Emm Gryner - March/April 1997
Style: stirring singer-songwriter
Lineup: Emm Gryner (vocals, bass, piano, keyboards, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Mark Stewartson (electric guitar and E-bow); Jason McComb (cello); T.E. Peacock (drums and live drum loops); Ryan Ferrando (drums); Bwana Moto (percussion)
Contact: Emm Gryner, PO Box 67680, 576 Dundas St. W., Toronto, ON M5T 3B8; GAT Productions (416) 598-1536, FAX (416) 598-1360,
Emm Gryner 21-year-old Emm Gryner’s voice is a presence unto itself commanding, arresting, gently powerful. It cries LISTEN, sinks in your soul and stops you dead in your tracks. Hailing from smalltown Forest, Ontario, the graduate of Fanshawe College’s Music Industry Arts program has already won several songwriting awards the Mix 99.9 Songwriting Contest (1996), Q107’s Scott Liddle Memorial Award (1995) and a CMPA Songwriting Scholarship (1994). Uprooting to Toronto, she helped produce her second CD, The Original Leap Year, with Stu Brawley at Sonic Poutine and Kevin’s Art Gallery, and produced four songs on her own in “Emm’s Temporary Little Bedroom”. Whether it’s the vibrant, full
arrangements of the brilliant wry send-off “Hello Aquarius” and self-doubting lyric “Your Sort of Human Being”, or the stark piano and voice heart-wrenchers “This Mad” and “Fetching Decay”, Gryner is always stirring and passionate. She’s far too good to remain independent; she should make the major leap this year.