You could say that Michaela Slinger‘s music career started off with a moment some would refer to as being what dreams are made of.
Her debut live performance was at the age of three, singing the national anthem at a sold-out Vancouver Grizzlies game at General Motors Place, which we now know as Rogers Arena. What’s more important to note is all of the hard work that Slinger has put into her music career in the years following her first public performance.
Sometimes you meet someone for the first time and their passion for what they do just shines, and this is exactly how it felt after chatting with Michaela outside of The Federal Store in Vancouver. Read ahead to see what she shared about her growth as a songwriter, what it feels like to build a community, and what we’ll be seeing from her in 2023.
Spoiler alert: exciting things are on the radar.
asapmusicblog.ca: What was the first song in your memory that inspired you to pursue music?
Michaela Slinger: That’s such a good question. No one’s ever asked me that question in that way. In my memory? Besides maybe a musical theatre song, because I was a theatre kid, but I don’t really think that inspired me to songwrite… it would definitely be something off of Metamorphosis by Hilary Duff, which was the first CD I think I owned and the first concert I went to. Probably “So Yesterday” by Hilary Duff.
A: It’s a great song. I feel like Hilary Duff is an underrated pop artist.
M: Such a good song. Completely agree. That album, I don’t even know how old I was when it came out – seven or eight?
A: I think her show was at the Pacific Coliseum.
M: I don’t even remember! But I was there. She was my favourite artist in elementary school, without a doubt.
A: The first live performance you had was actually at a Vancouver Grizzlies game at another venue in Vancouver, I think at the time it was at GM Place and not Rogers Arena yet. How did you get that gig?
M: Okay, I think this is the family story. When my mom was home with me when I was a little kid, it was kind of constant babbling and singing – just a lot of vocalizing as a very young kid. I think I was probably three and she was on the phone with somebody and I was just walking around the house singing and humming. I would try to sing along to Celine Dion in the back of the car – always singing.
So her friend was on the phone and I think he worked at GM Place or for the Grizzlies. He’s like, “What the hell is that noise?” My mom was like, “Oh, it’s Michaela. She’s just always singing and always humming.” I don’t know what compelled him to be like, “Well, she should sing the anthem at the Grizzlies game or something like that, see if she likes it.”
It was kind of through a family connection, maybe partially as a joke, but then my parents were like, well, this could be cool – she seems to really like singing. If this traumatizes her, then we’ll know that she doesn’t want to be a singer and if she likes it, then maybe she’ll go into music.
I obviously don’t really have any conscious memories of that time because I was three, but my whole family went down to GM Place and I did the soundcheck. The retelling of it actually sounds almost like traumatic for my family. My grandma retells it and she was like, “I was so nervous that I could hardly stand while you were singing, and I thought I was gonna puke!” So everyone in my family, it sounds like it was an awful experience for them. They were like, “What have we done?! She’s a little three-year-old, she’s in front of 18,000 people. Is she gonna be scarred for life?” And I was just out there having the time of my life.
A: Yeah, I mean, you looked very confident. You were just doing your thing. I definitely was going to ask you for like a full recall, tell me everything as from your three-year-old memory!
M: I do actually have one memory, I think it’s a real memory. It could be a memory from the home video, but my memory is going out for soundcheck when all of the basketball players were warming up and being so short that I was like walking underneath their legs and just feeling so tiny. But I don’t have any recollection of the actual performance.
A: I think what’s great is that you do at least have the video. I loved looking at the players reacting to your performance and your voice. One of my favourite things about going to sporting events now is seeing little kids’ dreams coming true, whether it’s singing or the ones that are on the ice with the Canucks.
M: I know, it’s so cute! When they’re coming out of the dressing room or when they play at intermission and they’re just falling and sliding on top of each other.
A: There was a quote that I came across where you were talking about how certain songs have acted as the soundtrack to your life. I really liked how you phrased it as ‘crystallizing experiences into sound’ – that was such a beautiful imagery of putting it together. The first song that you put out as an artist was “Flux”, and that was in 2019 which was a couple of years ago. Fast forward to 2023, “Little Pieces” is your most recent single. So when you’re thinking back about your songwriting process and crystallizing your experiences into songs, has that process evolved?
