She may have been born and raised in a small suburb of Vancouver, but 18-year-old Ray Gibson has got some big dreams.
She’s already caught the attention of music stars such as Carrie Underwood and Aaron Pritchett, and her covers on YouTube earned her a management contract.
The Maple Ridge native started by playing piano when she was three years old, and she taught herself guitar and and started singing when she was 15.
She hasn’t looked back since, and describes her music now as “kind of Shania Twain, kind of Colbie Caillat style.”
“It’s just kind of an escape from reality,” she said about writing songs and playing music. “I’m not the best at telling people how I feel, but I can put it into lyrics.”
Aside from writing original country songs, Gibson says she loves to do covers of artists she likes, and her cover of Carrie Underwood’s ‘Good Girl’ earned her the attention of the artist herself.
Underwood posted Gibson’s cover on her Facebook page and now the song has more than 64,000 views on YouTube. To top it all off, it was Gibson’s 18th birthday.
Gibson told Global BC how that happened:
The young singer owes a debt of gratitude to the Internet as without it her career may still be trying to get off the ground.
Her manager, Brett Stair, based in Los Angeles, found her because she posted her songs on YouTube.
“I was searching for people covering popular songs one day and I saw her cover for ‘It will rain’ by Bruno Mars,” said Stair. “She was playing the piano and singing. She had a bunch of cover songs up on her YouTube and I watched every single one of them. I thought she had such an interesting way of making each song her own and was very unique to what I’ve seen before.”
He contacted Gibson and signed her to a management deal in March. Now she is planning to put out an online EP soon.
What intrigued him further was the online fanbase Gibson had already created, which has since grown significantly.
“She has gone from 400 to 20,000 Twitter followers since March and from 60,000 to almost 400,000 YouTube views,” said Stair. “It is quite impressive.”
Gibson said she loves connecting with her fans, despite having to deal with some negative comments.
“I just try to ignore it and block it out,” she said. “It’s hard but it’s part of putting yourself on the Internet.”
Gibson’s playlist for her covers on YouTube start with this song:
For now, Gibson is working on her music and perfecting her craft.
“I’m just practicing, live performances, and open mics around Coquitlam and Vancouver,” she said.
A Christmas song with Pritchett is hopefully also on the cards.
She continues to connect with her fans from all over the world, via her Twitter and YouTube page.
“The best thing you can do as a young musician is to build an online fanbase,” said Stair. “People in the business are attracted by artists that want to work for themselves to bring attention to what they are doing. They start the fires that we now add fuel to.”
“It is an invaluable tool to be able to upload videos and show your music to fans and people in the business.”
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