FYI Calendar of Grant and Funding Deadlines: Sept. 27, 2021

This year, Canadian country artist Owen Riegling is on the road with a packed schedule of festival dates as well as his own headlining shows, supporting his new album In The Feeling, which released April 17 via Big Loud Records in partnership with Universal Music Canada.

“I loved writing songs, but it seemed more practical to be a producer,” Riegling tells Billboard. “I learned how to record music, mix music, proper mic technique, setting up drums. I was about to send my resume to a bunch of studios in Toronto, then COVID hit and all the studios closed. So that changed the trajectory of my life. I started making more music and playing some shows. I worked for maybe a year at an insurance company while I was playing shows when I got the chance to play the emerging artist competition at the Boots and Hearts Festival in Canada [in 2022]. I remember telling my boss I had this opportunity and I needed to take the next week off to prep for it. We ended up winning the contest and started talking with Universal and all these things started happening,” he recalls. “I literally never went back to that job.”