Headphone Time Travel - November 23rd, 2002

Myself (oh boy) and Alyson (RIP), circa 2002

I kind of had a hard time in high school. Don't get me wrong - I wasn't bullied or anything, but I did feel a tad detached from the rest of my peers. There's no denying that I was sort of different. Maybe not obviously different, but perhaps more obviously than I originally thought. I'm not sure. What I do know, however, was how hard pressed I was to find those with similar musical interests as me. In a time where pop music was king, it was tough to find someone else who had "Veni Vidi Vicious" on heavy rotation. Oh sure, I had friends. Lots of whom I'm still close with today. But my real companions were Jack White, Chris Carrabba, Jim Adkins, and Julian Casablancas. So for this post, I'm going to step back in time a little bit and invite you to slip on my headphones. Here's what a day in the listening life of 17 year old Heather sounds like...

Jimmy Eat World - Your House

My sad, angsty, teenage self would ride the bus downtown to my co-op placement every day. I would listen to this on my diskman, pine over my ex boyfriend (who had a new girlfriend), and sigh while looking longingly out the bus window. This was the fuel for my sad, romantic daydreams. This is what unrequited love sounds like.

The White Stripes - Hotel Yorba

I thought the White Stripes were SO COOL (let's be real, I still do), and I thought I was so cool for being into them (I don't think that anymore). Fell In Love With A Girl was so different than what I was used to hearing at the time. It was so edgy and raw. My favourite track on White Blood Cells however, was Hotel Yorba (still is).

 The Used - The Taste of Ink

Another band I felt was edgy and angsty and loud. I would listen to The Taste of Ink every morning while flipping my hair out in the mirror. "Is it worth it? Can you even hear me?" seemed like a question worth asking every morning before school, and for me at the time, the answer was always a resounding "NO!" This song was also the song that was playing the first time I ever crowd surfed.

The Vines - Get Free

One of the bands to gain popularity during the "THE" band revolution, they were one of the bands tasked with "saving rock and roll". The Vines were another band that served it up loud and fast, and that energy and adrenaline reminded me of the punk bands I so loved. If I had to get up and face another day of hell (read: high school), this was certainly going to be my motivation to do so.

Dashboard Confessional - Saints and Sailors

I had two moods in high school - sad and angry. When I wasn't listening to the rock albums I adored, I chose to celebrate my sadness by listening to the love of my life - Chris Carrabba (He's a beautiful man.). With his pompadour hairdo, puppy dog eyes, and acoustic guitar, he had me wanting desperately to be the girl he was singing about. And when I didn't want that, it was because I was too busy trying to feel that exact same way about a certain someone else in my life. Either way, we used to listen to this song while driving around town, singing loudly and talking about our ex's.

The Strokes - Last Night

This list would not be complete without my favourite song (at that time) from my favourite album (at that time). This song was always on repeat, was always turned up way too loud, and always got me dancing and bopping around my room. I couldn't believe that more of my friends weren't as in love with this album as I was. As I got a little older, I did meet a lot of friends who had similar tastes as I did, and you know what? They all loved this album too. Who knew?

So there you have it. The songs that 17 year old me was most guilty of overplaying. It will take all of my strength not to fall into that trap again now. I wish you luck!

Gimmie Symphony - That Time I saw the Orchestra

This post was one I had originally written for the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, and it can be found here.


I should start by saying that I adore live music. I caught the bug early – I was seven when I saw my first concert, Aretha Franklin at Artpark in 1992, and I never looked back. Since then, I’ve waited for hours in extreme temperatures to see my heroes take the stage. I've come out of mosh pits with fat lips and black eyes. I’ve hung out on tour buses and in greenrooms. From Sir Paul McCartney to Pearl Jam, Elvis Costello to Bad Religion, James Taylor to Raekwon the Chef. It’s pretty fair to say I’ve seen it all. Well, almost. I’m 29 years old and up until recently…I had never seen the symphony.

Oh sure, I’ve heard the orchestra on stage with Arcade Fire and performing alongside cast members of Phantom of the Opera -I will use this time to share with you that I’m also a huge musical theatre nerd– but I’ve never been to a live orchestral performance until last week.

That being said, it may seem strange to some that I was completely psyched to start a Public Relations Internship with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. Every part of me, from my purple hair to my tattoos, was more than thrilled to be able to work and learn in such a creative, supportive and exciting environment and with people who are so dedicated to sharing music with the community. It is here that I’m gaining all of my exposure to orchestral music and I’d be completely lying if I said I didn’t like what I was hearing. It’s also a lie to say that I haven’t been humming Elgar’s Enigma Variations to myself for a week now – because I have.

I didn’t expect the symphony to sound as tight as they did right off the bat. That all those different people, playing all those different instruments at the same time could be so in sync. It was actually as if someone had hit play on something that had been pre-recorded. I was immediately impressed and awestruck.I can tell you first hand that the electricity in the concert hall is the same if not greater than any venue I’ve been in before a show. There’s a certain buzz in the air and that sense of excitement the musicians have is absolutely contagious. Having the privilege of sitting on the stage with them for rehearsal is like nothing I’ve experienced before. Needless to say, when I took my seat beside the percussion section, I was beyond intimidated. With the exception of Arcade Fire, The New Pornographers and Broken Social Scene, most rock bands are on the smaller size – there were four members of Led Zeppelin, three members of Rush, two White Stripes, but there were 58 professional musicians sharing their performance space with me.

There’s something about having 58 musicians playing together that enhances the visual element of a live performance. I’m talking about watching each section of the orchestra contributing to the overall sound of the piece they’re performing. There’s something so satisfying about being able to identify which instruments were contributing to each element of the performance. Being onstage gave me an insider’s perspective to the music – like I was listening to it on a different level.

There is only one word that can describe the sound I experienced once the orchestra started to play –powerful. Just as powerful as when a rock band plays their first notes on stage together. I was completely blown away, but in a different way than I’m used to. Do you know that feeling when you hear an opening band you’ve never heard completely nail their set and end up stealing the show? Yeah, my first symphony experience was like that but at least 50 times greater.That being said, I learned that the percussion section is SCARY! Seriously. I had seated myself next to the gong and the giant drum (which I later learned was the bass drum) which was probably not the best idea. I was unfamiliar with the piece being played and paying so much attention to the other sections of the orchestra that I did NOT see the timpani part coming. As a result, I jumped a good 15 feet in the air during the opening of Fanfare for the Common Man – probably the closest I was going to get to crowd surfing in the Great Hall.

I’ve crowd-surfed and managed not to get dropped on my head. I’ve sipped cognac with members of the Wu Tang Clan. And now, I’ve sat on stage with a professional symphony orchestra while they rehearsed. How many people can say that?