Wannabe musicians are aware that in order to carve out a space for themselves in one of the world’s most cutthroat industries, they have to start by making a series of sacrifices.

Recognizing this early in her pursuit of a career in music, local soul and R&B vocalist Emily Chambers has bitten the bullet, quitting her job and moving into a 1984 B250 Dodge Ram camper van—but not before some serious preparation.

It started out simply: in her private journal, Chambers vowed to tour America in a camper van for one year. She took a job as an insurance broker and began setting aside her paycheques, with the goal of recording and touring at the forefront of her mind.

“Insurance was always just a steppingstone,” Chambers tells the Straight at a Fairview coffee shop.

“While I was working full-time, I was gigging three times a week, with two rehearsals a week, so it was like having two full-time jobs,” she explains. “On top of that, I was managing myself and booking gigs. It was nuts.”

The Berklee College of Music–trained vocalist has been singing since she was just three years old. At age seven, her mother signed her up for singing lessons with renowned Vancouver jazz musician Joani Taylor, who happened to be Chambers’s next-door neighbour.

“She would make me break down songs and make them my own,” Chambers says. “I had to learn how to riff horn lines, and she introduced me to Motown and jazz.”

Equally influenced by legends like Etta James, Donny Hathaway, and Stevie Wonder, and contemporary artists like Lauryn Hill and D’Angelo, Chambers has a smooth, sultry voice that simply oozes soul.

With a financial goal in mind and all the self-made momentum she could muster up, she worked double-time for two years, brokering by day and building her profile as a musician by night.

On April 1, Chambers left her job and bought “Bessie”, the powder-blue camper van that she now calls home.

The van, although delightfully cute and cozy, was never intended to be a living space—but after an attempt to live with her sister and brother-in-law was quashed by their landlord, Chambers was forced to leave in mid-July, and she’s been living in the van ever since, parking on side streets and friends’ driveways throughout the city. Without plumbing or Internet, she showers at her yoga studio and takes advantage of coffee shop Wi-Fi. Her biggest expense? “Bessie practically eats gas.”

“It makes for a lot more stage banter, that’s for sure,” says Chambers of her experience in the van thus far. “There have already been a ton of adventures in it, and I’ve got lots of great stories.”

The musician says living in such confined quarters has certainly tested her patience, but she praises van life for how much it’s pushed her out of her comfort zone.

“I can’t get ready in here, so sometimes I just have to go with the flow, like ‘Maybe you’re wearing a hat tonight,’ ” she says. “It definitely gets me out into the world a lot quicker.”

Chambers admits that, initially, it was strange to be so unsettled, but being without a stationary home base has allowed her to “step away from the business side of things”, and get back to the music.

“I can’t blow-dry my hair or fit all my clothes in the van, but it made me realize I only ever wear the same seven things anyway,” she says with a laugh. “I’ve got a warm bed, a place to brush my teeth and wash my face, and a place to sit and write with a cup of tea. These are things that are important to me at home.”

With just the finishing touches left on her debut five-track EP, Magnolia, Chambers is excited to embark on her first solo, cross-continent tour to New York following her upcoming EP release party.

To help amp up support, Chambers has started a Pledge campaign where fans can donate by ordering her EP. Five percent of all funds raised will be going to the Parkinson Society British Columbia, an organization close to Chambers because her father suffers from the disease. In January, she’ll headline a fundraiser for the society called Shake, Shake, Shake, aptly named by her dad.

Following the release, she’ll be on the road for 68 days, and she plans to tour on and off for the next two years.

For Chambers, there is simply no better way to do it.

“Getting out there and touring and playing as much as you can is the way to spread your sound, more than anything you can do on the Internet,” she says.

As for van life?

“It hasn’t felt like a sacrifice... I kind of like the idea of being transient. I might not be living the way you are, but I’m making a living doing what I love.”

Emily Chambers’s EP release party is on September 14 at the Biltmore Cabaret. Doors open at 8 p.m.