PUSLINCH — While the pandemic created hurdles for some music artists, it opened doors for others.
Not only was Apricity, a local singer who resides in Puslinch, able to release her first song ‘All My Lies’ from her upcoming EP, she was able to work with big names in the music industry.
And now, her song is being played on radio stations across the globe.
“Honestly it was luck and it was timing,” said Apricity who was able to connect with Vic Florencia, JUNO Award-winning mix engineer in Toronto and singer-songwriter Keith Varon when borders shut and many artists couldn't travel for work.
“Yesterday I got played in four radio stations in Brazil, believe it or not. It’s been played in the UK, we're the Indie song of the day and we were also number one on 91 XFM.”
While recording her demos in Royal City Studios, she was put in touch with Florencia after the pandemic hit.
"When I had given him a call, he'd actually just headed to the JUNOS and had to turn around and come back because it was just cancelled, so we ended up meeting up and this was just as the pandemic was starting and he put me in touch with Thomas Mackay, who used to be with Joydrop and is a producer in Toronto," said Apricity.
“I have seen so many people work together this year in the music industry to help artists to get their songs out and get their music out. It's just been overwhelming.”
She said she spent nearly a year going through numerous songs from different songwriters that wanted their songs to be recorded. When she came across the lyrics for All My Lies written by Keith Varon, she could feel the lyrics, believe the message and envision a story with it.
“Just from the lyrics itself, I always get a vision in my head, a picture of how I see the song and how it fits which is the vibe that came up with the music video,” said Apricity.
‘All My Lies’ is about not living to someone else’s expectations.
“I felt that a lot of people could relate to that whether it's personal relationships or professional relationships,” said Apricity.
“It suited me as well because you always come across people who feel that you should live up to their expectations and it's not really a fit for who you are."
Listening to Evanescence as a child, Apricity said she always appreciated a story along with the music video.
“I always thought to myself, 'If I ever get to do a video, I want a story. I want to put together a fantasy story,'” said Apricity.
“I'm always story-theme based as an artist and it's just me. It's just something I like to do.”
After envisioning the video in her head, she reached out to Country Heritage Park in Milton to tour some of their buildings and knew the location perfectly fit her vision.
“I wanted to do something that resembled the old horror movies along with kind of a Victorian theme with plague doctors and I thought the plague doctors are really fitting with the pandemic that’s going on,” said Apricity.
The video was filmed in a home called The Lucas Family Homestead built between 1835 and 1840 — also used to film Anne of Green Gables— and is known to many as a haunted house.
“We filmed the video at the end of August and it was probably 41 degrees, so you're in an old century home, no air conditioning, no electricity and filmed to about 3:30 in the morning, so definitely there were some spooky moments just thinking about the home and the park we were filming in."
She said the song is not meant to give a scary feeling, but rather, a fantasy.
“I would like listeners to know that they don’t have to live up to anyone else's expectations, just their own,” said Apricity.
She said the music video helped push the song because people had something to watch.
“I'm super grateful. People put a lot of work into it,” said Apricity.
“Just having such a great team to help me do this. I’m so grateful.”
