Musician. Model. Marketer.
When she finishes her marketing degree from Okanagan College, Lisa Bissonnette will be able to continue promoting herself.
The 25-year-old Saskatoon native, who spends time in both Kelowna and Vernon, already does that through her own agency, Unbound Heart, which she started a couple of years ago.
“I’ve been marketing myself,” said the soft-spoken Bissonnette. “I’ve been modeling for four years all over Canada and Europe.”
She also wants to promote her blossoming singing career, aided by her video work.
A singer-songwriter, who lists influences from The Beatles to Michael Bublé, the Spice Girls to Britney Spears, Bissonnette has had a busy summer.
She filmed the video for her second song, Come To Me, at the Bar U Ranch near Predator Ridge, and also in a borrowed Mustang Boss 302 driving along the old Highway 97 above Kalamalka Lake.
After that, she completed work on her third video, Between The Drops, filmed in Kelowna with help from Warner Brothers Sweden, who Bissonnette said is looking at putting money into future videos.
Work on a fourth video, Let This Night Begin, is in the planning stages.
“It’s been a great summer but I’m looking forward to finishing school, getting my marketing degree, making music and videos and modeling for another year,” said Bissonnette. “I want to market and show off the whole Okanagan region.”
There will be a lot to market.
Besides her looks, her voice and her videos, Bissonnette is an accomplished guitar and piano player who can perform in English, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, Latin and Spanish.
“I love performing but I need more practice,” she said. “I want to study French and hopefully go back to France (she spent time in Europe on an exchange through Okanagan College). I love to study. I love learning. I’m a nerd.”
And it was while studying French in Québec for six weeks that Bissonnette discovered another musical passion: opera.
“I hadn’t spoken French in 12 years and I signed up for this program which I would get kicked out of if I was caught speaking English,” said Bissonnette. “So I signed up for singing lessons, deciding to learn some French songs, when they brought out opera.
“My French wasn’t good enough to say ‘I can’t do this’ so, by the end of the lessons, I just fell in love with it and took lessons off and on for two years.”
She made her operatic debut in 2011 performing live at the Kelowna Community Theatre.
Her love of music was instilled at an early age through her father, Sean, a deejay in Saskatchewan at hay barn dances and hoedowns.
“I accompanied him sometimes,” said Bissonnette. “I would pick out tapes, hand out prizes, take requests. He’s into jazz, blues, rock and roll.”
You can check out Bissonnette’s video, Mine Tonight, with collaborator Peter Kitsch, on YouTube.
