Rosewood Ave: They Met on MSN. Now They're on the Radio

Sabrina and Dave of Rosewood Avenue are a husband and wife country duo from Northern Ontario. And when they say Northern Ontario, they mean it. 

Think past Muskoka ... past Sudbury ... and keep going. They're near Timmins, home of Shania Twain, in a small town called Matheson.

They've been making music together for 17 years, but it's only been the last five or six that they've been pushing it on a professional level. Sabrina spent nine years teaching music before making the leap. 

Dave's always had music in his blood, with a cousin who plays lead guitar for Johnny Reid. Together, they've built something that sounds like Northern Ontario feels: honest, warm, and rooted.

The band name? A little bit of a love story. 

Sabrina's maiden name, Charleboix, has "bois" in it, which means wood in French. Dave always bought her roses. And Devonshire Avenue is the street where they first met as neighbours, connected by a very 2000s introduction through MSN Messenger.

We talked about how they balance being a couple, co-writers, and business partners, what it was like for Dave to go from strictly guitar player to vocalist, why they haven't left their small town and don't plan to anytime soon, the Ontario country community and what it's meant to their career, and the emotional experience of hearing "Leavin' Town" on the radio for the first time.

Rosewood Avenue's current single "Leavin' Town" is at Canadian country radio now, sitting in the top 50 and climbing. 

We're so excited to welcome you back for Season 5 of On The Porch with Front Porch Music. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe … it's one of the easiest ways to support the show and helps more listeners find us.

Grab a drink, pull up a chair, and join us On The Front Porch, every other Tuesday.

On The Porch with Front Porch Music is a Front Porch Production and is hosted by Logan Miller and Jenna Weishar. The podcast is produced by Jason Saunders. The theme song for the podcast was written, produced, and performed by Owen Riegling.

Transcript

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (00:00.139)
Ten minutes in and not the end.

Jenna (00:02.176)
Yeah, actually, I think I just hit record and I was like, we'll just use, we'll use what we have. Okay, so the way that this works is it's a bit of a long form conversation. We don't love doing the typical question answer interviews because everyone asks the same questions and same answer all the time. So whatever, now's not the time to be shy.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (00:07.602)
Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (00:24.534)
Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (00:30.305)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna (00:31.38)
So if you know, take your time with answers and you know, we can always edit things out, take out pauses. So if there's pauses, don't worry. And yeah, so we'll just do like a bit of a back and forth. So we'll cover obviously how you all formed, the fact that you're married, your CMAO nominations, congrats by the way.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (00:59.105)
Thank you.

Jenna (01:00.142)
And then we'll obviously talk about your new single, Leave in Town. Is there anything else that you wanted to touch on?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (01:04.139)
Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (01:09.725)
I think that's a pretty good like, and we're open to chatting about whatever really. Yeah. Yeah.

Jenna (01:16.11)
Cool. So this thing goes to focus. Are you doing a bunch of shows right now, right? Or coming up?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (01:23.009)
yeah, we have some lined up. nothing crazy announced yet.

Jenna (01:28.322)
Okay, okay, so we won't go too deep there. Yeah, any questions before we, well can say hit record, but we're already recording.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (01:38.625)
Yeah, no, it seems good. Are we freezing at all on your end like for you? Okay. And remember, it'll... No, I know. I was just curious. Yeah. That's all. Okay.

Jenna (01:51.04)
All right, so we are here today with Sabrina and Dave from Rosewood Avenue. Welcome.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (01:56.907)
Thank you for having us.

Jenna (01:58.764)
Welcome to the porch!

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (02:00.588)
Woo!

Jenna (02:01.934)
I can't believe we haven't had you up here yet on the porch. So I really appreciate you making the time out of your crazy schedule over the next couple of weeks to meet with us.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (02:13.077)
Yeah, we're excited to be a part of it as well. Absolutely. It's been a while since we've chatted like formally like this, but yeah. And you know, we always see each other either CMAOs or CCMAs, but you know, it's always such a crazy time. Yeah. We kind of just like, Hey, how's it going? Okay.

