest.

Faye Browne: Why did you start Cosmic Pineapple?

Kim: I started learning all about yoga and meditation and all these spiritual practices and I wanted to share it with the people I knew and loved, especially in the dance music world. As this world had given me so much, but I saw that it was becoming quite unconscious and heading in a direction I didn't love so much, I wanted to share this goodness I had been learning and weave it together. I first started the Cosmic Pineapple Website in 2015 and in 2016 I started the events at Pikes hotel - it was a mini festival of music and magic and a huge cosmic experiment. 

FB: Tell us a little bit of the cosmic story so far?

KB: Well… We had eight years at Pikes Hotel. I am an old friend of Dawn Hindle, who at the time was running it and creating a magical land for us all to let loose. Uncountable fun and crazy memories from this time! Cosmic Pineapple is like a mini festival and at Pikes we took over the music spaces with DJs, we had a big market with creative sellers from across the island, we had a healing garden and the Cosmic Activation Dome. Inside the dome was where I held my altar, and we had different sharers from many different traditions, like the Huni Kuin Tribe, Moon Dance elders, SoulSong, the Blue Lions, yoga, sound journeys, prayers and talks from respected Ibiza healers, including my dear teacher Maria Valdivia. It became a place where a lot of people would try something in this realm for the first time and I really loved witnessing that. The ethos was - the day had lots of art and creativity, many healing portals versus the night time,a space created to let loose in the Space Rave. It was a cosmic 12 hours and I would say that anyone who did the full 12 hours, something cosmic would happen to them. Very few people did it and I have no idea if the intention worked! 

I am also super grateful that my dear friend BayBJane has been with me since the start of the events, and my brother Alex Wolfenden. Each event was also a charity based event, based on yogic philosophy, where you dedicate your practice to something else. We raised over 60,000 euros at Pikes and I am really proud of this.

FB: Tell us what's coming up this summer for Cosmic Pineapple? 

KB: This summer is huge! We have moved Cosmic Pineapple to Cova Santa starting June 6th. We have 7 dates. I love this venue. I remember driving past Cova in 2006 thinking,’ I want to have a party there’! And now it's happening. What I love about this venue is that it is on many different levels and there's lots to explore… outside has a kind of Amphitheatre feel, here I visualise free spirited fun in the sun and inside is like a big rave box - perfect for the space rave we used to do in Freddie’s Room at Pikes! We will have a healing area, market stalls, talks and mini workshops… BayBJane just being art in motion, our residents Chabeli and Xx Isis xX and of course the cave itself. This is like a cathedral of a cave and it mystifies me! The intention is to have one midnight prayer each event from strong visiting and island prayer people. And as always, each event is a charity based event, the main charity we will work with this year is ‘Earth Percent’.