Kirsten Carey is a Chicago-based guitarist, composer, shamisenist, and performer. Her work includes the experimental rock band Throwaway, the free jazz / classical / rock hybrid Uroboros Sextet, and a James Joyce-inspired song cycle called The Ulysses Project. Carey’s music frequently challenged genre boundaries, freely blending improvisation, rock, jazz, classical, and theater. Carey’s projects have toured across the USA, Canada, Europe, and Thailand.

Carey’s music has been featured on The One Piece Podcast and Netflix’s House of Ninjas, and she has composed  the Hinge Ensemble and Chris Sies (principal percussionist of the Calgary Symphony). A 2014 graduate of the University of Michigan’s Jazz and Contemplative Studies program, Carey has performed with artists like Tyshawn Sorey, Elliott Sharp, and Wadada Leo Smith, and opened for acts such as the Sun Ra Arkestra and Deerhoof. You can hear her guitar solo on clipping.’s song “Stab Him in the Throat” for Rick and Morty.

In 2019, the Asian Cultural Council awarded Carey a grant to study Tsugaru shamisen in Japan. 

Carey has been a featured artist at the Co-incidence Festival, the Banff Jazz & Creative Music Workshop, and the International Society for Improvised Music Conference. Her latest album, Mature Defense Mechanism with Aaron Edgcomb, was released in 2024 on Relative Pitch Records.

Carey has written for publications such as IGN and The Daily Beast, and has worked as sound editor / designer for projects like Magnolia Film’s A Glitch in the Matrix and Disney Jr.’s The Lion Guard.

Some nice press:

“Carey and Edgcomb stretch the expressive possibilities of guitar and drums. Their playing is like being dropped into a debris field. Initially perplexing, the duo’s strength is their ability to work with wrecked components, corralling the shrapnel into something transfixing. ” – the Quietus

“Mature Defense Mechanism is a beautifully uncategorizable and provocative expression by two inventive musicians… It is what one expects from the raw talents and sophisticated skills of its two co-creators.” – All About Jazz

“Carey presents this enticing dichotomy: a raw, unwieldy rock sound that’s technically backed up by jazz degree bonafides.” – Detroit Metro Times