By Erin Wright
At eight years old, Rebecca Timmons, which her clunky glasses and second-hand clothes, could only dream that at age 25 her name would be buzzing around Toronto’s music scene. Musician/singer/song-writer Timmons is transforming her passion for music from childhood solace into a burgeoning professional career.
Last week’s release of Timmons’ debut self-titled album, for which she composed all the music and lyrics, synthesizes her strong keyboard performances with emotionally-charged lyrics. The album compiles five years’ material and features such diverse talents as the Richardson Sisters, Chris Tait of Chalk Circle/Big Faith and 23 members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, giving her songs a unique and layered sound.
Timmons describes herself as a recluse. “I was a really weird kid—I was interested in different things and a lot of times I didn’t behave like a good little girl. I got excited easily and really expressed myself…adults found this difficult,” she says. Timmons dropped out of high school in grade 10 and left her family’s Creemore, Ontario farm when she was 15.
“Music was the only way that I could express myself,” she giggles. “It seemed to ooze out of me.”
Iron Music’s Aubrey Winfield, a 20-year veteran in the music business, produced Timmons debut album. He met Timmons through Michael Clark (who produced her first video) when he approached Winfield about using his sound studio to make a demo tape. Winfield said he became immediately interested in her and within two weeks Timmons was added onto Iron Music’s roster, which includes National Valvet, A.J. Bardeau and Universal Honey.
“Rebecca’s is the only deal like that we’d ever done,” says Winfield, “she was such an incredible, dynamic artist—over the years we’ve seen 100 bands come through our studio—I felt like she was a natural.”
As the second youngest of five children, Timmons says she grew up participating in “women-folk work: tending the garden, looking after chickens, rabbits, picking strawberries and asparagus and managing a fruit stand at the end of the road.” But Timmons says she always felt like she didn’t fit in.
Timmons began taking piano when she was five yeras old and started composing in the sixth grade late at night when her family was asleep.
“I always knew I wanted to music,” says Timmons. But it was when she turnd 18 that her vocal coach, the late Thelma Capps-Morrison, motivated her to pursue music as a career. “I had never had someone take me aside and tell me it’s possible and give me encouragement. It got difficult taking lessons when I got older because my creative side of my brain started taking over,” Timmons says with amusement.
Timmons says “Coming of a Dream,” her first single and video, is inspired by the “inner healing process” she has been experiencing over the last year. “It’s about the overall feeling of having a dream and remembering things about the past [and] feeling relieved that you have control over your life as an adult.
“I guess a lot of the song had to do with issues for women. A woman’s way of dealing with things is internal, and being strong and quiet,” says Timmons, “I’ve really repressed a lot of these kinds of issues.”
Ken Myhr, most recently of Cowboy Junkies fame, was a guitarist on Timmons’ album.
“I came in completely cold—not knowing what to expect at all…she sat down at the piano and started singing and I just go ‘wow.’ She just blew me away on the spot…What hit me was the depth and passion in her voice and what she can translate. She is really expressive—it matters to her,” Myhr says.
Timmons and Iron Music will embark on a radio tour within two to three weeks and eventually a Canadian tour, once three or four singles have been released.
“Nobody knows who she is so we have to create some demand through radio and video.” Winfield explains.
“We don’t believe Rebecca is a bar act, she belongs in soft-seat theatres,” says Winfield, a venue which inspires an atmosphere “more like a gathering rather than watching people perform—her music will translate better, but you have to make people aware of her first.”
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