ENCINITAS — Her traditional day job is gone and she’s funded her music career and just released her newest EP also in a not-so traditional way.
About the only thing traditional about singer/songwriter Christine Parker is her music.
Parker, who now lives in Encinitas, ditched her job working in the warehouse of a medical device company more than a year ago to pursue music on a full-time basis.
And the time that that has allowed her to do so has been “priceless,” she said.
Three years ago, the Fallbrook native and former counseling therapist, found herself in Carlsbad seeking gigs wherever she could find them. Now, the gigs are becoming easier to find and with the release of “Between You & Me,” her new five-track EP, she’s hopeful the songs will soon find their way onto the radio waves.
Prior to the EP, Parker recorded “Looking Glass,” (2013) her first full-length album the “traditional way,” paying for studio time, studio musicians and engineers — all with the help of the crowdfunding source Kickstarter.
Kickstarter has played a significant role in her music career, and she’s been a big fan of using it to get her projects done.
She recorded “Between You & Me” with the funding help of Kickstarter.
“It’s been a tremendous help,” Parker said. “I wouldn’t have been able to do this project or the projects prior without that kind of financial backing from a large group of people.”
Parker also recorded her new songs without the benefit of a studio, using her home base instead to record her vocals and guitar, and working with producer Masen Larsen in another rather non-traditional way — that is to say, over the internet.
Larsen, who’s based in Austin, Texas, would receive the recordings in file form and the duo would send files back and forth to each other, crafting and editing the songs until they had gotten them how they wanted them.
“It was a different process, a different sound,” Parker said of recording “Between You & Me.”
Over the EP’s songs, Parker was focused on walking that fine line between being an artist, she explained, where on one side you have to stay true to yourself, while still trying to make the music accessible to as many people as possible.
Parker, with special guest Lee Coulter, will be at Univ Studio in Encinitas (1057 S. Coast Hwy. 101) for her EP release party Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Visit christineparkermusic.com for details.
