Thank You for your patience...
In the beginning of 2020, before the world stopped, I went to Nashville with my mom. It was both of our first times going, and we had the most amazing trip. My mom raised me on the Chicks (previously known as the Dixie Chicks), and for as long as I can remember, there was music in my life. If it wasn’t the Chicks it was Taylor Swift, John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, or the Lumineers… When we were in Nashville in 2020 we saw the Lumineers play. I don’t know if it was being in Music City or if it was the beautiful guitar that Wesley Schultz was playing, but I decided then and there that I wanted to play guitar.
Playing guitar had always been an aspiration of mine, but life was busy and I never thought I would ever learn.
Fast forward to March of 2020, after driving home from Antigonish, I arrived in Ottawa. I think we all knew there was no timeline for COVID-19 and no one knew if or when it would ever be safe for life to back to normal.
Within 24 hours of being home, I made the great escape to pick up a used guitar off of Facebook Marketplace. I waited in my car while the stranger placed the guitar case on their front porch and shut the door. When the coast was clear, I walked up to the door and picked up the guitar, using my winter mittens for gloves, waved to the man in the window and threw the case into my Kia Soul.
I remember wiping down the guitar and the guitar case with Lysol when I got home. My parents talked in the background about how we could get COVID from touching it and how unsafe it was to go and get it.
However unsafe, it was the best decision I had made.
There were a lot of difficult, sad, and terrible things that happened during the peak of the pandemic. The sudden change in all of our lives- having to stay home, stores closed, movie theatres and restaurants barren, no more get-togethers and in some places, curfews. The isolation of COVID was lonely.
And while this might be an unpopular opinion, a part of me loved COVID. I loved not having to go anywhere. Having no obligations. I loved being home and having the time to do all of the things that I otherwise, would never have done.
COVID gave me the time to play guitar.
And so I did. I spent every day playing. I loved it so much, it felt like an extension of myself. I brought it to my cottage every weekend and played on the lake for my parents.
I saw my progress with every song I learned. Soon, I was playing the songs that raised me, and playing them has become my form of meditation- even today.
As 2020 went on, so did all of the ups and downs of life. I went back to university in the Fall and had my final year at StFX. There were a lot of big changes in my life at that time. My university career was coming to an end, and I was going to be moving to Halifax. I was separated from my best friends for what was meant to be our last year together at X. I was making new friends and living with new people. I moved five times in the span of six months.
And I was learning how to live my life without some of the people I was used to having around.
They say sometimes you have to go through the bad to get to the good. By Spring of 2021, there was a chapter of my life that was coming to an end. And while it had been a great, joyful chapter for so long, things had changed and it was time to start a new one. That was a hard time in my life, and it felt too big and too difficult to put into words to the people around me.
I wrote my first song on May 21, 2021. The melody and the words just poured out of me. It felt healing. And it was.
As Spring turned into Summer and Summer turned into Fall, I wrote more and more songs to deal with all my big feelings. I loved it. I wrote songs about heartbreak, jealousy, love, longing, regret, anger, even sports haha. I felt like in the early days I was writing a song every other week.
I played my early songs at Camp, with the camp nurses as my audience. They were so supportive and we always played and sang together. It sounds cheesy, but I loved how my guitar always brought us together. We would sit on my bed and play Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran or Yellow by Coldplay and sing together. It was a really special experience.
When I moved back to Halifax, I played my songs for Jerrod-Ann and Annie, my new roommates at the time. They loved listening to them, they have always been the most supportive of my music since day one.
While I am still to this day, shy as hell and terrified to sing in front of people, I found myself a small crowd of friends and family that I slowly let into my secret life of music. Whether it was in my bedroom, playing on a speaker in a car, or for a small audience at home, I started to feel safe sharing my songs.
But it was Jerrod-Ann and Annie who encouraged me to record them. Growing up, I thought I would be the next Hannah Montana. I wanted to be famous and a singer and tour the world. I put Taylor Swift on a pedestal. I loved her lyrics and her music changed my life, like it has for millions of others.
***It should be noted that I am NOT Taylor Swift lol nor do I think I am remotely close. I do know that my music helped ME heal and the highest compliments I’ve ever received have been when people tell me they could relate to my songs. So, I guess I thought that if my lyrics could make someone, somewhere feel validated… then maybe they should be shared.***
So, in March of 2022, I recorded six songs. Jerrod-Ann, Annie, and I all drove up to Shoebox Studios in New Glasgow and spent the day living out my childhood dream in a recording studio recording my favorite songs I’d written at the time.
I was terrified and nervous and it took me a while to feel comfortable and confident. I hate hearing the sound of my own voice played back to me, and it has taken me a long time to be graceful with myself.
In the years to come, I spent time listening to all the different drafts of my music and I can happily say that I have the Masters of all of the songs that I recorded.
Originally, five of the six songs were recorded to be part of an EP… that EP was going to be called “Morals”, since all of the songs on the EP were circled around people’s morals, how they treat people, and where their morals aligned or did not align with mine.
I was a different person when I wrote those songs. I was in a different place in my life and those songs held so much weight to them at the time. So, I’ve decided not to release an EP.
Rather, I’m going to be releasing each song as a single throughout the year. I want each song to stand on its own. To be listened to in its own time for that season. I’ll be releasing them in times of the year that they influenced me the most, maybe even on dates that hold a special meaning to them… I’m still figuring all that out.
So, to everyone that has been anxiously waiting… I am releasing my music. FINALLY!
I am putting it out so that all the people who have supported me along the way can finally listen to it (and stop heckling me for it haha- jk). I cannot put into words how grateful I am to every single person (you know who you are) who has helped me along the way.
The biggest thanks go to…
Jerrod Ann and Annie, for always being so goddamn supportive and excited to listen to every song I’ve come up with- good and bad.
Emily & Kristina for their love and kindness when I doubted myself in the early days
My parents and Oscar for spending every day with me while I learned, even when I sounded terrible, and for being the greatest audience I could ever ask for.
Thank you to my Aunt Chrissy & Jason, for always believing in me and being my very own cheerleaders and a huge thanks to Mark and Michael for all of their patience and hard work in producing and mixing my music.
And lastly, thank you to the people who inspired these songs…
dublin
without you
sebastian (s)
when they ask about me
ruined cherry wine
Oh, and if you think they might be about you… they are.
Out Now
release date: 03.17.24
see links below to listen
Written and performed by QUINN
all capital letters ;)
release date: 21.05.2021
Written and performed by QUINN ft. Michael S. Ryan
all capital letters ;)
With special collaboration (mixing, mastering, producing, instrumental) Michael S. Ryan.