Jenna (02:27.671)
I know.

Yeah. Quick hugs. How you doing? How's life? Catch up. See ya. Yeah. yeah. Always a cheers for sure. Especially at those events. So what's going on with you guys? How's things with in Rosewood Abland?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (02:34.793)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cheers. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (02:51.393)
It's been busy. Rosewood, Avalon has been kind of like a whirlwind in all the best ways, but yeah, things have been really exciting. Yeah, it's been a little bit like a roller coaster. You know, you're it's kind of like, you know, not too much. And then all of a sudden you're like, yeah, we got this, we got that. And it's just nonstop. But we like the busy. Yeah, we do. Yeah. Yeah.

Jenna (03:14.83)
I don't know if this happens for you guys, every year it's like, okay, I'm be ready for the summer season, for the busy season. It's gonna be a lot more organized. And then all of sudden it's here and you're like, plan nothing.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (03:27.207)
It's true. Like, and I'm especially bad for packing for the big events. I'm always like, I'm going to be less stressed. I'm going to start, you know, slowly weaken events night before. I'm like, what am I going to wear?

Jenna (03:40.878)
I've never packed more than 12 hours before anything.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (03:44.029)
Okay, so we're like kindred spirits in the packing world. Yeah, but I mean, I guess it's a little easier for me and you, Logan. You know, couple dress shirts, some shirts, jeans. We I don't know about you, but like I got like my four pair of jeans, good jeans. Yeah. And you pack those and you're like, all right, we're good. That's true. Yeah. And the black ones.

Jenna (03:56.256)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jenna (04:01.762)
Yeah. Yeah.

I got the blue ones, the dark blue ones, the light blue ones, and ooh, and the black ones. Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (04:12.049)
And the black. Those are the really fancy ones. Like those are for special events at the Black Jeans. Yeah.

Jenna (04:17.454)
It's true, it's true. Although all my hats take up a lot of space. So there's that. So why don't we, for those of us who are listening who don't know you yet or are just getting to know you from hearing your song on the radio, why don't you tell us who you are, where you're from, and how you got to where you are right now.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (04:40.501)
Yeah, sure. So we're Rosewood Avenue, husband and wife country duo. We live in Northern Ontario and by Northern Ontario we mean Northern Ontario near the Timmins. No. keep driving. Muskoka is a South for us. Yeah. So near the Timmins area, home of Schneidt Wayne, if you're not sure where Timmins is.

Jenna (04:52.138)
North. Not the cute little central Ontario or like Muskogee. It's like North.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (05:09.217)
Um, and, uh, we've been playing, you know, she's sort of in these parts. Uh, but we've been doing this for 17 years now, um, that we've been together and, uh, playing music together, but we started doing it a little bit more on the professional side and, and, uh, you know, getting ourselves out there and, uh, for about five, six years now. Right. Um, yeah. So that's.

Jenna (05:11.129)
don't know who that is.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (05:38.603)
pretty much who we are. In a nutshell. In a nutshell, yeah.

Jenna (05:42.126)
So did you guys meet through music or did music kind of come after you got to know each other?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (05:49.057)
Um, for me anyway, it was sort of at the same time because, um, so I was always into music since I was a kid and we kind of had like a nice little music scene in our small high school. And, um, a friend of mine had said, there's this guy, Sabrina that lives across the street from you. And here's a little clip of him playing the guitar that I got, she got sent on MSN messenger, which dates us a little bit. And I listened to it and I was like,

Jenna (06:13.164)
Yeah, my son. Status set to away.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (06:18.976)
Yeah, exactly. Log in, log out. So I couldn't believe it that there was this guy that could play like that and I've never met him before. So basically I added him on Messenger and you know, I like to tell the story that his email was DaveRockstar101 at popmail.com and that's a true story. Horrible. Yeah.

