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If you're anything like us, your alter ego has a musical act.

Maybe you daydream about getting up onstage to rock a guitar solo, or you're always singing in the shower (where, FYI, it doesn't matter if you *actually* have any musical talent). Still, your dream life probably = getting all glammed up, playing music for a crowd and seeing your name in lights in a new city every night.

Ever wondered what being on tour is *actually* like? Lucky for us, 18-year-old Canadian fiddler and dancer Mary Frances Leahy (her debut album First Light dropped in May!) has all the answers.

This music maven is no stranger to the stage—in fact, she's played over 600 shows throughout Canada and the U.S. since she started performing as a kid (including a piano performance alongside the legendary Yo-Yo Ma, NBD). 

Between her impressive slew of summer gigs, Mary Frances squeezed us in for a quick chat about fiddle-playing and the lessons she's learned from life on the road.

You have to be in the right headspace.

According to Mary Frances, your mental state when you go onstage is *the* biggest difference between recording and performing live.

"When the number finishes in the recording studio, the guy presses stop and you're done," she says. "When you're onstage, there's no stop. You finish and you're still performing. You have to leave anything that's going on backstage and come onstage. If you're a little bit uneasy, or a little bit on edge, the audience will sense it and it'll make them uncomfortable."

Music and dancing go hand in hand.

Not only will Mary Frances be playing her fiddle on plenty of stages this summer—she'll also be dancing! For her, these two passions go hand in hand.

"My favorite thing to do onstage is dance. When I'm playing my fiddle, I want to be dancing," she says. "The dancing is the way that I feel most fulfilled in music because your whole body's in it. It's the most physical way to be immersed in the song."

You've got to dress for success.

"The dancing is somewhat restricting wardrobe-wise," Mary Frances dishes about her onstage style. "And girls will understand me when I say that you can't dance in stilettos. And then for my fiddle, I have a wireless pack. It goes on my belt and it has to sit somewhere, so that kind of limits me from wearing like a dress, unless I have a belt on the dress, and then I'm trying to hide that pack so no one can see."

Hair matters, too: "Right now, I'm messing around with trying to have my hair down, cause it adds a lot of movement onstage. But also, it gets in my face!" (Been there.)

Her go-to makeup look? Mary Frances is loving a bright red lip lately.

Show-day prep = mental prep.

Mary Frances practices for months before taking her music out on the road. The day of a performance, though? Mental preparation is key.

"You have to get the music prepared, you have to warm up,  but a lot of that happens in the months prior to the performance," she says. "You have to trust that you've done the practicing. The day of, I will warm up for half an hour, and then the rest of it is like mentally preparing yourself. What am I gonna say? When am I gonna say it?"

Stay positive and enjoy the ride.

Through it all, Mary Frances is always trying to look on the bright side—and stay true to herself (which is totally evident in her unique Celtic/Latin/jazz fusion sound).

"You are good enough, and you are pretty—I'm saying this to all the girls out there," she says. "I think if you can enjoy where you are right now rather than always thinking about the future, it's good."

In other words? Don't waste so much time focusing on the future that you forget what's going on IRL. "Enjoy the ride," she says with a smile.

Listen to Mary Frances's brand new album here and keep up with her on IG here!

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by Ava Slocum | 7/26/2024