Third-year student extends her passion for words from headlines to lyrics

In journalism school, we are told time and time again that we need to be experts in all areas of the field: Hard news, features, social media, broadcasting, radio and what feels like a million other things. But what about songwriting? 

For upcoming third-year RSJ student, Sarah Tomlinson, her passion for words extends past headlines and into the realm of lyrics. 

Tomlinson, 19, has been covering songs as well as releasing her own music for a couple of years now. However her newest song, Running Out of Time, was entered into CBC Music’s Toyota Searchlight (external link)  competition. 

The competition, open to any and all undiscovered Canadian musical talent, offers a range of prizes, with the grand prize scoring the winner a spot in an Allan Slaight Juno Master Class, as well as a ticket to the JUNOS in 2022. 

The song was originally written and produced for Future Youth Records (FYR) Think Earth (external link)  competition, and earned Tomlinson a spot in the winning circle. From then on, she turned her sights to CBC. 

“I had always heard about this searchlight competition but I had never entered it, and I’m like, whatever! Let’s just put it in. Who cares?” Tomlinson said with a laugh. 

The process of getting the song competition-ready was a long one, due to COVID-19 slowing down the gears at FYR.

“It was [a lot of] back and forth FaceTime calls,” Tomlinson said, “They’d send me a draft, I’d give them feedback, and then we just kept working off of it until it was finished. It was released, it was out into the world!”

While it is her first time entering the Toyota Searchlight competition, Tomlinson really started writing music back in high school. 

“I always did music as an extracurricular. And then in my graduating year my friend wrote the musical [that the high school put on] so I was like, oh! We have to write the music.”

With the help of one of her friends, Tomlinson wrote all the songs included in the show.

“It was this huge production, and it was a really, really good experience,” she said.

University Life

After leaving high school, Tomlinson dove head-first into what the Ryerson School of Journalism had to offer, but she missed being involved in music.

“I wasn’t really feeling like joining Ryerson clubs because— I think the idea kind of freaked me out,” she said, “So I thought, why don’t I try to do my own thing and write my own songs?”

Writing her own songs eventually led to signing a contract with music producer Roy Hamilton III in the early months of 2020.

“We’ve been working on an EP… and I signed a mini publishing deal with him. He has other artists that don’t write songs, so I’ve been writing with them and helping them create music that they will release themselves,” Tomlinson said. 

On top of full-time courses, a tutoring gig, and being a part of The Eyeopener’s news team, Tomlinson says that songwriting doesn’t feel like work.

“When I’m not doing any of that [school] work, what I like to do for fun is music. So I think that’s why I have time to do it. I think if it became like a chore, or if it felt like it was something I had to do, I probably would’ve stopped.”

While she believes in the power of chance, Tomlinson says she still has goals surrounding her music career as well as journalism.

“With music, apart from being an artist and hopefully getting radio play, I’ve always wanted to write for other artists, which is kind of what I’m doing at the moment.” she says with a smile, “I also want to get a song in a movie. In terms of journalism, I really want to work for CBC.”

Even if her song doesn’t win, Tomlinson believes that taking the chances she is given is what moves her forward.

“I just have to remind myself that the little successes have to keep motivating me, as opposed to the failures stopping me, you know? I’m just going to ride the wave… whatever happens, happens.”

The winner of CBC Music’s Toyota Searchlight will be announced Tuesday, June 22nd.

You can find Running Out of Time on youtube (external link) , as well as any other streaming platforms. 

Sarah Tomlinson and her music can be found here (external link) .