Skye Wallace graduated from Elphinstone Secondary School in Gibsons in 2007 and has been a rising star ever since.
Audiences on the Coast have seen her perform in amateur musicals, including the Driftwood Players production of Ten Lost Years and a major role in Little Shop of Horrors where she stood out from the huge cast for her singing and acting abilities. She was also chosen to open for the exuberant vocalist Allison Crowe in her touring performance.
These days Wallace, now living in Vancouver, is a professional musician who recently released her third album, This is How We Go.
She's coming home to launch the CD this Friday, April 5, at the Gumboot Café in Roberts Creek. It might be her last show on the Coast for a while since she will follow it up with a cross-Canada tour to Ontario and points east. It's truly a road trip in the sense that she and violinist Devon Kroeger will be part of Via Rail's entertainment program - performers invited on board the train to entertain the passengers.
This is her first full studio-recording album, produced in Vancouver with help from her friends.
"I've had a lot of help from true believers," she said thankfully.
Her parents, who live on the Coast, have been an enormous support. She acknowledges that the Coast has played a huge part in her success and has influenced her music that has been described by reviewers as a Canadian narrative, haunting and limitless.
Her first album was an EP with four songs recorded in 2010 at local Strait Sound studio. Her second endeavour was more experimental, a lo-fi sound, and titled Bison Bison that released in 2011. She recorded it in the bitter cold of an Edmonton winter at various locations, on subways and in kitchens - all to make it more unpredictable and therefore more interesting.
By contrast, this third album, This Is How We Go, is a studio collaboration featuring many Vancouver musicians lending their talents. "This sound is big; it's more orchestral," Wallace said.
Each of the 12 tracks is a musical journey and invites listeners to lose themselves in the lyrics and stories conjured through the original compositions.
The Skye Wallace CD release concert is this Friday at 9 p.m. Doors open at 8 and tickets are available at the door for a $10 cover charge. More about the artist can be found at www.skyewallace.com.
