Celebrating Her Small Town Roots — Alli Walker’s “Home Town Home”
Alli Walker is a Prince Edward Island (PEI) raised country music singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who moved to Toronto when she was 19 to ‘chase the dream.’ After dedicating over a decade to honing her craft, writing music and playing hundreds of shows, she released her debut album, The Basement Sessions: What I’ve Learned So Far, in 2019 to great acclaim.
Your debut album has one million+ streams. The music video for “Our Christmas,” your highest streamed song to date, includes all your favorite Christmas memories growing up. “Rich,” 200K streams in the first month, was co-written with Brian John Harwood and Chris Labelle. Landing spots on Canada’s top playlists, including Apple Music’s Canada Country and Amazon Music’s Breakthrough Country.
Rising Star nomination at Country Music Association of Ontario Awards. What’s next on your career vision board?
I believe in ‘what you think about, you bring about’ (plus lots of action) so I do actually have a career vision board in my studio that is packed with goals for the future, like performances and stages I’d like to hit, opportunities I’d love to have, and analytics I’d like to achieve. In the immediate future I have multiple singles finished and ready to go which will be released up until my album releases in the first quarter of 2023. Each release has a music video and tons of other content for my fans. I’m always creating and have lots of exciting things in the bank for this current project. I’m also writing towards my next project, and working to expand my live show!
“Maybe I’m Still Drunk,” written by Hannah Ellis and Alex Masters. “Since this song is essentially about being hungover (which I have lots of experience in) and questioning last night’s decisions, I really wanted the mood to reflect that.” Working on visuals for your singles and photo/video shoots. As you continue to get involved in more and more parts of your music, how do you believe this can help your own songwriting?
When I write a song I always think of the music video, and how it can be portrayed as a visual component. So when I write I like to make the lyrics very relatable and storyline driven. I want listeners to be able to easily put themselves in the song. I love every aspect of having a music career, from writing, to performing, to graphic design, video creation, and marketing, etc. Everything ties in together in some way, and I really put a lot of effort and am mindful that everything is cohesive and tells an overall story when you hear it, think of it, and look at it. To me that is the exciting part of putting together a full project.
“I’m in the process of moving to my husband’s hometown, so it was easy to look back on the things I loved most about growing up in a small town, like parking lot hangouts and bonfires on Saturday nights. I know as long as I have some of those pieces, I will feel right at home in any new place.” … “Home Town Home,” celebrates your small-town roots. Co-written with Dustin Bird, the lyrics are your own journey over the past six years with Eric, your husband, whom you’ve described as “the guy behind the scenes believing in you from the get-go even in times when you didn’t.” If you were to write about your new home town, how would the chorus go?
My husband and I are quite literally on the road right now driving from Ontario to Kelowna, BC to start a new chapter of life. I actually wrote the song knowing that we were going to move there some day, so I wouldn’t change anything about the song, but if I could add a bonus chorus, I think it would talk about the salty air of the beach (I’m from PEI) compared to the cool air of the mountains, how the laid back lifestyle of the west coast is compared to the bustling city life in Toronto where we’ve been living the last decade and how I’m ready to settle down and really build a life with the simpler small town mindset and lifestyle that I had growing up.
You originally posted your latest on TikTok, where fans demanded you include it in your upcoming sophomore album that will be releasing next year. You shared that Factor Canada has helped you, as they do other Canadian independent music industry artists, companies, and community organizations. Now, as you released the song’s lyric video, what else can fans look forward to this year?
Factor has been an immense help in creating this whole project. It is a very hard grant to receive, it took me several tries over multiple years so I am so grateful to have finally received it as it’s facilitating me getting to live out a lot of my dreams and achieve my goals. Recording a 7-song album, with creative lyric videos and music videos for each single, extra content, plus building a marketing team around it is extremely expensive, so having the support of Factor and the government of Canada believing in the project is incredible. I really wanted this album to be done right, so for over a year, over the pandemic, I put out demos on Instagram and TikTok and got feedback from the fans on which songs resonated with them. This really got everyone engaged and they have been so patient with me throughout the recording process until the release of each song and really kept up their excitement which I am so grateful for. It really feels like a team effort in that respect. I have a music video for “Home Town Home” coming out, which is my current single and one fans were really excited about and waiting patiently for since the beginning. I went up to a friend’s beautiful property in Muskoka, Ontario and shot it there and I can’t wait to see what my fans think!