If one sentence can define a person, this may be the one that defines Megan Twist: "Every moment of my life, there's a song to describe it, and if there isn't, I'll make one."
The 18-year-old Burnaby resident is tanning on a rooftop in Cavtat, Croatia as she chats to the NOW by email about her musical summer.
The recent Burnaby North Secondary grad has just released an EP, A Fine Line, and recently finished up a stint as on-board entertainer on VIA Rail from Vancouver to Toronto and back again.
That comes on the heels of a busy year that has included playing for community events such as the Great Salmon Send-Off, the Summit Youth Week block party, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Float Your Boat For a Cure event and her own school's graduation ceremony.
It's all part of the building process for the young singer-songwriter, who's taking the year ahead off in order to pursue her music dreams.
Singing, she says, has always been part of her life.
"Ever since I was a wee little thing I've been singing like crazy," she says. "My grandma always tells the story of how we were shopping and I was in the stroller singing at the top of my lungs while everyone stared at us."
She's come a long way since then, taking what she describes as "lots and lots of lessons" in voice, training classically before breaking off to pursue her own style. She's also a guitarist - her dad taught a young Megan her first chords - but considers herself primarily a singer and songwriter. At Burnaby North, she says, she didn't get involved in music until the later years, when she began to play small shows, talent contests, jazz cafés, Remembrance Day assemblies and the like.
It was her decision, in Grade 11, to take the digital sound production ACE-IT program - which offers hands-on industry training - that sent her farther down the road as a musician.
"It focuses on composition, sound production and theory," she explains, giving credit to teacher Kevin Ault for pushing her. "It was the most amazing experience. It made me grow as a person and as a musician."
It was Ault, incidentally, who ended up steering Twist in the direction of her VIA Rail summer.
Twist had originally intended to do a cross-Canada tour, but timing and money didn't work out. Ault suggested she look into the train because it might be cheaper than buying a car - and when Twist did, she discovered the railway actually has a program for Canadian musicians who want to travel.
She applied and was accepted, spending 10 days travelling from Vancouver to Toronto and back, with a couple of days in Toronto.
She had her own tiny cabin where she could practise and sleep, and she was slotted to play in activity cars at scheduled times throughout the journey, plus a couple of gigs at stations.
"I'd just bring my guitar and music and sit and play," she explains. "Sometimes there were only a couple people, and other times it was standing room only. ... It was so great! One time I played Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen, and the whole car sang the chorus, it was the most amazing experience! So magical with everyone singing with me."
Twist cites a wide variety of musical influences - Serena Ryder, Adele, Taylor Swift, Mumford and Sons, Johnny Cash, the Boom Booms, Allen Stone - and credits The Beatles with being her all-time favourite band.
"They just light up my life and are so influential," she says.
Closer to home, she's inspired and influenced by her uncle, Stephen Fearing, who's a solo artist and also part of the band Blackie and the Rodeo Kings.
"When I was younger I wanted to be like him, and as I've grown older, he's been a real help," she says.
It was Fearing who introduced her to Simon Kendall, formerly of Doug and the Slugs, with whom she worked on her EP.
"Simon helped me so much, he is ultimately the most incredible person," she says. "He's fantastic, and so musically talented, it's insane! ... Without him, there would be no EP, and I'm so grateful."
Twist adds that she's fortunate to have a solid support system around her, starting at home with her mom and stepdad.
"I'm so lucky to have parents like them," she says. "They support me so much. Emotionally, financially, it doesn't even matter. They help me to keep going and mean the world to me."
Likewise, she says, all her friends have been there for her all along her journey.
"I'm a very lucky girl to have so many great people in my life," she says.
She's currently relaxing in the sun in Croatia at a family home. Her great-grandfather is from Cavtat and started to build the house before he passed away, and now the family is finishing it. Her uncle is staying, too, she notes, plus her cousin and some friends from Canada are out for a week.
"I may play a couple small gigs, but I'm just as happy playing on the front porch and just enjoying the sunshine and the nightlife," she says.
When she gets back, she'll start planning her EP release party - it'll likely happen in October, she says. She also has plans to possibly record a Christmas CD with fellow Burnaby talent Stephen Scaccia.
For her, she says, the year ahead is all about music and making a genuine effort to turn it into her full-time career.
"All I want to do is do what I love, and hopefully I'll be able to make a living out of it," she says.
"Honestly, yeah, I'll probably struggle, emotionally and financially, but it's fine by me.
"It's my passion, my love and my life. ... I stop and think often about how I should find a career and a path that's safe so I can live comfortably. Honestly, I'd rather be poor and live on the streets doing the thing I love than unhappy in a steady paying job. Music is everything to me and simply my world."
For more about Twist, see her website, www.megantwist.com.