Jenna (06:21.709)
You

Jenna (06:41.962)
Everyone has an embarrassing first email.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (06:45.088)
So anyways, we added each other on friends and I was like, hey, like I'm your neighbor Sabrina Did you did you know that but I didn't get into the part that I was a musician because I wanted to see what kind of guy you know Does he want to get to know me for me? I I kind of ignored her

Jenna (07:03.416)
Well yeah, cause some stranger just added you as a friend. I'm your neighbour, do you know me?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (07:06.632)
Right? Yeah, wasn't too smooth on my end. so, you know, fast forward maybe about like three weeks and we went to my parents had some some friends that also knew Sabrina and her family and we got to talking about music and they said, well, you know, your neighbor is a musician. was like, really? Who?

Yeah, Sabrina, she lives across the street from you and like she records music and I was like, really? So that same night, MSN messenger, Hey, so that's kind of how you know.

Jenna (07:46.974)
look, she already added me.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (07:55.433)
And then we became really good friends actually for about a year. Eventually that wasn't enough feelings and the rumors, the small town rumors started going around and yeah, fast forward to now we're married on this crazy journey. married nine years this summer. It's just crazy. Yeah.

Jenna (08:19.288)
Whoa, cool. Wait, so that small of a town, living across the street from one another, you didn't know each other already?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (08:29.672)
So he was from another small town, Rock Falls, he had just moved across the street to Yerko Falls. So he was the new kid in town at that point. Yeah. Or else I definitely would have known. Just play guitar by myself.

Jenna (08:39.272)
Mmm, gotcha. Yeah. Like, did you just never go outside?

Yeah. And then is that the inspiration behind your band name, Rosebud Ave?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (08:57.226)
Part of it. So I mean, we kind of like when we decided to take this in a more professional manner, Sabrina and Dave were kind of like, yeah, that's not going to cut it. So we wanted a name that wasn't just random and that meant something. So this was in our hot tub, our thinking tank, as we call it, and started kind of

Jenna (09:11.576)
Hmm.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (09:27.1)
brainstorming and her maiden name is Charleboix, her last name. And Bois means wood in French. then Rosewood is basically, I always bought her roses for our anniversary. So we're just kind of like Rosewood came out and we're like, yeah, that's kind of cool. I think we could do something cool with that. And then we thought about Devonshire Avenue, which is where I moved and where

we met. And so we threw all that in a blender, Rosewood Avenue, we're like, that's kind of cool. That, you know, has a smooth ring to it. we went with that.

Jenna (10:10.04)
So when did you two start performing together as, even unofficially as a duo, just kind of from the beginning?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (10:18.88)
Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. we started, I was gigging quite a bit at the time and pretty much as soon as we started dating, um, like, so do you want to start joining me on, on shows? So I was playing a local, a Canada day thing and that was our first one. Yeah. I said, do you want to play? Like here's, here's the songs. But back then I had all my songs like in a big binder and, uh, sent that to him. And, uh, yeah, we played our first, our first show together.

like 16, 17 years ago. Yeah. And at the time, like he was strictly e-guitar. Um, you know, he, he really thought he would never get into singing. Um, so yeah, we did our first show together and I like to joke around because I knew he was good at lead guitar, but he would just kind of played the same chords as me. And after the show, I'm like, so you did a really good job, but like you're doing the same thing that I'm doing. So I think you need to be my lead guitar player.

Jenna (11:07.683)
He

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (11:17.792)
She's always given me more work. You gotta learn leads, you gotta learn how to sing. No, it's, you know, I feel very grateful because I was always just kind of playing guitar by myself in my basement, you know. And if, you know, a piece of advice for any musician, younger musician or older, but starting out.

play with other people, you will like improve tremendously so quickly as well. So yeah, that happened for me and just kind of took off from there.

Jenna (11:55.554)
Dave, was a career in music ever kind of on your radar or was it more of like a... Yeah, it was.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (12:02.162)
Yeah, I mean, I was fortunate enough as well to grow up in a very musical family. My cousin is the lead guitar player for Johnny Reed. So, know, yeah, it was always sort of a thing that like for me, it's like it is possible to do music because a lot of my

Jenna (12:16.142)
Fun fact!

