A Vancouver Island musician who focuses her work on climate and social issues is excited to release her first music video. Elise Boulanger’s new single It Started in the Garden mixes a love story with awareness of biodiversity in the face of climate change.
“I am very passionate and I am scared of climate change and it’s just how I decide to share my voice,” she said. “I feel like music is a way to really amplify messages.”
A Creative BC grant from the province helped her to make the music video, which she released on Sept. 22.
“I don’t know if I would have actually made a music video if it wasn’t for that grant,” Boulanger said. “It definitely changed the game for me.”
She is currently doing a small tour to promote the single, focusing on Vancouver Island venues. She will finish the tour at the Port Theatre in Nanaimo on Nov. 4. She said it will be the biggest of the shows and she hopes to play more theatres in the future.
The single is not planned to be part of an album, but Boulanger has big goals for her music career, “I want to become a cultural ambassador of Canada as a musician,” she said. She also hopes to tour parts of Europe in the next two years and wants to play her music with an orchestra.
“That feels like the biggest goal to me but I just think it’s one of the most beautiful things in the world and it just has such incredible power,” she said.
She was set to do a show at Wildwood Ecoforest this month, but it had to be postponed until Spring.
Since releasing the single Boulanger has been sharing information about wild and invasive plants on her social media to help promote it. She believes many people do not realize how biodiverse Vancouver Island is.
“I think learning about all of the things that you live with can be quite impactful in changing your outlook and how you respect what is around you,” she said.
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