M: Great question. I think the process has definitely evolved in a few ways. I mean, “Flux”, I wrote… it felt like one of those things where I was like, I just need to get it out. I don’t even really think at that time I would have said I was sitting down to songwrite, it was more like I’m sitting down to mess around and get stuff out. I don’t think I was necessarily as intentional about it, and it was definitely written fully alone. I didn’t even really have a vision for what I wanted the end result to be because I hadn’t recorded anything before. So it was like, “Oh, this is just another song I have on my guitar.”
Then fast forward, that ended up being the first thing that I put out. It really taught me a lot about going from the genesis of an idea to the final production. Fast forward to “Little Pieces”, I’ve definitely grown a lot as a songwriter and I’ve been in a lot more songwriting sessions and writing rooms, and I’ve written with a bunch of different people. I think I feel more confident in just having a good internal barometer for what a good idea is or what is something worth pursuing.
“Little Pieces” was co-written with my producer for this album and one of my frequent co-writers, Ryan Stewart. So I think in that way, “Flux” to me was so private. It just felt like a time in my life where I still didn’t want to even publicly admit that I wanted to do music. It was all happening so inside and I think “Little Pieces” represents this chapter where I’m very obviously going for what I want and navigating the industry and my career in a more obvious way. I think the scary thing about that to me is that I’m trying to unlearn this kind of frame pattern, but then it’s more obvious if you fail, right? If you’re trying to do stuff in public.
I think that’s why the opening line speaks to where I’m at right now – “I’m 26 now, so in L.A. years, I’m 50.” It’s hard in music to not feel like you’re behind when you’re 26 and you’re just finding your footing, you know? There’s part of me that’s like, I should have started when I was 14, like dropped out of school and moved to Nashville. I think that’s a kind of a rambling answer, but the process definitely feels a lot more collaborative now. I also think it goes through chapters – I’ve just come out of such a period of co-writing with other people that now I’m actually craving that sort of “Flux”-style experience. I’ve been returning more to just me sitting on my couch, writing songs to bring to people at a later date, but not to let anybody into that initial process. I think there’s totally a beauty to both.
A: I love that. I think that’s a good balance of collaboration but also taking it back and writing your experiences down for yourself, like a diary, before even bringing it to the collaborative table.
M: I think what’s also nice is that before this current iteration of where I’m at as a songwriter, the thing that I liked about writing in private was that I would kind of say the most Michaela-y lyrics that I could think of, and it felt safe to do that. Sometimes I would almost edit myself if I was bringing it to other people or suggesting ideas. Whereas now, I’m trying to own the fact that what feels so uniquely me or Michaela-y – that’s what your strength is as an artist, right? So now I’m more comfortable bringing those whatever quirky or like left of center ideas into a writing session, which is kind of how “Little Pieces” started. It was that opening line I’d had on my phone, and I’m like, “Is this really weird?” And then it’s like, no, that’s awesome! It hasn’t necessarily been said in that way before, so that’s been a nice experience, like a bit of validation.
A: I think “Little Pieces” definitely shows the confidence that you’ve gained and of course, the topic you sort of shared about feeling like you’re behind and being in your own head. We talked a bit about impostor syndrome before we started the conversation. You just shared about how the first line of the song resonated with you, but how did the idea for the song [as a whole] come about?
M: Well, I guess it’s two-fold. More specifically, just about being ‘in L.A. years’ is kind of a funny take on dog years. I was doing a songwriting trip in L.A. and I was just chatting with friends and realized that it is kind of common in those circles or maybe just in certain industries to lie about your age. Also, I’ve never really been an age that needs to be lied about before, right? Because I’ve always been under 25 and now that I’m 26, and I’ll be 27 this year – it’s starting to get to that territory where I feel like there’s a lot of pressure, especially for women, to remain under 30 for as long as possible and then to remain under 40 for as long as possible.