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (12:27.583)
relatives were in the music industry. a few cousins actually in the industry. Yeah, I have another one that is a bass player for the French group Les Ratswampes. And yeah, and then I have another cousin that is playing for a Swedish metal band called Sowin. Yeah. Yeah, I know. So, you know, yeah, it's very musical family.

Jenna (12:39.693)
Love them.

Jenna (12:50.812)
Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (12:56.767)
so yeah, it was always, something that I wanted to do. but with like meeting Sabrina, I just, kind of found something that we could kind of market and that, that worked, know? Yeah. And I think like for you too, you always wanted to be in the industry, but I don't know if you felt like being an artist was going to be that path. So I probably never thought I could be an artist. It's really brought like some, some cool.

Yeah. Thanks. Yeah.

Jenna (13:27.864)
So if you weren't singing before, that first time that you grabbed the mic on stage, were you like shitting your pants?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (13:36.698)
100%.

Jenna (13:38.668)
Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (13:39.946)
Thankfully, I had the pandemic to practice and I couldn't hear anybody boo me or anything. you know, we did. Imagine, my God. But yeah, so I had a little period where I could, you know, catch up. And people were supportive. And I think, like, especially us playing together, like people wanted to hear you sing. Yeah. You know, so. Yeah.

Jenna (13:46.318)
It's just Sabrina in the background.

Jenna (14:08.63)
And Sabrina, for you, was music kind of always your path or was that something that was kind of like, it'll be a fun hobby maybe, but, because I often wonder how people or how kids from like further remote areas kind of see themselves getting into these kinds of industries.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (14:10.303)
Mm.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (14:28.701)
Yeah, that's a great question. So like for me, I've been singing my whole life. Very musical family, but nobody's pursued it professionally. So for me, my dream was always to, you know, be an artist, but I felt that it wasn't really possible. So I always put in all the work. And it's funny because I worked on a tourist train. It was my first job at 16 where I played music. It was 10 hours a day.

And I use that to pay for, to save up for my tuition for university. So I actually used my backup plan to pay for what was going to be my career. So I went into teaching and you know, I taught music at a middle school for full time for nine years. Um, but felt like my true path was to be an artist. So, you know, meeting other like-minded people made me feel like it was possible. And, um,

Yeah, that was always my dream, but I truly didn't know if it was possible to do it. And I think, know, we're very like yin yang and we grew up like Sabrina was always more sort of the like professional and realist and I was like a little bit more heads in the clouds and like anything's possible. I like that about you. Yeah.

But yeah, I think that was a good combination for us because eventually, for a couple, we kind of had it all. We had the stable jobs and the house and we were married and we were supposed to be super happy and content, yet we weren't. And we were trying to figure out what that was and we figured out pretty quickly that it was music.

So it's like it really feels like I'm like making that little girl version myself like happy and proud like it feels good to be doing what we're doing.

Jenna (16:32.95)
And guaranteed there's, there's people who are in your community and other communities that are a little further outside of, of urban areas who are looking to you as like, maybe this is something I can do because you guys also haven't left your town either.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (16:41.353)
Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (16:44.927)
No, no, we're still up there. still, you know, we're in a little town called Madison and, you know, even teaching the students throughout the years, like there's a lot of kids that tell me now that they feel like it's possible. And I feel like, you know, that is probably one of the best things to hear. And that's a goal of ours is just to let other people know that like, it doesn't matter where you come from. Like if you have a dream and you have the drive to do it, like give it a try.

I really hope we do inspire younger and like-minded people to at least give it a try. Put yourself out there.

Jenna (17:26.636)
I actually think it's really admirable that you haven't left your hometown really. Has there been moments where I'm going to or maybe we should or what would that look like?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (17:39.867)
Yeah, I think it's definitely an ongoing conversation because, you know, the reality is that the industry and the scene is not where we are. If you're looking at Ontario, it's in the GTA area and getting closer that way, you know, it just opens up opportunities for us, makes things a lot easier. But, you know, we're still very happy to be

where we are in Matheson. I'm not gonna lie, our mortgage is a lot better than I'm sure a lot of people. The cost of living for sure. But there's something to say about like where you're born and raised in these small towns. Like it means a lot to you, our family, you know, our family is still there. Nobody's really left. So it's home. But we do know that maybe eventually, you know, we might have to relocate. But we're taking our time with that.

