Alli
“No one should be able to dim your light.”
When she was in Grade 12, Alli wasn’t sure where her path would lead her after high school. Then on a whim, she auditioned for her school play and landed the lead female role. This experience sparked her passion for performance. From this point onward, Alli poured her heart and sole into becoming a country musician. She moved across the country, driven and dedicated to make it in the music industry. Though she has always believed in herself, she found herself on a quest for perfection early in her career, which came at a detriment to her mental health. Then she decided to let go, resulting in her debut album ‘The Basement Sessions: What I’ve Learned So Far’ which focuses on Alli’s mental health journey. Through her music, Alli opens up with audiences to normalise the conversation surrounding mental illness. She is an artist and an advocate, determined to make waves as a female musician in a male-dominated industry. Alli never gave up, and now she is pursuing her dreams. This is her story.
Alli, with her music (her happy place)
P: Please introduce yourself!
A: Hey, I’m Alli Walker. I am a country singer songwriter from Prince Edward Island, Canada, and I currently reside in Ontario. I moved to Toronto when I was 19 years old to have more opportunities in the music business, and I’ve been here for over a decade working on my career. After hundreds of shows and songs written, I finally released my debut independent album in 2019 called ‘The Basement Sessions: What I’ve Learned So Far’ that focused on my mental health journey throughout my twenties. I coined the terms ‘Mindful Music’ and ‘Conscious Country’ because I wanted to be able to talk about vulnerable topics within my music and within the country genre. It was such a beautiful way to connect with my audience and have open dialogue about things we may have been more timid to speak on. I spent my time during the pandemic writing and working towards my next project, and I have finally started releasing singles from my upcoming album that is coming out in late 2022. This new music focuses on the next chapter of my life, still very autobiographical, but just a more grown up version of it.
P: Describe or define yourself in your own words
A: I am fearless and confident. There is no way to be in the music industry without being fearless and confident. You have to believe in yourself and what you have to offer before anyone else believes in you. I wasn’t always good. Heck, I didn’t start singing until my senior year in high school which is pretty late to the game. So I had a lot of work to do to catch up. Which is why I spent a decade getting in my 10,000 hours, playing every bar, every festival, every wedding, going down to Nashville, writing hundreds of songs, and soaking in anything I could about the music industry. I always had confidence that I would get there someday, even when I wasn’t the best, I knew that I could put the work in to get there, and most importantly I believed in myself. But at the same time I had always been an over-thinker, anxious, perfectionist kind of person which came to a rearing head throughout my mid twenties. I had been at this thing for a while, thought I’d be further along than where I was, got into the comparing game, and my mental health definitely took a nosedive. I was never wanting to put anything out because I wanted it to be perfect, so I waited even longer and longer until I felt it was perfect, when in reality I realized it never will be. I dove super deep into personal development, read all the books, listened to all the podcasts, went to all the seminars. And that’s why I decided to let it go, and put all my mess together, into words, into songs, and release ‘The Basement Sessions: What I’ve Learned So Far’, just to be completely honest with how I was feeling and what I was going through. Here’s me, with what I know now, in regards to my musical skill level, as a songwriter, but also in life, and what I’ve learned about me.
P: What is your favourite thing about yourself?
A: I like my persistence. I won’t give up, ever. And even if someone might be better than me at something, I’ll work harder. I promise. There is no luck in the music industry, there’s preparation meets opportunity. There had been so many times I was jealous of artists that got things handed to them, or seemed like their paths were a lot easier than mine, but I had to realize it wasn’t my time yet. There’s no way that if I was given some of the opportunities I was jealous over, that I would have been ready. Some things I’m doing now, I would have blown the chance if I was given it a few years back because I just wasn’t there yet. And that’s hard to realize, but not giving up, telling myself to just keep working harder and it will happen, does really pay off once you get to the place where your preparation ultimately meets opportunity. And the appreciation is tenfold when you've realized how persistent you were with your hard work, it's extremely rewarding.
P: Tell us a story. Have you had an experience that’s defined you or made you stronger?
A: I was going into grade 12, and that’s when you are applying to universities and figuring out what you want to do with your life. I had no idea. I knew I loved the entertainment business but didn’t know how I was going to fit in there with no prior experience. I randomly tried out for my high school musical without having sung a note in my life, and I ended up getting the lead female part in the musical Footloose. I bet the musical director thought he was just filling a role for a silly school play, but really he changed the whole trajectory of my life because of that one decision. I wouldn’t have come to Toronto, I wouldn’t have met my husband, I wouldn’t have pursued something that really fills my soul up every day. So for that I am grateful. Ultimately it made me a stronger human too. Being in the music business with rejection on a daily basis can make you grow a set of you-know-whats. It makes you level up constantly, it puts your mental health through the ringer and to the test, it makes you vulnerable and open, so really that one decision to try out for my high school musical has made me who I am today.
P: What is one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?
A: Other people's opinions of you are none of your business. I was bullied a lot in junior high, high school, and right into university by the same group of girls. That affected me a lot with trusting women and making friends because I just assumed all women were terrible and jealous and mean. Although I didn’t take what they thought of me or said about me to heart because I knew they were wrong, I can’t imagine how it would make someone feel who didn’t understand that or wasn’t as confident. Throughout my career there have been a lot of doubters or people saying women can’t make it in this industry so why bother trying, and I am so glad I never listened to them. I think going through the bullying helped me for later in life, to stay focused on the task at hand, and that if it’s right for me, fills me up, and I’m confident about it and believe in it, no one's opinion should matter, and no one should be able to dim your light.
P: What does being a woman mean to you?
A: It means a ton of things like empowerment and confidence, but for some reason this comes to mind. Proving people wrong is super fun. There’s something about being the constant underdog that sets a fire under my bum. When I moved away it was to prove to people that I could make it on my own. When I made my first album it was to show that I could write and record a successful album completely on my own as a solo woman in the music industry. Now when I’m releasing these next singles and album, it’s to prove to people that I am capable of navigating my own career, levelling up, and getting success doing so independently on a commercial level competing in a male prominent musical genre. Almost my entire team are women, from PR to digital marketing, and I love supporting other women who are confident and great at what they do and are dedicated to uplifting other women for a living.
P: Who is one woman that inspires you? What would you say to her if she were here now?
A: Taylor Swift. I’ve followed her career since she was 15 years old. Yes I loved her music, and songwriting, and her as a person, but it was her business sense, and how she really took her career into her own hands as a young woman that always inspired me. She could have gone in so many different directions after getting to the level of success that she did, but she stayed so true to herself, her fans, and never missed a beat. I bet you can’t find one story of her mistreating someone because she is always going above and beyond for her fans, but also for her community whether that is standing up for women’s rights, or any of the other many causes she stands up for as a woman in power.
I would thank her for changing my life, and how I navigate my own career and treat others with respect but still stand up for myself. Then we would be best friends, and live happily ever after with her cats and my dogs writing songs and drinking wine and talking about the complexity of life…ha!