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Meet 33-year-old Jessica Rhaye: singer, songwriter, graphic designer, entrepreneur. She lives, works and plays in Uptown Saint John, just 45 kilometres from her hometown of Hampton where she still heads regularly to visit family.
Jessica began singing and writing music as a child. However, she says she didn't feel she truly entered the music business until she recorded and released her first CD 10 years ago. It was about that time, while also working as a hairdresser, that she also realized that music was a hard way to make a living.
Her love of the arts led her to the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in Fredericton. In 2004, she graduated with a major in creative graphics. That's when she moved to Saint John and started her freelance graphic arts business, Jessica Rhaye Design, to provide professional design services.
Jessica's two career choices complement each other. "I like to keep creative control over my music and images too," she says. "Being a graphic artist allows me to do that, and I don't have to pay someone to do my promotional materials."
Her experience in the music industry has also created a niche market for her graphics work. As well as her own, she has done websites and artwork for other New Brunswick musicians, including Hot Toddy, Thom Swift, Matt Andersen, Ken Tobias, Brent Mason and Stephanie Mainville.
Musically, Jessica now has three albums to her credit. Her most recent, Good Things, was released in May 2009. Help with bringing them into existence took the form of funding from various provincial grant programs and departments, including the New Brunswick Arts Board, Music Industry Development Program (formally the New Brunswick Sound Initiative) and the Women in Business Initiative through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.
"I used the funding for recording and touring," she says. "Without it, I wouldn't be where I am with my music career today."
And just where is she? She has worked with Canadian songwriters Ken Tobias and Ron Sexsmith, toured in the U.K. with Dave Gunning and Matt Andersen, opened for Randy Bachman, Great Big Sea, Dan Hill and Valdy, and had her music featured on CBC's Heartland and CMT's UnStable. New Brunswick's Department of Tourism and Parks has even had her perform in Boston at trade shows promoting the province.
Over the years, she has been nominated for numerous awards, including 11 East Coast Music Awards (ECMA) and a Canadian Folk Music Award. In 2008, she won her first ECMA when she took home Graphic Designer of the Year. It was an exciting achievement and one that showed Jessica's hard work was paying off.
That said, she does not measure her success by the number of nominations and awards she has received. "My music is out there, people know who I am and are getting to know my music," she says. "And I have been able to perform in so many places."
Some venues have been close to home, like her recently completed mini tour of the East Coast. That followed performances in Memphis at the Folk Alliance International Conference and at the Vancouver Olympics. A highlight of her career to date was her selection by an international jury to represent Atlantic Canada at the 2005 Jeux de la Francophonie in Niger, Africa, in the music and arts category ñ the only musical act from New Brunswick.
"My music helps put New Brunswick on the map," Jessica says, explaining that no matter where she is, she always makes it a point to say where she is from. "I'm really proud to be from New Brunswick."