Jenna (18:18.05)
Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (18:38.354)
I think if we do relocate, I could see us just keeping our house and figuring a way around that, just to kind keep those roots there. Yeah.

Jenna (18:46.178)
Mm-hmm.

How does the being from such a smaller area, how does that reflect in your music or how does that dictate your art?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (18:59.742)
I think it gives that kind of humble and even rootsy aspect that you kind of hear, you know, we don't ever try to sound or be or portray ourselves bigger than who we are. And, you know, we just like to keep things real. And I think that's something that you often find.

in like the Northern Ontario and in smaller rural communities. I also think it makes us relate with country music even more though because a lot you the stories that are being told is often like what's happening in our backyard or in our communities so I feel like it makes us connect with the genre too. We were actually laughing on our way here Sudbury.

we passed through, cause we were camping in, in Ville Marie, Quebec. And so we passed through that way and we were going through field and there was tractors going by and I'm like, it does not get more country than this. know? Yeah, it's true.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (20:19.432)
Okay, I think you like, your screen went, yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (20:31.582)
Is it still hotspotting?

Jenna (20:53.119)
Hello? I don't know what happened there, but here we are.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (20:54.586)
now you're on the other side.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (21:00.094)
Hahaha

Jenna (21:02.023)
It says we're still recording, so I guess we're good. Where were we?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (21:04.222)
Okay, good. Yeah, so we left to Subway. We were camping in Ville Marie in Quebec and we were driving through a field and there's tractors and cows and I'm just like, you know, it does not get more country than this. Yeah. You know, so there's that aspect. I think it's a lot easier.

to be a country artist, anyway.

Jenna (21:37.615)
that makes total sense. And and it is a genre that's all about storytelling and you got to the story to be able to, to be able to tell it. So, you know, you two are married and obviously working together. So you're obviously spending literally all the time together. how do you kind of keep music and like career separate from life or do you?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (21:42.792)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (21:46.621)
Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (22:03.667)
Yeah. I mean, it's a good question. Yes and no. Music is just like it's both of our obsessions. So we're always listening to it. We're always talking about it. Like not our music though, like about just what's inspiring us or our, you know, our vinyl connection at collection. So we're always listening to music, but as far as the business side, like we've had to come up with like some boundaries because it's easy for that to take over.

And we've always said like, if the marriage is not strong, the music's not going to be either. So we kind of have like some silly rules. Like I always get cranky when I practice after 9.30 PM. So we always cut it off by a certain time. And once in a while, we'll block out like an entire weekend. We went camping recently and we're like, hey, for those three days.

Like nothing, like just so can listen to music, we're not going to talk business. think it's also, you know, finding ways, other things that we enjoy doing together and doing those to kind of like it naturally blocks out the business and the music, like cooking. We love cooking together. So by taking the time to cook a meal and not just like, you know, whip up a dish and eat quick and then you're back to.

answering emails and practicing. a little jazz music on and try a new recipe. So that's something that we do together and we enjoy. But like I mentioned beforehand, the other part too is that we did do the normal couple beforehand and we didn't necessarily like it. we're very much okay with it being a big part of our life.

Jenna (23:45.033)
Mm-hmm.

Jenna (23:57.171)
Perfect. and I just got so distracted Sabrina by your sugar land shirt. They are, they are my favorite.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (24:03.707)
yeah!

Oh yeah. They're so good. I got this shirt in vintage shop somewhere in Toronto, think. Yeah. And I love it. And I love Sugarland. yeah. Yes.

Jenna (24:15.837)
Yeah, they're my fave. I need to see them perform at some point and it's gotta be soon because I don't know how much longer they'll be touring together.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (24:21.341)
Yeah. Yeah. It's true. Yeah, we'd love to see them too. Well, he's been like producing Megan Moroney stuff and he's like really gotten to that world. So, yeah.

