Jasmine Wagg, who goes professionally by the stage name of Jas Rose, got a taste of the musician’s life as a teen, when she was a member of Evolutionary Band at Confederation Secondary School.
Now she’s all grown up and writing her own original music.
Rose recently put out an alternative rock track called “Break these Chains.” You can give the track a listen below.
Rose said the song is about breaking through restrictions and ignoring what other people think.
“So far, the response has been really positive from people that I've talked to who have listened to it,” she said, adding that people have said the tune is catchy but also emotional.
“I wanted the song to mean something,” Rose added.
Growing up in Val Caron, Rose played drums, guitar and piano. She was influenced by her parents’ penchant for rock and roll.
When it came time to attend Confederation Secondary School in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Rose ended up taking part in the school’s Evolutionary rock band, participating in the stage crew, as well as playing bass and drums and doing vocals for four years.
Evolutionary was run for 37 years by local teacher Norm Mcintosh, but when he retired in 2017, the school rock band also came to an end.
McIntosh recently released his own first single, and has been working with vocalists — most of them former Evolutionary members — to get them ready for the recording studio.
One of those vocalists is Jas Rose. A couple of years ago, McIntosh helped her produce a cover video of “Without Me” by Halsey. You can watch that video below.
Working with McIntosh on this project was a “great experience,” Rose said.
“That first video really made me feel a lot more confident about what I was doing,” she added.
“It gave me the experience I needed in the student for what the recording process was like and everything like that before I went into my original.”
Rose, who, as well as being an aspiring musician, currently works in background acting, Twitch streaming and content creation, said she started becoming more serious about her songwriting in 2011, after a car crash.
“I found it was liberating,” she said. “I mean, I found it was a good way to deal with emotions that I was having and to distract from the chronic pain because I did get chronic pain and PTSD from that accident.”
Rose said she actually has five completed original tunes. Besides the one she just released, Rose has recorded another track, “Snowflakes,” which will be released later this year.
“I want to just keep creating music that can help move people and heal people,” she said. “I'm just hoping that other people out there especially struggling with mental health and stuff like that are able to find some sort of therapy in it.”
Jas Rose’s single "Break these Chains" is streaming now on YouTube, Amazon, Spotify and Apple.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s associate content editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.
