Emily Seal

The autumn is usually a big month for country releases. However, 19-year-old Emily Seal has always followed her own intuition and leads the pack with a new start-of-the-year disc.

If You Keep This Up is her first CD in seven years, and receives its official release at LB’s Pub on Saturday, Jan. 19. Adding an extra dynamic are special guests singer-songwriter Joanne Janzen, pop singer Asim Chin and country rock singer Sean Sonego, also a former St. Albert Children’s Theatre leading actor.

Four of the area’s most vibrant musicians – Matty McKay (guitar), Mark Bronconnier (drums), Steve Farrell (bass) and Steve Arsenault (guitar) provide support.

“It will be something different – just a variety of music and energy,” says Seal.

The 2011 Bellerose graduate has been singing since she was eight. By the time she was 12, Seal was the grand winner of the 2005 Junior Division at Northland’s Country Vocal Spotlight.

Part of the prize package was a berth at the internationally renowned NACMAI competition in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. There she received the 2006 International Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year title.

Since then she’s honed her warm, bluesy voice performing at every charity in Edmonton from the Alzheimer Society and Youth Emergency Shelter to the Kidney Foundation and Bell’s Walk for Kids.

By recording the alternative country If You Keep This Up at Nashville with producer Eddie Gore of Insomnia Studios, she melds a prairie sound with Music City’s traditional southern charm and modern lustre.

The St. Albert singer likes to characterize her five-track disc by its lyrical content – love, heartbreak, loss and regret.

Collecting material from personal experiences, Seal taps deep into her country roots, throwing in a sprinkling of bootie-shaking rock and soulful blues.

“I write songs for therapy. I do it when I need to vent myself,” Seal explains.

In this mix of originals the current single Crash and Crumble – an upbeat, catchy tune she co-wrote with another St. Albert songwriter Aaron Goodvin – is the leadoff song playing on radio stations across Canada.

“Rather than slowball it, we decided to give it more build,” she explains. “It gets more exciting and in your face. It makes for a more interesting song.”

Unlike many established songwriters who pen a song on command, Seal finds inspiration comes randomly. For instance, in Just Want to Believe, inspiration struck in a social studies class.

“I wrote out the lyrics in class and by the time I got home, I had the melody,” she said.

This release is a big step in the launch of Seal’s solo professional career and she’s hoping to take the town by storm. As the girl next door who has morphed into a sexy, confident young woman with a big voice, Seal is the perfect marketing package.

But what really counts for fans are that the songs have a universal appeal. They are songs written from experience that help the sentiments ring true. And it’s this very authenticity and good old-fashioned determination that has made Seal a past winner.

by Anna Borowiecki, St Albert Gazette - Anna Borowiecki, St Albert Gazette

The St. Albert-born country singer is getting set to celebrate the release of her latest EP, If You Keep This Up, in her hometown on Saturday at LB’s Pub (23 Akins Dr.).

by Glenn Cook, St Albert Leader

The title of the EP comes from one of the five songs on it, and what Seal said was the first “happy song” she has ever been able to write

“Writing is a way of venting for me,” she said.
When I’m going through an experience that maybe isn’t so great, I like to write, because it’s kind of a relief from it. And, I don’t know, I feel so cheesy when I’m writing happy songs.

“But I was so lucky to co-write ‘If You Keep This Up’ with Aaron Goodvin, and it just came together so great.”

Seal, 19, graduated from Bellerose Composite High School in 2011, and is thrilled to be back in her hometown to show off her work.

“It’s so exciting. I’m really happy I got to so this event where I’m from,” she said, adding that she is expecting lots of family and friends to come out and help her celebrate.

Seal has travelled to Nashville four times over the last four months to work on her EP with producer Eddie Gore at Insomnia Studios.

“It was so amazing. Everyone there is just so talented and so welcoming. They really appreciate new talent coming in,” said Seal, who had a hand in writing four of the five songs on the disc.

Even though she fits most comfortably into the country mould, Seal draws on blues and pop influences in her music, something she said has come naturally to her ever since she was young.

“I decided that I like other types of music too, so I started taking influences from other genres and kind of incorporating those into my songwriting now and a lot of the songs I do sing now,” she said. “Rather than it just being country, I like to classify my music as alternative country, because a lot of my influences are from indie music, actually.”

The first single from the EP, “Crash and Crumble,” was released to radio stations in September, and has been gaining airplay across Canada ever since.

“I’ve gotten a lot of good responses from it,” Seal said. “I’m really happy with everything that’s happened so far with that single, and hopefully everything goes really well with this CD.”

The title track from the EP will be released to radio at the end of January.

Seal started singing when she was eight years old, first dabbling in musical theatre.

“Soon enough, I realized that I really wanted to sing country music,” she said.

That turned out to be a good decision, as she won the junior singing competition at the Dauphin Country Fest in Dauphin, Man., in 2004, and was the grand winning act in the junior division at the Northlands Park Country Vocal Spotlight in 2005. From there, she competed at a North American Country Music Associations International competition in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., where she was named International Vocalist of the Year and International Entertainer of the Year for her age group.

In August 2012, Seal was among the top 30 singers from across Canada to be featured on the CMT series Big In A Small Town, where her original acoustic version of “Crash and Crumble” earned praise from the show’s judges.

Through all her success so far, though, Seal has kept her feet on the ground and continues to give back by supporting several charities and events in the Edmonton area, like the Stollery Children’s Hospital, Easter Seals, the Bell Walk for Kids and Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YESS).

“I feel like there needs to be more done for [charities], and I feel selfish if I’m not doing something like that,” she said.
- Glen Cook, St Albert Leader