Jenna (24:29.278)
Yeah

Jenna (24:34.247)
Yeah, that shirt really just threw it through my train right off the track.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (24:39.708)
you

Jenna (24:42.519)
Who are some of your inspirations? You were talking about being inspired by your vinyl collection, the music you listen to while cooking. Who is some of your inspiration or who are you really digging right now?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (24:57.561)
Right now. I'm always into Sheryl Crow. know, Linda Ronstadt. We listen to a lot of like, I love like Fleetwood Mac. Honestly, like we listen to everything though, all different styles. I mean, if you look at who we have saved on our like on my Spotify, I can honestly say that you will not find big artists.

like your Luke Bryan's and your Jelly Rolls and your like Luke, even Luke Combs. I don't have much of those. We often listen to independent or rising artists because I have a theory that the best music comes right before an artist breaks through. There's just there's something it's not overproduced.

Jenna (25:48.018)
Mm-hmm.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (25:54.088)
There's that want and that drive that you hear in the music and it's just the quality is there. I don't know, that's sort of what we end up listening to and we always love finding new artists.

Jenna (26:12.254)
also wonder, when I was getting my thoughts together before talking to you, I was wondering what your approach to creating music is. know, being married, but also being a duo, because you're not just creating stuff for yourself, you're creating stuff as a unit. What is your approach to creating music? Why don't you kind of take the lead, or do you take turns taking the lead, or is it really collaborative?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (26:37.447)
I think we use each other's Usually when we want to write a song, I usually grab my acoustic, fiddle around, find a cool kind of riff, a cool sound, some chords, and then she'll start humming a melody on top of that and we'll record a voice memo of that. And then from there, you know, because...

whenever even in the car or we're just talking, you you find songs everywhere. Yeah. So we usually like write those down. So then when we're actively writing a song, after we kind of found that sound in that melody, we try to match the vibe and energy that that's bringing or even how we're feeling in that moment and pairing it up with a subject that we think is going to is going to go good together. Yeah.

And that's kind of how we Yeah, we love co-writing too. We do tons of co-writing, especially lately. We've been writing non-stop the last year. I think last week we wrote four songs, which we were happy with that number. So yeah, we love collaborating with different writers. And it's funny when we're writing just together, just us two. Speaking of the balance of being a couple.

We had to, we realized that like we have to treat each other like co-writers in the moment because it's almost too much. Like you'll get insulted if the other person gives you a stretch of criticism or start bickering. So we had to be like, when we write, and you like pretend that you're another co-writer and it's been going like really good. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of a different mindset and way of approaching it. So yeah.

Jenna (28:12.306)
Yeah.

Jenna (28:31.807)
That's really funny. So you two are up for a couple of CMA Ontario awards this year. Congratulations. They're coming up later this week for those by the time this comes out. What are you know, what has the Ontario community been like for you?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (28:33.467)
Yeah, I and that's the truth.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (28:41.191)
Yeah. Thank you.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (28:48.817)
Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (28:55.385)
I it's been everything for us. mean, when we started doing this a little bit more professionally and and starting started putting ourselves out there and releasing music, I can still feel like it was last year. I know it's crazy going to the first CMAO. And at that point, you know, we had met like Dave Woods online and had done a few.

virtual rounds with him and had started meeting artists online. So showing up in person and meeting those people felt really good. We felt instantly welcomed and like, you know, we were finally a part of something. Of a community. Yeah. And like, you know, finally we meet, you know, Rosewood. So.

Especially coming from Northern Ontario too, like you feel a little bit that you're on the outskirts. yeah, meeting up with the association, yeah, literally on the outskirts, that's been huge for us and having a solid community and group of friends to celebrate the wins. Yeah, we're thankful.

Jenna (29:59.261)
Literally.

