Country-pop-rock artist Heidi Vincent received a favorable New Music Critique review in these very pages a couple of months ago, and for good reason. Authentic, quirky, and eminently listenable, hers is a sound that could well have mass appeal.
It all started a long time ago, when a young Vincent was singing around her childhood home or at the houses of her grandparents. “I used to write little poems too,” Vincent says. “I’ve come a long way since those poems. I wrote my first song in 1993—I would call my mom and play a new verse or melody or lyric, and she would be so supportive. One morning in 1994, I called to show her the final revisions and my brother, who was 11 at the time, answered the phone and told me I need to talk to the ‘ambulance people.’ I found out shortly after my mom had passed away in her sleep at 42, that night. An FM Kamloops radio station gave the song some rotation that week. The song was, ironically, about losing someone. It was called ‘Missing You.’”
Music was therapy for Vincent after that. She released her first album in 2005, Happy Now, and followed it up with extraordinarily pop album Something Borrowed, Something Blue. Her most recent effort is "Criminal," “an upbeat, cinematic, and cheeky take on vengeance and healing. It’s a vibrant country pop-rock song and it’s darkly playful.”
On the subject of DIY, Vincent finds it positive to be in control of your own ‘business,’ of art. “Creative control is important—you end up being more authentic,” she says. “You maintain ownership of masters, royalties (long term earnings), and have a stronger negotiating power later—you understand what’s going on and how it works. It’s cheaper! You don’t have to pay a label/other company first before you get your income from the art you created. You don’t have to run your ideas or even your music by label/publishing co. And you learn so much which gives you lasting staying power.”
Vincent is working on new music and “Mean Jolene” (a response to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”) is due soon.
Visit heidivincent.com for more.
