A recipient of the 2022 Stag Award in recognition of her contributions to the Shawnigan community as Co-Head of School, School Prefect, Deputy Head of House and Musical lead, MacKinley was a standout performer on stage, a fierce champion for her peers, a determined athlete, and a steadfast Strathcona girl. She was also a role model whose positivity inspired hundreds of students. 

We sat down with MacKinley to discuss her new music, her favourite Shawnigan memories, and what comes next.

 

Since I was a kid, I've loved music, and it was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to pursue it. When I was young I took singing and songwriting lessons and played guitar – I even branched out to instruments like the clarinet and trumpet.

As I grew up, my path teetered between rugby and music. After dealing with some health issues, I decided to focus on music. I really enjoyed songwriting, and I had access to a lot of awesome resources at Shawnigan. The next thing I knew, I was applying to universities and discovered that there were music programs I could attend. I ended up studying music at university in the U.S. for a year. Ultimately, it wasn't quite the right path for me, but it showed me what I could do with music and where it could take me at a young age.

I went to university to study music therapy, songwriting, and music business, but my gut kept telling me it wasn't the right place for me. I took a year off school to network in Vancouver, get as many gigs as I could, and see if music was still what I wanted to pursue.

During my year in Vancouver, I played a gig at a tiny bar. My family was away, it was snowing, and there was no one there. However, one person in attendance was a music producer who had come across my work online and had previously worked with Metallica and AC/DC.  He gave me his business card, which gave me my first step in the door into the Vancouver music industry. Whether through recording, collaborating with other artists, or connecting with labels, that moment made me realize a career in music was possible for me there.

 

When I was younger, especially during my time at Shawnigan, I wrote about every feeling I had, which resulted in a lot of songs about young heartbreak! I'm definitely an oversharer, and vulnerability is what truly inspires my music. Initially, I don’t write songs with the intention of releasing them; I write them as an emotional outlet but then I'll realize a song is catchy and decide to put it out.

As I got older, I was inspired by my friends and the fun we had together. Having such a great support system helped me grow and motivated me to create more fun music. Outside of high school, I pivoted a little bit and became more of a rock artist. I think it's really cool to have a contrast of really emotional, heavy feelings, but make it really fun and rock. 

I've always been very lucky; for as long as I can remember, my parents said, "You're going to be a rock star," and were very supportive. That has always been my mindset, whether there's one person in the crowd or 100, I go into it thinking, “This is going to work out.”

In this career, you have to go into it completely committed, telling yourself, "This is what I'm doing right now," because otherwise you can lean on a backup plan too much. As I started playing more live shows and getting a band and recording, and starting telling other stories in my music, it was really cool to see the transition between 15-year-old MacKinley who was writing a song on her guitar and playing it in Chapel, to being on a bigger stage with a band and having people enjoy my music. 

Right now, I'm really excited to hopefully go on tour with other artists, ideally more established artists. I used to get nervous and very hypercritical of myself; when I was performing, I was always a little bit shy, and a little bit awkward, but now I feel like I've grown up and I really love being on stage. Now that I have an established band and songs that I'm really proud of, I think the next step would be touring. Earlier this year, we opened for a few touring bands, which was an awesome experience. Next year, I'd love to get picked up by a more established touring artist and be their opening act for their Canadian tour.

Shawnigan pushed me to be myself and gave me a lot of confidence. I felt really lucky leaving, believing I could do anything. [The School] gives a lot of performing opportunities, like in Chapel, which prepared me for the industry or being in the recording studio. When I was at Berklee School of Music, they had these really nice recording studios, but I didn’t feel nervous because we had those resources at Shawnigan.

It also taught me that it’s good to lean on friends and have good people around you. The first year out of Shawnigan, I was trying to do everything myself, while figuring out artistically who I wanted to be and I was a little bit lost as any young person would be. I met some of the best friends of my whole life here.  I think once I leaned into those friendships, someone like Katy Carmichael ’22 (Strathcona) taught me so much about being myself, having fun on stage and not trying to be someone else just to look cool. In any industry, but especially music, to have someone beside you who supports you, and you can trust has your best interest at heart, and who knows who you are, is really lucky and I think I would be lost without that friendship.

In music and songwriting, you put so much of your private self out there; you are truly your own brand and your own business. At the start of my career, I was hypercritical and self-conscious. Coming straight out of high school as a teenager, I didn't even know what I wanted to share, making it really hard to lean into being myself. Over the past few years, I’ve been learning how tricky it can be to navigate the industry as an independent female artist. When you're unsigned, you are your own manager, you book your own gigs and make your own connections with producers and photographers, et cetera.

I was diagnosed with short-term memory loss when I arrived here in Grade 8, which created a mental block around what I thought I was capable of doing such as memorizing things; I thought I just couldn’t do it. Then in Grade 12, I got a lead role in the musical. I was unsure if I could pull it off or remember all my lines, but I did. It was fun musically and opportunity wise, it was a proud moment where I showed myself that I could do it, which was a really cool feeling. Plus, the musical was just so much fun.

One of my other favourite memories was prank week in Grade 12. With everything that was going on – musical season, rugby provincials, finals – everyone was really stressed out. Katy and I decided we wanted to do a week of fun when we could in Strathcona and we made it a prank week. For the whole week we did funny things, every morning we would do something, and our House Director, Mrs. Platt, would wake up and just laugh. It brought a lighthearted feeling during a crazy time and made it feel like it was OK not to take things seriously. Yes, you should remember it’s your Grade 12 year and it’s important to lock in and focus, but it's equally important to have fun with your friends and recognize that you'll never be in that position again.

My advisor and rugby coach, Ms. Atkins, was a very motherly figure to me, helping me navigate so much of the change going on in my life. Ms. Conroy, who was in my house also guided me through the year whenever things felt crazy. And of course, Mrs. Platt. She was more like our fun dad and we’d have something fun going on and we had so many laughs together.

Career-wise, the main thing I learned is hard work. You only get out of life as you put in. At Shawnigan, there’s always something going on, you always had something to do, and were planning for what came next. It really taught me that I don’t like to sit in comfort. I like being challenged, and the only way I was going to be successful was to push myself, things like reaching out to venues about shows and messaging 20 artists on Instagram to say, "Let me open for you." You only get as many opportunities as you actively pursue.

For me personally, [Shawnigan] also taught me to try to live every day like myself. At the end of the day, your friends are going to guide you. No matter what your career is looking like – whether you are selling out a show or your song has 200 streams on Spotify – at the end of the day, your friends are going to get you through that and that’s what really matters.