Rebecca Stephens

In a music world where celebrity, the ‘next big thing’ pushed onto your ears, is sometimes gone as quickly as it arrived, it’s good to know that real singer songwriters who actually have worked at their craft still exist. Rebecca Stephens, a 19 year old from Wasaga Beach, Ontario has been doing just that and now it is time for the world to share Ontario’s best kept musical secret. Starting out at the piano and composing her first songs at the tender age of ten, Rebecca found her singing voice two years later. It was fortuitous that her father had at this time begun a DJ / Karaoke business and so brought the karaoke machine home. Rebecca latched onto it straight away and began honing her performance chops there and then! Moreover, she found inspiration from the Mariah Carey cd ‘Music Box’ and following the song structures from the booklet that came with the cd, immediately began writing her own songs. As a measure of Rebecca’s commitment to singing and writing songs, she enrolled in voice lessons at age 12, and stayed the course, achieving her grade eight vocal to become a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Voice this year. As anyone who has heard her sing can attest, the results were worthwhile. However, even in her early teens, Rebecca’s raw talent was noticeable and she was managed by a series of names in the music industry including Alex Andonache who owned Metal works studios (artists who have recorded there include Nelly Furtado, Feist and Ashlee Simpson). However, the time wasn’t right. Highschool and another musical direction beckoned. Rebecca met her highschool sweetheart who also happened to be a guitar player and together they formed the nucleus of the band Contrast. Achieving some success and good word of mouth in southern Ontario they gained a young fan base by opening for bands such as Social Code and Mariana’s Trench. There was enough material to record an album of original songs which was completed in summer 2007 but a bump on the road to success turned into a fork as Rebecca and her partner broke up and so she left the band. With all that behind her and yet still not being old enough to legally drink, Rebecca understood that she had the talent and now the experience to forge her own path. Rebecca also took pause to absorb and reflect on the active musical climate. She cites current influences as diverse as Coldplay and Metric, Feist and Shiny Toy Guns. The work of Sara Bareilles is also evident in Rebecca’s new material. New songs are perhaps less rock than that of Contrast and are somewhat more piano driven as the instrument’s stark emotional power is married to her ability to lay her heart open in the lyrics of her songs. More new songs are being written and Rebecca is hoping to record a solo album in the near future. As with any other musical artist, Rebecca understands that an audience needs to be connected with and so she is working on the ability to start gigging on a regular basis again, but this time under her own banner. While she understands that she may be considered a pop song singer / songwriter, she shies away from songs that follow an obvious formula. She wants to move away from the stigma of ‘manufactured music’ which pop seems to have grown like an ugly wart over the past decade. By moving forward and being able to bring her sensational voice to a new and broader audience, Rebecca is aiming to bring new aspects of pop music to the ear. Join her for the journey and relish the emergence of a wonderful new talent