A young woman originally from Bonnyville returned home this summer with an accomplishment she's eager to share. Justine Allynn, daughter of Rhonda and Rock, recorded a CD of music titled Colours while attending Bethel Christian School in Redding, California.
Allynn shared a few songs for friends and family at the Bonnyville Community Church on Aug. 29. Fellow Bethel student Justin Byrne joined Allynn on guitar, as well as Courtney Shutter on drums for a song.
Songs on Colours come from as early as age 13. Allynn says she wanted to do a CD with no negativity, “where every song was encouraging and brought hope and life. I just wanted to do a CD that's just fun and bright.”
The cover of Colours shows Allynn in a bright pink dress, which she bought at a thrift store for $40, standing in a multi-colour forest, imagery she says was inspired by Alice in Wonderland. She says she wanted something different and abstract on the cover, which she accomplished with the help of friends at Bethel.
Byrne and Allynn became friends through the process of recording Colours. “I wanted to help the songs be very close to what she originally wanted them to be about,” Byrne says. “It worked pretty well because she is colourful and happy. If you listen to her CD, that's what it sounds like.”
Allynn moved to California, to attend Bethel Christian School two years ago. The recording took two years from conception to completion. She started with the goal of recording songs for family and friends before it took off into an album project.
She wrote the songs on a bass, which Byrne complemented with guitar. The recording only took a couple weeks, but she sent it away to get mixed and mastered in Nashville.
“Itis kind of what I thought it would be, but so much more,” she says, referring to the layering of tracks added to the songs for the CD. The album includes a variety of easy listening songs, which she hopes will make the music accessible to a lot of different people. The diverse range of tracks includes cello, violin, and piano performances.
“I feel like each person has a different colour. Everyone's different,” she says, “and we all bring something different to life.”
Allynn will move closer to her grandmother and attend Hillsong School in Australia after Christmas to take a program in social justice. Ten per cent of every CD sold goes to Pearl Alliance, a group working to end human trafficking, something she says fits with her social justice goals.
For more information visit www.justineallynn.com.