TORONTO - Between getting bruised on the rugby field, pouring java at Tim Hortons, finishing high school and touring Canada, Ontario-based singer-songwriter Alyssa Reid realized something had to give.
"I was kind of trying to have the teenage girl life and the teenage pop star life and they kind of don't mix very well, especially when you're joining sports teams and then going on tour two weeks later covered in bruises," the fetching 19-year-old said in an interview while dress shopping for this weekend's Juno Awards.
"I went on a tour called the SodaPOP tour and I could not wear a dress the entire tour because I was covered head to toe in bruises. It was not a good scene and I do not play rugby anymore."
Nor does she work at Tim Hortons anymore, a job she held down for a year and a half while she toured with the likes of pop/dance artist Danny Fernandes and R&B/hip-hopper JRDN.
"I did everything there," said Reid, who lives in Brampton, Ont., and will tour the U.K. next month. "I worked the cash register, I was a trainer, I baked.
"I was the foundation of Tim Hortons. Seriously."
With her coffee and rugby days behind her, the high-school graduate can now focus on her soaring music career, which has seen her get a 2012 Juno nomination for new artist of the year. Other nominees include JRDN, Dan Mangan, Diamond Rings, and Lindi Ortega.
Reid will also perform her hit pop/hip-hop single, "Alone Again," at the Ottawa bash on Sunday in what she calls a "live mashup" between five pop acts. The tune, a new interpretation of the 1987 Heart hit "Alone," features P. Reign and is on Reid's album "The Game."
"I did not think when we released 'Alone Again' that it was going to have the reaction it did," said Reid, who got a 2011 MuchMusic Video Award nomination for best pop video for the tune.
"So to get to be travelling the world and going to the Junos and performing at the Junos is a pretty overwhelming thing."
Born in Edmonton, Reid has been singing and writing tunes since she was young, when she joined the performing arts group Sunshine Generation.
"The first song that I ever performed was 'Purple People Eater,' and I still know the dance -- it's really embarrassing -- and that's kind of how I started in music," said Reid.
When her family moved to New Lowell, Ont., Reid joined another group called Pop Stars and tried to get the attention of record labels in Los Angeles.
"But everyone kind of (said) the same thing," she recalled. "It was, 'You're too young, you're not developed enough,' and nobody actually wanted to take the time to develop an artist."
With that, Reid started focusing mostly on her studies. In 2008, she was a finalist on YTV's reality competition "The Next Star," but she didn't think she'd have a career in the recording industry.
"I still sang, I still loved singing, but I gave up on chasing it and I didn't think that it was going to happen," she said.
That changed the next year, however, when a video Reid had uploaded to YouTube was noticed by Wax Records and, eventually, by hundreds of thousands of viewers.
In the clip, Reid plays acoustic guitar and sings "One More Lonely Boy," her own interpretation of the Justin Bieber hit "One Less Lonely Girl."
"It took me 10 minutes and I recorded it in my kitchen and put it on YouTube and then I just kind of forgot about it and went on with my life," said the self-taught musician, who also plays piano.
"I think the YouTube video, which is what got me noticed, was probably the one thing I did without that intention."
Reid said she hasn't met Bieber but has heard from his musical director and lead guitarist "that his whole camp watched the video and they all liked it."
"It's kind of embarrassing because I didn't think that he was actually going to see it when I dedicated the song to him, but it's really cool to know that he did and that he enjoyed it."
The songs on Reid's album are described as running "the gambit from club raves to R&B inflected joints and soulful ballads."
Reid said she's still trying to figure out what her musical style is, and though she plans to glam it up at the Junos this weekend, she's really a tomboy at heart.
"I grew up playing in mud and there was a little creek by my house when I first moved to Ontario and my sister and I used to ride our bikes down to the creek and find old (animal) skulls and stuff," said Reid.
"I'm just, I'm not a girl. I don't think I was ever one."
