Penetanguishene singer Emma Reynolds is well known in the Southern Georgian Bay region. In fact, many people have watched her grow up before their eyes.
She's been busking at Ontario's Best Butter Tart Festival and at the Southern Georgian Bay Farmers' Market and performing in King's Wharf Theatre and Georgian Bay Musical Theatre productions and every other opportunity she could find since she was 14.
Now 21, Reynolds has released a new single Nice Guy. It's now available on all music streaming platforms and marks her first musical release since the album Looking Back in 2020.
"I wrote it three years ago, but I was looking for the perfect person to produce it," she says.
And then she found Jason Kokkovas, who's also 21. He had been contacting her wanting to produce her music, but they met through a fellow Sheridan College musical theatre student. Reynolds is going into her fourth year of the Honours Bachelor of Musical Theatre Performance program in Oakville.
"It's inspiring to work with super-talented young artists. It's nice too because it's hard to be a young woman in the music business and they take me seriously and respect my music," she says.
The actual recording was rather unorthodox.
It was done remotely with Reynolds recording her own voice through a microphone into a computer software program, while getting coached on her vocals by Kokkovas through Facetime calls. She sent him the electronic file and he mixed it, adding in the other instruments.
Reynolds has successfully paid her way through college by performing all summer.
She's played at bars, restaurants and social gatherings all over the region, including The Boathouse Eatery, Flynn's Irish Pub, Queens Quay British Pub and the restaurant on the Landmark Cruises' Georgian Legacy sightseeing vessel as well as on the family stage at Kempenfest.
"I'm booked all the time. I'm able to live by gigs. It's great," Reynolds says.
She is also thankful that the community has been so supportive of her and her music this summer and over the years.
"I'm so lucky that I get to do what I love every day. So many people say, 'we've watched you grow up and we've seen you every year at The Butter Tart Festival.'"
Lori-Ann Clancy, producer with the Georgian Bay Musical Theatre Company, has worked with Reynolds in two productions. This summer, Reynolds served as the vocal coach for the cast of The Prom.
"She works so hard to get herself out there. Out of all the kids, she's really trying to make it big in the performing arts scene," says Clancy.
Reynolds enjoys giving back and found it interesting being behind the scenes for the first time.
"It was such a cool experience. I was helping the singers to sing the songs easier. I was taking all the knowledge from college and teaching singing technique. It was fun," she says.
And that's not all.
Reynolds also organized a youth concert entitled The Middle at La Clé de la Baie in Penetanguishene on July 30, where she performed with a band made up of fellow St. Theresa's Catholic High School graduates.
"We'd been practising since everyone got home from school. I started promoting the show. I put up posters and I had the tickets online and was selling merchandise too," she says.
"We had a huge lineup to get in. It was such a fun night. I was promoting my original songs and then covers," she says.
It was the second time Reynolds and her band peers had organized the concert. Last year, it was called The Beginning.
“I adore Penetanguishene, but I feel there is not a lot of stuff to do for teenagers, so I wanted to put this concert on for them, so they could go with their friends for a fun night out. It was really, really cool."
Heading back to Oakville for her final year, Reynolds' level of intense activity will continue. Only students in fourth year perform and they are scheduled for four or five productions in eight months.
"It's crazy, but I've been waiting for this for three years."
For more information about Reynolds, visit her website or Instagram page (instagram.com/emrey_music/?hl=en) and find her music on your favourite streaming site.