Jenna (30:12.114)
For someone going to their first, whatever it is, CMA Ontario, Country Music Alberta, BC Country Music, or CCMAs, what is a piece of advice that you'd give for someone going to one of those things for their first time?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (30:16.06)
Mm.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (30:26.78)
I would say, yeah, there's a few things like show up, be yourself, but don't be scared because people are way more friendly than you realize. So if you show up as yourself, like, you know, sit at a table of people you don't know and introduce yourself. Um, and you're going to show up. There's going to be people at your level. There's going to be people ahead, way ahead of you. And you know, don't feel like you gotta, you come back home and you got to copy

everything that a certain person is doing and you got to chase everything and yeah, I need to do this and I you know Stay true to yourself. Keep on the road. You're going we all have different roads. Some are slower than others But yeah, just yeah keep at what you're doing find your path, but also know that there's always room for growth. Yeah Yeah

Jenna (31:19.869)
I want to pivot just a little bit here. We're getting towards the end of our time together, which is crazy, but I know. I want to talk about some of your music. You have your current single, but a song I want to talk about first is one that you put out a couple years ago. I don't even know how long ago at this point, but it still lives on my playlist. It's so fun. Broke is one of them. I think it's such a fun song. Tell me a bit about that song and where it came from.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (31:26.842)
Yeah, I know.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (31:44.143)
yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (31:48.879)
Yeah, so man, that was our second song we ever released. We were really lucky to work with Garth Fundus on that who produced Sugar Lens. They're one of their biggest hit records. It's crazy. Yeah. So there you go. Which was crazy because, you know, we were these kids, very green from our small little town and a team member of mine knew him like through mutual connection.

Jenna (32:01.181)
That's, I knew I liked it for a reason.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (32:17.884)
sent a demo of a Baroque and Full For Love. And he was like, yeah, I want to work with these guys. So we were so lucky on that track. We had some amazing players that just brought like such a swampiness to the sound, which we love that stuff. know, talking about you're asking me if like grabbing a mic for the first time, if I was shitting my pants. Well, not only it was basically all the time we're working with

Jenna (32:41.585)
Hehehehe

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (32:46.65)
like Tricia Yearwood's producer, and I gotta send him raw vocals. That I was shitting my pants.

Jenna (32:51.6)
you

You're like,

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (32:56.892)
I'm like, ehhh. Here we go. Yeah.

Jenna (33:01.469)
But let's talk now about Leave in Town, which is your current single and it's at radio currently in the top 50, which is so exciting. Tell me about that song and the experience of hearing it on the radio.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (33:18.596)
Yeah. It's been surreal. It's been wow. Like this song has done so much for us and it's amazing because the song is all about celebrating like the magic of small towns. So it's exciting to see that that's sort of the song that's taking off for us. Yeah. And you know, like it's a weird thing when you release music, there's so many ups and downs and highs and lows and you know,

One of our mentors and Tara Shannon that we work with, when we started releasing music, said, so releasing music is very exciting, but it's also the most anticlimactic thing that you will ever do. And we learned very quickly that that is very much true. So, you know, we release Leave in Town and

Jenna (34:03.293)
Hehehehe

That's great advice.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (34:14.51)
It's sort of, it is what it is. Yeah, it's out. like, hey. We were excited about it. We hadn't released music in a little bit. and then, you know, we, we had a plan, you know, we had a really good plan and, we actually, you know, did a radio campaign. We did, a little radio tour and that was our first radio tour as well. And so when, our radio guy, Rob gave us a call and said, I got some good news.

You guys are picked for iHeartRadio Future Star. We're just like, what? Yeah. Just couldn't believe it. Yeah. That was like an instant tears thing just because, know, like you put so much work throughout the years and it, it's just really exciting. So to see us on the charts is crazy. We're, uh, I think we're now at like 43. We're getting close to that top 40. Let's hope. It's nuts.

I think it gets pretty competitive at that point. So whether or not we get a top 40, we're still so grateful and blessed to have had that success. And we're just going to keep growing from there.

Jenna (35:13.36)
Yeah.

Jenna (35:27.293)
What was that feeling when you first heard it the radio for the first time?

