While other kids my age were watching the latest episodes on the Disney channel or playing with Barbies, I was tinkering away at imaginary characters and plots – fine-tuning story arcs and hair colour descriptions. I would spend hours writing on my parent’s old junky Dell laptop, whose thick frame and archaic features would make the eyes of Gen Z kids widen in bewilderment. Even at school, I’d often trade recess adventures and lunchtime chatter for the chance to sit at the computer and continue writing.

One afternoon, when I was nine years old, I came across Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair". I vividly remember being so captivated by the video. There was something so enchanting about her confidence and the fun she was having. From that point on, I knew I wanted to become a singer.

After a few years of writing songs a capella and recording them into my older sister's Nokia phone, I decided I needed to upgrade. Besides, real musicians have instrumentation in their songs...right? So after asking my middle school classmates which instruments they played (I wanted to play the one that was least common amongst them), I decided I would teach myself how to play the guitar. I saved up all my money and one snowy December evening, bought a guitar for $75 at Toys R Us. Teaching myself how to play right-handed guitar as a lefty was hard but several YouTube tutorials, finger calluses, and broken strings later, I was able to pull it off.

In high school, I discovered what would singlehandedly shape my artistry and approach to music — jazz. I would collect every spare minute I had like loose change and spend it on time in the music room. Trading my lunch times for Coltrane and Brubeck; Guaraldi and Rollins, I'd pour myself into sheet music from the greats. 

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I'm proud to say that I've come a long way from my a capella songs and Toys R Us guitar. I've since gotten a real acoustic (courtesy of a kind congregation member at my church), performed on some super cool stages, and had my song, "Fight For Me, featured on the soundtrack for season 2 of Netflix's "Ginny & Georgia". 

 

So....what have I been up to recently? Well, last November I escaped the rainy mountains of Vancouver with my guitar and a few songs I had written and left for Los Angeles for a month. While I was there, I recorded my sophomore EP, "The Confessions of an Antisocial Butterfly". Told through the narrative of a fictitious radio show, the EP is a retelling of the classic coming-of-age story through the eyes of an introspective introvert. It's going to be coming out later this fall and I cannot WAITTTTTT for you to hear it.