Canadian Idol was an early stepping stone. I was still quite self conscience (goin back to 2005) and still finding my own style and confidence. I met some great people staying at the Skydome hotel for a week and auditioning every day for the celeb judges. Not a lot of sleep, super hard on the vocals. I made it down to top 70 (the day before they chose the top 23 to sing live on television.
GB: Where would you say your vocal inspiration and training/talent comes from? Most people have got someone in their family who always was singing, etc. or they have a special singer or mentor/teacher that made a huge difference.
When I was 24 I finally decided to take vocal lessons from Ray Lyle. He taught how LITTLe I actually knew about singing and gave me an awesome foundation of technique to work with. Before that I would listen to Sarah McLaughlin and teach myself by mimicking her!I then started playing in a RocK band called Ragdoll. Jamie Cameron and Walter Cernile were amazing and helped me clean up my voice while ridding myself of some bad habits. Also, my mother and I sang in a mother/daughter choir when I was 9 till the time I was 12.
This year has been greater than I ever expected. I am playing 6 shows a week right now and loving it!! I am sooo lucky. Myself and the band are getting incredible feedback, it’s overwhelming! Next year I would love to be touring outside of Canada and co-writing with inspiring people!
Hamilton is unique because of the wide variety of music being made here! I can’t think of two musicians in Hamilton that sound the same or write similar music. I love this city and it’s because of the support I have here that I am able to play music full time.
