Artist
Melissa Rae Barrie
“I wouldn’t have pursued music at all if it wasn’t for me not being able to play hockey anymore,”...
![Feature image](https://www.604records.com/web/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Untitled-1-620x620.jpg)
“I wouldn’t have pursued music at all if it wasn’t for me not being able to play hockey anymore,” confessed Barrie on the eve of her 604 Records album Breakaway. “When I was 15, I had a string of injuries – four major concussions,” continues the comely brunette singer and songwriter, who recently became engaged to Dallas Stars right-winger Brandon Segal.
Not surprisingly, Barrie felt a lot of anger and angst and luckily found an outlet to channel it all: country music. The 11 songs on Breakaway — recorded in Vancouver and Nashville, with the majority co-produced by Ryan Stewart (Carly Rae Jepsen) and Jesse Tucker (Jessie Farrell) and production contributions by Chad Carlson (Taylor Swift) and Mariana Trench’s Josh Ramsay — don’t necessarily dwell on the hockey frustration, but Barrie has endured other tribulations that have given her perception a shade of darkness.
“I didn’t have the happiest times growing up as a kid and that’s probably why I got into writing songs in the first place,” she admits. “ When you’re 13 years old you don’t have anyone to talk to, so I started writing poetry and songs from the beginning.”