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Former resident kicks off music career

A former Terrace resident who excelled at dancing shifts her focus to singing with the release of her first video.
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Rebekah Asselstine

A former Terrace resident who excelled at dancing is now shifting her focus to singing and pursuing her dream career with the release of her first video.

Rebekah Asselstine, 24, released her first music video, A Night to Forget, Aug. 1 online and at a release party at the Venue Nightclub in Vancouver after nine months of working on it. The video premiere was “fantastic,” she said.

“I’m in a very happy place and blessed and at this point, I just have to keep moving forward with what I have planned.”

She did it under her performing name, BEXX, an obvious choice for her as it’s been her nickname pretty much all her life, she said.

“It’s taken a long, long time. I did the music video nine months ago. It’s a start. It’s an opening to the next chapter kind of things,” she said.

She moved to Vancouver from Terrace in 2009 when she was accepted by professional dance school Modus Operandi into a program of contemporary dance-based training and she’s been in Vancouver ever since.

Her journey to releasing her first music video began when her manager at the time heard her singing in the car and told her she needed to get into a recording studio right away. Networking is the key and word of mouth led to the opportunities she’s had so far.

The door opened to her making a demo and writer/producer Troy Samson began penning her a song.

“He was intrigued by my voice and personality,” she said.

“[He said] ‘you like to have fun, you’re from a small town.’ I used to party a lot. I had fun and I grew up dancing.”

She recorded the song and about a week later, she got the edit back and started to notice things she wanted to improve and change about it. Then the realization hit her that she could be a singer.

“I can make a career for myself if I really, really, really want to and want to work my ass off,” she said.

Up until then, she had no vocal training so she started training with vocal coach Judith Rabinovitch and Josh Ramsay from the pop rock band Marianas Trench.

That was all in 2013.

Her voice and knowledge now are much different, “night and day” from where she started, she said.

She has travelled back and forth to Los Angeles for the last two years for acting and singing.

“Definitely I’m learning who I am and what I need to do,” she said. Even though she didn’t write the song in her first video, she did envision what she wanted out of it and where it could take her. “I just took it and ran for it,” she said.

Emma Higgins, who has directed Marianas Trench videos among other artists, directed the video and her partner David Angelski produced it.

“They’re a fantastic team and really took my vision and made it come to life and it was the best camera team and best editing team,” she said, adding Higgins edited it.

The video shows you can go out and be whoever you want, and do whatever you want and go home and forget about it, she said.

“I believe everyone should have equal rights to everything, no matter what kind of human, sexual preference, style,” she said.

“The video is full of people doing whatever they want to do and having a good time. It was the funnest day of my life to this day.”

Being a pop star is something everyone thinks would be cool and pretends to be in their room or they sing in the shower, but it’s come to life for her.

“I love getting all glamorous and looking entirely different,” she said. “I get to do this night once a year and that will last me a year,” she added about her video premiere.

At the end of the day, she shows up in a hoodie and sweatpants, and  does not wear makeup, she said about her usual look.

In the video, she sings, acts and dances and although pop music isn’t the  genre she always wants to be in, it’s a good starting outlet, she said. Her music genre of choice is more of an underground electronic, indie sound. And since the video was made nine months ago, it’s different from what she’s doing now but was a good first step.

“It’s going to be cool to look back at it one day and say “wow, look at that and look where I’m at now,” she said.

This past July, she went to Los Angeles, and spent a week writing songs and recorded four songs in five days.

Balancing her relationship with her family, friends and boyfriend isn’t easy because it’s easy to get sucked into the career part of life but she tries to stay connected to everyone as much as she can.

They’re all her support team.

“Proud parents, that’s for sure and I could not have done it without them for sure,” she said. “They definitely always knew I would do it and not once doubted it. If they did, they would tell me,” she said, adding she told her family when she was young that no matter what, she would act, dance and sing. She’s invested a lot to get to this point and is willing to go as far as it takes.

“I’m willing to risk everything,” she said about her singing career.

“What’s the worst that can happen? At least I can try it and say I did it once and I’m happy I did it because if I didn’t do it, I would’ve felt very incomplete,” she said.

She is taking time off now and has writing sessions booked for September to finish her EP.  A Night to Forget can be viewed on Youtube, on the BEXX facebook page or at her website bexxofficalmusic.com.