Amelie Patterson planned to pursue medicine like her parents after her biology degree.
But, knowing music was what she truly enjoyed, she took her chance on the stage with a microphone and made a name for herself as an indie-folk singer.
Born and raised in the Rocky Mountain tourist hotspot of Banff, Alta., Patterson and her two older brothers live with their parents, a pair of local doctors, who Patterson says, played an important role in the community.
“I liked how valued they were by my town. It was really social. Everybody knew them. They had strong connections to people‘s families. They knew about people’s histories and stuff like that,” says Patterson.
Looking up to her parents’ positive impact planted the idea that she should pursue medicine.
Medical school or music?
However, from a young age, Patterson had a close connection to music. While her father and two older brothers played guitar, Patterson was more of a singer and enjoyed sharing her talent with anyone who crossed her path.
“I remember I learned a song in kindergarten that I just loved to sing, and I would tell people I was going to be a professional singer, and I would, like, try it out on them. Like anybody,” says Patterson.
From here, her interest in the musical arts only grew.
After years of watching her brothers and dad play, Patterson gave the guitar a shot. To her surprise, it came to her quickly. The challenge of the F-chord, however, entangled Patterson’s fingers with string and left her frustrated while she attempted songs from her favourite bands, like Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse.
“I remember I was struggling to learn songs that I loved because they had chord shapes that were too difficult, so I just started making up my own songs because I wanted so badly to sing to them,” says the musician.
Although Patterson had found her calling as a singer-songwriter, she was also graduating from high school and feeling pressured to decide on her future. From there, Patterson chose to upgrade her chemistry at Mount Royal University and later attended the University of Victoria for a biology degree.
Elective music courses
In her final year, in her very last semester, Patterson had only three elective courses to take to complete her degree. Desiring to learn more about music history, she opted to take a course in African Hand Drumming, the History of Rock and Roll, and the History of The Beatles.
These classes helped Patterson realize that biology was not the right fit for her. When studying music, she unleashed her creativity and saw where her mind could take her.
“I loved it. I loved being in that brain,” she says. “And the previous four years had been really, really negative self-talk, really negative space.”
After graduating from UVic, Patterson told her dad she wanted to pursue music. She says the two remember the conversation very differently. Patterson remembers her dad was cool with her choice, and her dad thought she was having a quick freakout about science and wasn’t too serious about singing. This is when he told Patterson to write herself a contract.
“‘Take every gig, every opportunity, learn as much as you can, give yourself a year,” Patterson recalls him saying. “Play tons of music, and in a year, open that contract back up and look. If you enjoyed it, if you loved it, sign another contract with yourself. If you didn’t, that’s fine. You still have the option to go to vet school if you want, or go to grad school, or do whatever things you see fit.’”
With support from her dad, Patterson took his advice and started taking every show and event that came her way.
Her first regular position was at St. James Gate in Banff, where she mainly sang covers every Sunday. This led her to the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, where she started performing with a band. Despite having never played together, guitarist Barry Mason says her infectious enthusiasm made the process a breeze.
“Everything was meshing really well from day one, and I think a lot of that had to do with just how friendly and nice and outgoing of a person she is,” says Mason.
The human connection
These experiences and learning opportunities helped Patterson find her footing in the music industry. She started recognizing her writing process and focusing on creating lyrically driven music.
Kyle Tenove, the bassist for much of Patterson’s music, says Patterson’s incomparable lyricism and genuine joy for the craft make her stand out among other songwriters.
“She can be so funny, but she can also just be so impactful with how she can tell a story on and off stage,” says Tenove.
Patterson finds it important to share her emotions when writing her music because it can ascribe words to an otherwise unexplainable feeling.
“When I’m playing music, when I’m performing music, my goal is connection. I want to feel like I’m sitting knee-to-knee with people and walking hand-in-hand through the human condition and, if I can, give people some emotional vocabulary to [deal with] stuff that we’re going through,” says Patterson.