I just thought that was so interesting that I was already feeling washed up or ancient, and I’m 26. More generally, for most of my life until I started music, the narrative that I was given was that I was ‘ahead’. I graduated high school and I just turned 17, and I was just doing things maybe on the younger side, so I feel like that was a narrative that was really shared with me. Like “You’re so far ahead, you’re doing this, you’re blah, blah, blah!”. So now to kind of come to this career later than some people do because I was 21 or 22 when I started, it’s been a real mind shift to not find my validation in the fact that like, “Oh, you’re young and impressive”, right? Now it’s just, “Well, what do you have to offer?” – your age doesn’t need to matter that much. I’m not 18 and a songwriter anymore, I’m like a ‘boring’ age now, you know I mean?
A: That’s not true!
M: Yeah, but there’s no more like, child phenom! People just are so obsessed with an eight-year-old who does a performance or a 14-year-old who sets a world record, right? Now I’m just in the general middle-ish age period of my life where nobody gives a shit. Then hopefully I’ll be 75, and it’s like, “75-year-old, still writing good songs!” and then my age will be impressive again.
A: The video for “Little Pieces” was shot and produced by your frequent collaborator Sydney Robertson in Nashville. What was the process like in bringing the song to life in a music video format?
M: It was really fun! A quick backstory about Syd and I – I’d worked with the same team for my whole first record for all the visuals and then this time around, it was like, okay, it’s probably time to work with somebody new but I didn’t really have anyone in mind. She hit me up on Instagram, a cold DM, and was like, “I think your music’s cool, I want to get more into creative stuff. I want to do a photoshoot with you for free, here are some ideas! I just want to build my portfolio.” I thought her ideas were really cool and then we did it and the photos turned out pretty well.
So for “Little Pieces”, I think it was Sydney so far getting to do her best video yet because she had a little more space to flesh out the idea. It was a take on what I call the ‘bachelorette industrial complex’ and sort of poke fun almost at what I think a lot of people imagine when they think of Nashville, which is that Broadway strip, probably similar to Las Vegas’ strip. I don’t know, I’ve never been! I think in Vancouver, it would be like our Granville strip back in its heyday, which to me is not really where I want to hang out that much.
I think there’s a lot of pressure in music to seem cool. Like I definitely am like, “Oh, I want I want to appear cool!” but then when I watch stuff sometimes where I’m trying to look cool or a little bit nonchalant… it’s just kind of hilarious because I’m not nonchalant at all. I’m a very emotive, high energy person. What I’ve really liked about past videos is these moments where you kind of see me laughing or interacting or performing almost in a goofier way, so I think Syd really wanted to lean into that.
We just wanted to have this adventure on the Nashville strip and see what happened. We didn’t have very much time – she was leaving I think two days later in Nashville and I’d had a bunch of songwriting sessions, so it was like… we had this Monday night! She’d kind of sent me the idea for it, we had a costume, we’d moodboarded everything, but not joking you – it came together in two days. She found that white dress on Marketplace and we went to somebody’s house and I tried it on in her bathroom. This poor girl, she was like, “Hey, here’s the dress!” and I was like, “Do you mind if I try it on?” because the video [was] tomorrow. She was like, “Okay…” and I just went into her bathroom and we thrifted the rest of it.
Then with the help of friends, just good people in our corner – these are people who are in film that live in Nashville who Sydney met while traveling in Nicaragua. How these things happen, I don’t know! But they’ve helped out on that video as well as the visualizer for “Just This Once”. It was basically like, let’s just have this yeehaw-disco-cowgirl adventure and see what kind of characters we run into. Initially, we’d wanted to do one of those pedal bikes for drunk people. They wanted to do one of those, like a bachelorette classic, but it was a Monday night and it was actually relatively quiet on Broadway – a lot of them weren’t going and it was also so cold! Then we found those bike dudes and they were just in an alley. We were like, “Do you want to bike us around? What’s your rate?” and they’re like, “Well, we just work for tips and it’s so dead. So yeah, hop in!”.
A: Perfect timing!
M: It was amazing. I’m actually really happy it was a Monday because I think if we tried to do it on a busier night, it would have been so chaotic and it wouldn’t have been the same. Everything just felt like it ended up working out, hilariously!
A: I feel like for the Broadway strip, the lights are always on so it’s perfect. You still get that vibe.
