Teigen Gayse
In August I had the absolute pleasure of catching up with up-and-coming singer/songwriter Teigen Gayse as she got ready to play the Boots and Hearts music festival in Oro-Medonte, Ontario. We had a great chat about all things music career, scary movies, social media and dreams about Pug rescue farms – here are some of the Highlights.
Q: Who would you say you are most musically inspired by?
My biggest influences and inspirations growing up, my very first one from what I can remember thinking oh I wanna be like them was Taylor Swift of course, like I’ll never forget ‘Our Song’ coming on in my best friends room when I was in grade 4 and I was like ‘wow I want to be like her!’ Casey Musgraves, she’s the one who really got me into song writing you know, her song writing was just so cool and so she was a big inspiration growing up – so was Shania Twain. I love Morgan Wallens music right now; I am really big into Dan + Shays music right now – I feel like it’s always changing. I went through a big Thomas Rhett phase and Parker McCollum. All of these! I find artists and albums that I get fascinated and obsessed with and I kinda do my deep dive.
Q: What is your favourite part about playing live?
You know I think, you get such a high such a rush and I always get a little bit of nerves before I go on, and I know its just because I care so much and I love what I do and I hope that that never goes away – but it’s like a drug, its so fascinating the high you get being on stage there’s nothing quite like it when people are singing your song back to you; you’re giving people a good time, and they came there to see you – what a rush! It’s amazing, the best feeling in the world.
Q: What do you do with your downtime when you aren’t on tour? And what would you be doing if you weren’t pursuing music?
Well, I love, to hike. I live in Kelowna (British Columbia) and there is just the most beautiful hiking in that area, so that’s fun. I love working out, I try to make it to the gym as much as I possibly can. I am a big scary movie fan, people probably wouldn’t expect that – if I am going to watch anything its going to be scary movies, so if we’re going to be friends you have to watch scary movies with me.
Q: If you weren’t playing music on a professional level what would you be doing?
Oh, I love acting. If I could be an actress that would be so cool and fun; but honestly, I would probably be running a Pug farm somewhere, saving all of the Pugs in the world. I love Pugs, I have a Pug tattoo, I have a pug myself – I’d be running a pug shelter!
Q: You are from a small town in BC, Canada – and I read that you are of Metis descent, how does your culture play a role in your music and career?
I grew up in a small town in Northwern BC, in the most wonderful Indigenous community, they believed in me so much and they helped me get through college and have been some of my biggest supporters. Funny that you asked, I was on a billboard this morning in Toronto for Spotify because Spotify asked me to curate this months (August) Indigenous playlist which was really exciting. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to hone in and discover new Indigenous artists in Canada, because it wasn’t just country music it was all genres, so I got to really dive in and do some digging and I found so many incredible artists that are Indigenous that I hadn’t heard before so that was really exciting. Ultimately, I just want to make the Indigenous community proud, I want to make my family proud, so I am just really grateful that I have my Indigenous community back home to thank, because if I didn’t have them I wouldn’t be here today.
Photo Credit: Kayla Bowie Creative www.teigengayse.com
