Constance Lake’s Marcia Chum to launch tiny home music tour

Constance Lake musician Marcia Chum-Gibbons and spouse Chris Gibbons are planning to do a music tour next summer with the tiny home on wheels they are currently constructing in Ottawa. Known as the Gibbons Girl, the two musicians plan to use the tiny home as their primary home once they complete it this fall and to use the roof of the tiny home as their stage during the tour.

“We’re both musicians so we got this idea of travelling across Canada sharing our music and giving other people the opportunity to do the same on our roof, which is a stage also,” Chum-Gibbons says. “We definitely are planning to stay parked for the winter, and that’s the time we are going to take to plan our trip across Canada.”

The two musicians plan to begin the tour next July once their children are finished with the school year.

“Our youngest is nine and our second youngest is 14 and our (next) oldest are 18-years-old and my oldest is 23, and he has his own family,” Chum-Gibbons says. “I think for us it’s kind of to leave a legacy for our children and to let them know you don’t need to follow society’s rules to be happy. We want to expose them to different places, different travels and show them that if you work really hard for something and you want to achieve it, they can see that this is the route we are going. We just want to expose them to other opportunities that I didn’t get as a kid and I’m sure Chris didn’t either.”

Chum-Gibbons was nominated for Best Female Artist, Best Independent Recording By A New Artist - Single Release Only and Best Concept for a Music Video at the 19th Annual Native American Music Awards in 2019 and Song/Single of the Year at the 17th Annual Native American Music Awards in 2017.

“Being there and being recognized on the same level as all these talented people was just something I was grateful for and honoured to be a part of,” Chum-Gibbons says. “I didn’t think I would ever be nominated for awards for songs that I wrote, but it was definitely something that was surprising and that I was very grateful for. It made me feel that I was capable and it gave me more of a confidence and a belief in myself that I could actually achieve something like that.”

Gibbons, who is also a welder, is currently building the tiny home on wheels, which is about 30 feet long by eight feet wide.

“It’s got 11-foot ceilings so there is a loft inside,” Gibbons says. “The trailer on the outside is almost 13 feet tall with the wheels. It will have a hinge-able handrail all around it so we can lay it down when we travel.”

Gibbons says the loft bedroom area will be about 15 feet long and cover the space above the kitchen and washroom.

“For the living room we have a 12-foot wide slide that comes out five feet,” Gibbons says. “So that’s going to give us a whole lot more room for our couch, coffee table. It doesn’t have the loft (above) so it’s got 11-foot ceilings, so we want to put some nice high windows up there and let a lot of light in.”

Gibbons says the tiny home will have radiant heat in the floors and the walls.

“It’s going to have really good insulation values and double vapour barrier,” Gibbons says.

Gibbons says they know some people across the country where they will be able to set up the stage.

“We have contacts throughout the country and we can set up on their land, and we also know a few musicians spread out in the same places,” Gibbons says. “We’ll put together our own little festival and highlight a few local artists from wherever we are playing.”