Chelsea Laing couldn't bear to be there.
Last Wednesday, when the Vancouver radio station 102.7 The Peak and Music BC announced on air the Top 12 finalists for the Peak Performance Project, the Port Coquitlam resident stayed at home, ordered a pizza and chilled with a glass a wine.
She made a conscious effort to pull herself away from the hype and be happy with the results — no matter what happened.
She has plenty of friends in the music industry who also want to succeed, she thought.
But she also didn't want the public humiliation.
The year before, Laing had applied for the contest and, while at the live announcement, had "a couple too many drinks" and got upset when her name wasn't called. "I didn't make a scene. I left. I was fine later," she recalled.
This year, however, her method worked.
Hers was the second name announced at the Fortune Sound Club — and her phone immediately lit up with congratulatory messages from well-wishers. "When I found out, my jaw dropped. I thought, 'How am I here?' There are so many top level bands and with tons of experience."
Laing, who works under the band name Chersea, is not only the sole Tri-City musician on the coveted Peak roster, she's also the only woman.
On July 11, Chersea and the other finalists — Little India (Langley); Smash Boom Pow (Vancouver); Jesse Roper (Victoria); Find the Others (Bowen Island); Mindil Beach (Vancouver); Bed of Stars (Abbotsford); Mike Edel (Victoria); Windmills (Vernon); JP Maurice (Victoria); Joy District (Comox Valley); and Van Damsel (Kamloops) — will formally launch their campaigns with live performances at the fourth annual Khatsahlano Street Party.
And, later in the summer, they'll converge in Princeton for a boot camp.
The prizes are good for the winners: $102,700 for first place, and $75,000 for second and $50,000 for third spots. Still, all the Top 12 bands get a $5,000 base camp boost to help with career development.
Now in its seventh year, the Peak Performance Project has seen such bands as The Matinee (of Coquitlam), We Are the City, Kyprios, Current Swell, Dear Rouge and Said the Whale break out from emerging to professional status.
Laing, a Minnekhada middle alumni who graduated at North Burnaby secondary (she transferred for the hockey academy), said she's got a lot to accomplish over the next few months including releasing a new EP or LP and flying to Toronto to pose nude in a calendar for a charitable cause. She also plans to shoot some videos with kids from the downtown eastside charity Project Limelight, of which she is music director.
Laing said she's also getting lots of support from her co-workers at Tom Lee Music in Coquitlam.
After all, music has become her passion. She plays trumpet, clarinet, bass, guitar, drums, piano and banjo and combines her sounds into what she describes as an "electronic tribal pop."
"If you think Imogen Heap, Grimes or Enya, those are pretty good comparisons," she said.
The final showcase for the Top 3 Peak Performance Project finalists will be Nov. 19 at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver.