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (35:31.448)
Amazing. It's, you know, that feeling never gets in every no. And it's really cool. We had posted a video a few weeks ago. My parents were on a vacation to Casino Rama and Aurelia and they were on the road. my dad just said to my mom, like, imagine if we heard their song on the radio and literally five minutes later, our song went on. So, so sweet. They sent me a video and I hear my dad being like, they just said.

Jenna (35:54.321)
Thank

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (36:01.328)
future starts your song. so hearing from other people catching it too has been really special. think I think I enjoy that just as much like hearing our family so excited and proud of us. I love that because like, you know, we're very close to our family and they've been supporting us and like buying tickets to our shows like any way to support us.

and traveling with us. Sometimes I feel like my parents bought an RV just so that they could come to as many shows as they can. Yeah, but yeah, so you know to see the excitement and see things starting to pay off. It feels good. Feels very good. Yeah.

Jenna (36:42.909)
It must feel super validating and like give you just that extra push to keep going when you get those nuggets of success.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (36:51.192)
A hundred percent. Like, you know, and we got a lot of music recorded right now. So it's just it's you feel like it feels like we're on the right path and it's like just keep swimming. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like I mentioned before, you know, a lot of ups and downs. What a lot of people don't see is, you know, artists post only the highs and usually don't post the lows. And there's a lot of them. So, you know,

When you get some wins like that, just, you gotta take it in. Yeah, you take it in, you celebrate it and, and you go, what's next? Let's get done. Yeah.

Jenna (37:31.84)
that's like talking about having a lot of music kind of in the bank. That kind of leads into what's next for you all.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (37:42.53)
Another, yeah. So we're, we're hoping to release another single as soon as we can. and we got a lot recorded. So now it's just kind of picking like what's going to be that, that next one. And then an album is the next step. So yeah, I think, when we got the email about, getting the, I heart radio future star, think the second line in the email is like, all right, now we have to have a meeting about the next single.

Yeah, because that's, you know, that's how the industry works. It's all about momentum and and keeping the wheel going.

Jenna (38:14.756)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jenna (38:22.0)
Just getting something like that, I'm just being nosy now. Does something, like getting something that does that completely change the schedule for like your next release or are you like, wait a minute, let's, we gotta reassess.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (38:25.198)
Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (38:35.099)
Yeah, was almost like a let's reassess and make sure the next release is... I think you're always... You're never chasing radio and you hope. I mean, if you say that you're not, I think you're lying a little bit. Because once you do get it, it...

it's a good feeling and you celebrate. But I think like, you know, like for us originally, was kind of the next thing was like, you know, album and just putting all our energy on that. now that we have this momentum on radio, we just if we can keep that going, that momentum, because all of a sudden people are listening, right?

Not only that, like the plan was though this year that this is the year we're going to give it everything we got because, you know, I left my full-time job last year to do this, you know, more heavily. So it's always been the plan, but now it's like, this is really the plan. What's next? Yeah. So I think it's basically the only thing that changes kind of squeezing in a single that we think might might really do well on radio.

Jenna (39:55.356)
Well, I can't wait to hear it. I can't wait to catch up with you guys next week at the CMA Ontario's. Thank you so much for joining us. I know you're in the middle of a crazy couple weeks, so I really appreciate you taking the time.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (39:58.755)
Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (40:07.417)
No, we had, we love this kind of stuff and we love talking to you. Yeah, we love you guys. Yeah. You know, you guys, yeah, you guys support independent artists right there. Right from the beginning. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So.

Jenna (40:12.9)
Right back atcha!

Jenna (40:19.804)
I always love like going to like an event and seeing either Sabrina or Dave or both you together across the room. Like, gotta go over there. All right.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (40:27.083)
I know. Yeah, so we'll have to definitely catch up and have a drink together.

Jenna (40:35.95)
Absolutely. Have a good one. Don't leave yet.

Rosewood Ave (Sabrina & Dave) (40:38.342)
K. Yeah. Okay, bye.

Jenna (40:42.674)
Yeah.