Local musician Sykamore wins $10K
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
It was a surreal moment for Carseland native Jordan Ostrom on Sept. 25 when she found out she was the winner of the ATB All Albertan Song Writing Contest. Ostrom, who goes by the name Sykamore professionally, won $10,000 with the title, with her track Heaven in the Pines.
“It was pretty surreal when we found out that I was first,” said Ostrom.
“I was with my mom in a hotel in Nashville and we had to tune in to CKUA on the internet, I had to go to the website, it was a total nail-biter. I was in the Top 2 with T. Buckley and the online voting was really close so it was impossible to tell who was going to win.”
This was the fourth year for the contest, which encourages local songwriters to write and record a song about Alberta and being an Albertan.
Ostrom was at Winos in downtown Calgary with her manager when one of his friends, who had joined them, mentioned the ATB contest after finding out she writes her own music.
That was about a month before the deadline. She had then forgotten about it until one day she was home and it crossed her mind. She thought maybe she would try and write something, what did she have to lose? After making sure the deadline hadn’t passed, she got to work.
“So I wrote the song on the Friday, and then I went to my parents’ house and recorded it in my closet on the Saturday and I sent it off to be mixed and mastered. I had the final product back to me the afternoon that I was supposed to submit it,” said Ostrom.
The idea for the song and the title came from a driving trip she had taken to Seattle in May with a friend.
“I just remember that glorious moment when we crossed over the border back into Canada and I was just so happy. It was partly because of technology, (not relying on WiFi anymore) but it was also because there’s something about crossing the border, the landscape just gets that much more beautiful. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s just familiarity or whatever but my friend and I were just really excited,” said Ostrom.
On the way back to Calgary they stopped in Longview, pulling over to take pictures, and she remembered the phrase, ‘Heaven in the pines’ running through her head. She had logged it away thinking it would be useful for a song one day. That trip and the memory of it is what inspired the song, said Ostrom. Heaven in the Pines is about that feeling and excitement you get when you’ve been outside of Alberta, or Canada, missing it, and you know you’re getting close to home.
The money Ostrom won will be used towards her career for things like recording, tours and other expenses as they come down the road. If you haven’t heard anything by Sykamore, be sure to check out her Facebook page where you can finds links to her songs, including Heaven in the Pines.