The “Where It’s Art” series, until now, have focused mainly on visual art. Today, I’m branching out into another area of fine arts – music. I’d like to introduce you to some artists that I feel have an extremely high talent:exposure ratio. Perhaps we can decrease it a little bit.
I’d like to start by focusing on 18 year-old Rachel Ferguson, a young artist from Aylmer, Quebec, a “small town across the river from Ottawa,” as she puts it. Rachel has been singing since she was 10, and also plays the guitar. Voted CHUM Emerging Artist in June ’08, Rachel, interestingly enough, writes her songs with her music producer Chris Landon over the Internet. She writes the lyrics, he sends her the instrumental track via email, and she records the song at home before sending it back to him. Quite the process!
About Her: Rachel is an Indie-Rock fan, but isn’t averse to catchy pop tunes. She never leaves home without her iPod, which is full of playlists that include the likes of Blondie, The Killers, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Regina Spektor, Feist, Metric, and Juliette and the Licks. She also likes to mix in a little Avril Lavigne, Justin Timberlake, and Rihanna.
About Her Music: Rachel’s influences include Avril Lavigne, Simple Plan and All American Rejects. Her style is pop/rock/powerpop. She has seven songs available to listen to on her MySpace page and they’ve been played over 3 MILLION times! From rawer pieces like “Stronger Than You Think I Am,” and “Throw It Away,” to the simple, reassuring “Joshua,” Ferguson’s songs are full of emotion. If you enjoy her songs, you can support her music by purchasing songs on rachelfergusonmusic.com.
My Opinion: The first song of Rachel’s that I listened to was “Never Good Enough”, which was on my top ten list for quite a while. Wanting more, I listened to her other available music. While all keeping the same depth and focus, her songs are varied and genuine. I love the beat of her songs and admire the amount of emotion that she manages to inject into them.