More normal childhood and teenage things happen. We move a few more times. I get my learner’s permit as soon as the office opens on my sixteenth birthday. I survive The Braces Years (relatively) unscathed.

Ah, that Millennial rite of passage: several years and tens of thousands of dollars spent on a degree I don’t end up using. But I learn a lot outside of classes, in my school choir and working for a band, that’s going to come in really useful later - I just don’t know it yet.

I work a variety of part-time jobs, and start volunteering at music festivals and going to a lot of shows. One day in the summer of 2012, local musician Don Brownrigg suggests I start a music blog. I spend the next several months happily paying for concert tickets and CDs to review on my blog ‘Jen From Twitter’, having no idea that things like guest lists and review copies exist. I only write about music I love.

Sarah Slean agrees to an interview, my first ever, and I spend a sleepless weekend building a new website and re-branding as Sea Legs Collective. Over the course of that year, I will interview many of my Canadian music heroes, cover several festivals, and recruit four other writers for the blog. In September, I’m nominated for my first Music Nova Scotia Award, for Media Professional of the Year.

I get my first real music industry job, as Publicist/Social Media Manager for the In the Dead of Winter Festival. Headliner Basia Bulat first gives me the idea of going into Tour Management, and after being introduced by Kathleen Edwards to her manager, a former TM herself, I pack up and move to Toronto to intern with Eggplant Entertainment. In September, I’m nominated for two more Music Nova Scotia Awards - Media Professional and Publicist of the Year.

I finish my internship at Eggplant and immediately embark on my first tour as TM - three weeks in the UK with Sarah Jane Scouten. Over the next two years I tour with several more artists, while doing admin and social media work in between tours. I also win two plane tickets in a contest and take my then-seventy-seven-year-old grandmother to Russia to visit my sister, who’s there completing her Master’s. Most memorable trip of my life.

I take on my biggest challenge/adventure yet: TM-ing Lights’ ten-week North American headline tour for her album Skin & Earth. I spend the summer touring with Lights, and Jessie Reyez (supporting Halsey), the fall with Lights (supporting Young The Giant), and round out the year with Good Lovelies on their annual Christmas tour.

I work as a remote Admin Assistant, and then join on-site as a Production Assistant, with the International Indigenous Music Summit. I spend the spring in Europe on tour with Amanda Rheaume, and join Lights in the summer on her North American Skin & Earth Acoustic Tour. I round out the year with a cross-Canada Ria Mae tour - so fun!

Helloooooooo COVID.

LOL

As you can imagine, I didn’t do much touring in 2020. Lucky for me, I had also just moved to Europe - the Netherlands, specifically, to a great little city called Beverwijk (nice and close to Schiphol Airport, by the way!) - so 2020 wasn’t a total wash for me. I’d have loved to have been on the road, but if you have to get stuck somewhere during a pandemic, Europe is the place to do it.

I made the (difficult) decision to wait things out for 2021, too, and not rush back into touring before it felt right (and a hell of a lot more normal, whatever that means), and in the meantime I enjoyed having a “real” job (in a bakery!), working on some personal projects, and settling into life in the Netherlands. It was fun!

2022

Baby, we’re back! I kick off 2022 TM-ing a US headline tour for Lights, supporting her new album PEP (April 1, 2022). It’s probably the best tour of my life and absolutely worth the wait. The summer is filled with festivals across Canada, and in September/October I round out the year with 7 weeks through the UK and Europe TM-ing the European leg of Rupi Kaur’s world tour.

2023

I delve into the world of Film & TV production at the Dutch public broadcaster, while still keeping one foot firmly in live music: two remote tours with Murray A. Lightburn, a remote tour with Lauren Sanderson, and a run in the UK with The Summer Set (support Arrows in Action and Misery Kids). It’s a busy - and really fun - year!