Tucked into the corner table of a Fairfield pub, is a woman beaming with delight over plenty worth celebrating.
Rebecca Lynn sips a Spanish coffee and laughs loud. Today, the singer-songwriter was hired as a music teacher and soon she’ll share with audiences the journey that brought her to the milestone when she officially releases My War, an album steeped in personal struggle, later this month.
“It’s a lot of work because I put a lot of emotion into my music – to a fault – so that I don’t leave a lot of room for other things,” says Lynn. “And I don’t want to take away from my music to do other things.”
But if there’s anyone who knows a lot about getting things done, it’s quintessential Type-A Lynn, who in just over a year began rapidly crossing items off her list of aspirations in life: run a marathon, get married, travel Europe, buy a home, have a baby and record an album. Goal-setting seems to be the preferred pastime for the incredibly earnest musician.
“My first goal was to write a song,” says Lynn, whose introduction to music came early via violin lessons and singing in church, as one of seven children raised in a Christian household in the Kootenay town of Rossland.
“Finally once I had picked up a guitar a little bit, I was able to write a song. After that, my next goal was to go to music school and I did that. After that, my next goal was to record a song – and I did that. I just kept meeting my goals, then I wanted to do a show.”
Though she had sung in choirs, played in bands and tested the waters on open mike stages, the first show all her own, at Solstice Café in 2010, proved to be a pivotal moment for Lynn.
“It wasn’t like anything I’d ever experienced. It was weird all of a sudden showing my songs to what felt like the world at the time. It’s a lot of work and you kind of hate yourself while you’re planning it and once you’re finished, it’s like the biggest high ever. You just want to do it again.”
The packed performance came at an intense time for Lynn, following her initial discovery that her powerful emotions were co-existing alongside clinical depression and panic disorder. Music became a massive key to understanding herself and controlling her panic, Her War.
“It’s a blessing and a curse because if I didn’t have music, then I wouldn’t be able to get any of it out and if I didn’t have all of that pent up emotion, the panic attacks, depression and anxiety, l may not have needed to use it and I learned a lot from it – not only how to get over panic attacks and depression, but I got an extra – music. It’s painful and it’s dark and it’s beautiful.”
Songs Lynn wrote and polished throughout her mid-20s, were eventually recorded last year at Oak Recording Studio in Toronto and will fill Lacey-Lou Tapas Lounge during the album release July 20, alongside some newer works with a decidedly different sound from the 30-year-old new mom.
“In a lot of ways, it’s all said and done. I’ve sat at my piano, blank, with nothing to say. I’ve overcome,” she says. “It’s that time; it’s time for a new page and a new way of writing. … I’m just happy. I just want to keep doing it because I love it.”
See Rebecca Lynn, accompanied by Brittany Mason and John Andrachuk, with opener Andrew Wade, at the release of My War, July 20 at 7:30pm at Lacey-Lou Tapas Lounge, 1320 Broad St. Cover, suggested $5 donation at the door. Learn more about Rebecca Lynn at rebeccalynn.ca.