M: Totally! It was so strange being dressed up like that and on the Broadway strip. People were coming up and wanting to take photos with me. Everyone’s drunk and everyone just wants photos of Nashville things. It was really funny for me, like I’m not even American, I don’t know why you’re taking a photo of this Canadian in a pink wig! But yeah, it was really fun. It was definitely one of my favourite shoots I’ve ever done because it was just so goofy and I wasn’t trying to look cool, I was just having fun!
A: I also love that you now have an extended network of friends in other cities that can support with these things!
M: That’s been one of my favourite parts of pursuing music in a real way and doing all these trips. I keep saying that my karma debt is so overextended, but the amount of people who have hosted me, put me up on their couch, put me in their spare room, driven me places… it just goes beyond. I could sit here and talk to you for an hour about all the amazing things people have done. I feel like especially when you’re a solo artist, it looks like you’re doing it all on your own, but there’s such a group of people invisibly standing behind you, propping you up.
A: You brought up the travel aspects of being an artist. I think last year, you spent time in Toronto, L.A, Nashville – just to name a few cities, where you headed for songwriting sessions as you mentioned and doing some shows. What were some of the highlights from those trips for you?
M: Ooh! I love writing songs so much, so I would say the feeling of having an amazing songwriting session is a great high – it’s so exciting, so those are probably some of the highlights. In terms of shows, recently I played a show in Toronto for Breaking Sound. It’s definitely been a confidence booster for me because when I’ve played those band shows in different cities, it’s not my normal band I play with here, right? I kind of DM these players on Instagram and we basically have one rehearsal to sort of put stuff together. So I’m building my confidence almost as the musical director of my own project too – being able to communicate to different instrumentalists and musicians, which has been really nice.
Beyond writing for my own project, I’m starting to do some songwriting for other artists, which has been really exciting and so fun. I had an awesome songwriting session with this artist in Toronto and it was a different kind of feeling, but also amazing.
And I think like I said, just the community of people. I would say Nashville in particular, I’ve fallen in with this crew of people who are just absolutely amazing. Actually, a highlight is that – this is not my house in Nashville at all, I just stay there, I’m a boarder when I go there. I was like, “Can I host a backyard show at your house?” because my band and a couple artist friends from here were all coming to Nashville for a fun trip. So I hosted a backyard outdoor show in Nashville in November and it was all Canadian artists.
I don’t have a huge network in any of these places, but probably 30 people were there and we just did a songwriter round that I hosted and my band was there. Somehow we set up like a full drum kit, we had speakers – everything came together. It was just one of those things where I was like, “How am I going to rent stuff?!” – there’s no Long & McQuade in Nashville and everything’s really expensive here. It all came together in such a fun way, so that was a highlight. It felt a little bit validating, like look at this cool community I’ve created and I also love hosting stuff, so it was the best of all my worlds.
A: I feel like out of all the cities, it totally makes sense that Nashville would be where that would happen! So speaking of shows, you recently announced your first one of the year which will be in Calgary in April. What else can we expect to see from you in 2023?
M: We’re planning a tour right now to support my [sophomore] album, so that would be my first sort of proper tour. We’re looking at dates and venues across North America and also maybe some of my first-ever European shows in the fall, so that’s super exciting! What else can I tell you… those are sort of the things right now. My brain’s always in a million different directions – so right now it’s just music videos and visuals and what we want to do and trying to string together all of these dates. I would say that those are some of the key highlights!
A: If there was a message that you would want the listener to take away from your music, what would it be?
M: The first thing that came to mind was that pop music can have a lot of emotional depth to it, and I think that we should hold ourselves to a high standard of what we consume and engage with. I’m so passionate about decoding relationships and emotional intelligence and just saying things in an interesting way and also having it be ear-wormy. I guess if I could implore people to do one thing, it would be maybe listen once for vibe, and listen again for story – because the story element to me is really important, as it is for most artists.
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Michaela Slinger will be releasing her sophomore album later this year via 604 Records. For more information on her upcoming shows and music, head over to michaelaslinger.com. Find Michaela on social media on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.
