Looking Forward and Backward

Last week on my blog, I shared about my preparations for an upcoming music video shoot, and reflected on the unhealthy ways that I used to approach these kinds of milestones in my career, with anxiety and disordered eating.

I tend to write my blog posts pretty fearlessly, because I’m not too sure how many people actually read them. So I wasn’t exactly prepared for CBC Windsor to call me and ask me to do a radio interview, a TV segment, and a web article interviewing me about my experience. My initial feeling was that there was NO way I could talk about this publicly, but when I heard that they’d be including the Bulimia Anorexia Nervosa Association in the conversation, I decided that it might be beneficial to spark some public discussions on the topic and help de-stigmatize this and other mental illnesses.

It was a really emotionally intense couple of days preparing for these interviews, doing them, and then watching/reading/listening to them as they came out. I’ve been steadily doing interviews to promote the new album, so it’s been really strange to be suddenly looking backward on a really negative chapter of my life when I’m on the cusp of a big milestone. I’ve had some opportunities to share more about my disordered eating in the media, but I feel like I’m done talking about it for the time being, and ready to shift focus back to my album release. But please know that this is cause is very near and dear to my heart, and I’ll be thinking of ways that I can keep helping in the future.

For now, you can read the original blog post here, or check out some of the resulting media pieces on my website here. Thank you to all who have reached out about this story, encouraged me, and shared your own stories with me. I am so grateful for all of you.

This week, I’ve been busy preparing artwork and forms for the vinyl pressing of Heirloom. My crowd-funding pre-order campaign is still running for two more weeks. I’m 25 copies away from my goal, but I’ll get there even if it means I have to buy up all the remaining copies myself! But I’m really hoping that some listeners will come out of the woodwork and order the copies now, because it saves me having to figure out how to mail delicate vinyl records myself (since the pressing company handles the shipping directly).

I’ve also been getting ready to send Heirloom across Canada to campus and community radio stations. The biggest piece of that (aside from doing the research to discover which companies prefer physical CDs and which prefer digital downloads) was creating a compelling one-sheet. For those who don’t know, a one-sheet is a very useful marketing tool that provides all the necessary info about a release and the artist behind it, on one side of one sheet of paper. It’s a TON of info and art crammed into a tiny space, so there’s some design prowess required to make it look nice and still contain everything required. The most time-consuming part was just deciding how I wanted to sonically describe this album.

I think I’ve realized that, in contrast, Little Sway was a very inward-looking, self-doubting album, produced in a way that it was very relaxing to listen to. Heirloom is more dramatic and urgent, built on a foundation of strength, resilience, and self-respect - it’s a very empowering and uplifting album, but it might not be exactly as relaxing to listen to. On Heirloom, I’m reflecting on my motivations that drew unfulfilling relationships (Hungry Love), demanding respect from a lover (Like A Lady), banishing toxic influences (Get Out), examining old loves (Something We Did), demanding we let women go out into the world and crush it (Brother She’s Gone), meditating on requiring little to be happy (Everything), and creating my own Heaven on earth while I am alive (Heaven). I’m excited to share blog posts about every song on this album once released, explaining more about the songs’ messages and the music that inspired or influenced them (sometimes, I “quote” other artists in my songs - these are sort of like little Easter eggs, and I’m excited to see who discovers them!).

I’ve also had the great pleasure of having my album promoted in yesterday’s issue of The Windsor Star, with some really lovely photos by Dan Janisse. You can read the full article online here.

I can’t wait to release Heirloom out into the world in one week! Make sure you find me on your favourite streaming platform now, and stay tuned!! ❤️