OUTLOOK - In sitting down with 17-year old Jenna Fleck to discuss the recent release of her original song, 'lonely blvd', perhaps a better line of questioning would have been to ask her what instrument *doesn't* she play.
After all, this is a high school student who's fluent in guitar, piano, bass, ukulele, mandolin, and even a little bit of banjo. Odds are you could probably toss her a pair of drum sticks, go grab a bite to eat, come back and she'd be coming close to channelling Keith Moon himself.
"I kind of dabble in everything," said Jenna, with a bit of a self-realizing grin.
Fleck, a Grade 12 student at LCBI High School in Outlook, is in her second year at the Home of the Bisons, originally coming from the family farm near Lampman. She says she got into music from a young age and that coming to LCBI only strengthened her love for it.
"Pretty much ever since I can remember, I've been trying to sing and plucking out notes on a piano," said Jenna. "I didn't really get into it seriously until I was about 13, when I joined my first vocal group and did guitar, singing, and a little bit of drumming and piano. Just recently, coming to LCBI and joining the choir for the first time, and developing my skills with guitar and piano as well, those have been a big part of my musical journey."
Jenna's start on that journey began when her brother needed some backup on a project one day, putting an instrument in her hands. From there, her curiosity quickly gave way to becoming a beloved passion.
"It all started for me when my older brother (Gavin) actually got a banjo and he needed someone to accompany him," she said. "He taught me how to play guitar in order to accompany him on the banjo, and we kind of had a little duo going for a little while. I'd say he was a big part of me learning music and getting into it; I definitely followed his footsteps in that way."
Being raised on the farm, perhaps it's no surprise that country music remains close to Jenna's heart. She says she gains inspiration and influence from two key figures whose music has meant the world to her.
"Growing up, I always looked to Carrie Underwood and now, especially recently, I look to Adele for a lot of musical inspiration," said Fleck. "I love country music. Growing up on a farm, I was always kind of playing that throughout the house. But my favorite to sing and perform would be pop and ballad type songs. I'd say that a lot of how my voice sounds, that comes from Adele and listening to so much of her when I was little. Both Adele and Carrie Underwood have such amazing voices, and that's how I've always tried to establish myself."
Being a student at LCBI has helped Jenna shape her craft immensely, teaching her skills that have given her perspective on live performances and being able to live in the moment.
"For sure, I would say especially singing in the choir and leading worship have given me skills for performance, like learning how to be in front of a crowd of people and not be nervous, and to shake that off and be confident in myself," she said. "I wouldn't be able to do this without LCBI because I have such a firm foundation and support system here that without that, I don't think I'd have the confidence to go do this or the resources. I just feel very supported here, and they've made it so easy to just feel comfortable in doing it and sharing it, and that's something that I love about it."
When it came time to tackle the theme and message of 'lonely blvd', Jenna says that as far as inspiration goes, she looked inward at her own life and where she was at from an emotional perspective at the time. It's a song that she says can make you reflect on life and remind yourself that there's still a light at the end of any dark tunnel.
"So 'lonely blvd' is a song that I wrote when I was going through a little bit of a rough patch personally," she said. "The whole thing with the song is you're walking down a lonely boulevard and at the end of the day, all you have is yourself. I wrote it coming from a point where I felt that all I had was myself, and I felt like I had no one walking through life with me. But as the song goes on, you discover that it's okay, it's okay to be lonely sometimes and it's okay to feel like all you have is yourself and to work on yourself. Just know that in your heart, as long as you have you and you support yourself and you're confident in yourself, it'll all be okay."
Mixing and producing the song behind the scenes was another LCBI alumnus, Layne Jones, who Jenna has known for a long time through her brother. When she was asked if she wanted to record anything, Fleck actually wrote the song the night before she was set to go into the studio.
"Layne Jones is actually my older brother's roommate and they have a band together," she said. "I've known Layne ever since I started coming to LCBI, and he's been best friends with my brother since he started going to LCBI. Layne has a certificate in recording arts, and he kind of just hit me up one day like, 'Hey Jenna, wanna record a song?' So I actually wrote this song the night before I recorded it, and we went to the Recording Arts Institute of Saskatoon where he was going to school and we did that song. It took a day to record it, and he got it back to me in a couple of months."
Following the release of 'lonely blvd', Jenna says she does have some more original music up her sleeve, signalling that this is definitely something that she plans to aggressively pursue in the future.
"Yes, for sure," she said, asked if she continues to write music. "I've kind of gotten this question a lot since releasing 'lonely blvd', which makes me pretty happy. I'm currently working on getting an album out there sometime soon, and I've got some singles in my back pocket that I'd love to share if I'm given the opportunity to do so. I think this will be something that will definitely continue for the rest of my life."
As she graduates this spring, Fleck's immediate future includes college, where she'll be working towards a degree in - you guessed it - music. She plans to continue honing her skills, and while the dream will always be to go to the proverbial "big city" and write songs, Jenna knows it can be a difficult journey. That being said, she's still hungry for the eventual opportunity.
"My plans are to go to Briercrest College next year and pursue a degree in music," she said. "With doing that, I hope to develop my skills and confidence, and with that, as long as I'm blessed to do so, I really hope that one day I get my dream of going to Nashville and writing songs, but of course I know that it's opportunity permitting. It's a hard business to get into, but I hope that one day, I get that opportunity."
If one listens to the song, which is available on Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube, you can hear the intimate one-two combination that makes Jenna the happiest at the end of the day - just a girl and her guitar.
"I'd say the thing that I enjoy the most is that when it's just me and my guitar, it kind of feels like that's all that's there and it makes everything go away," she said. "It really is just me, my music and my voice. The feeling that I get in front of a crowd of people and in front of people that I love watching me sing and feeling the joy that I feel; it's just incomparable. I just love the art of it and being able to do whatever I want to do and write the music I want to write and play the notes I want to play, because it really is just me and my guitar."
