My Name is Mia Sheard

Some of you may be familiar with my music, and some of you may have stumbled across this site because you are looking for an excuse to not make music of your own, or read a book. Perhaps you just wrote the last line of your Ph.D. and needed a breather from academia. Maybe your name is Mia, also, and you want to see if I, too, like apricots and sunshine. Maybe you're lost. Or, you are an explorer, an armchair adventurer, a stalker, lonely, interested in independent music. A corporate spy. Here you'll be treated with some respect.

I've released two albums: With Love and Squalor in 1999 -- an experiment, I would say. And, yes, I can be self-deprecating at times, but I wasn't fully baked when I made that album. I still thought everyone else knew what was best for me. That said, I do like a few songs on it. If you have money to burn and too much time on your hands, you can pick up a copy online at www.maplemusic.com. Martin Tielli (Rheostatics) and Gavin Brown (Big Sugar, Sarah Harmer) played on it, and they're always a joy to listen to. Some of the music on that album got away from me. I didn't play an instrument when I recorded it, so describing the songs to the players was like painting with my mouth. I still don't know how Mary Margaret O'Hara did it with Miss America. Oh yeah, she's a genius -- and Reptilian in 2000. I was starting to get a little brown around the edges when I made that one. I had learned how to "play" guitar by the time it was recorded. I knew how I wanted it to sound, too. And working with Michael Wojewoda was like working with a musical empath who's also a brilliant engineer. Only better because he is.

The next album is going to be released in September 2002. It's called Anemone, which is a sea animal with plant-like features. Why anemone? They're simple, and obviously perfect creations to have lasted so long. I like the sound of the word. Anyway, my band -- Chris Gartner (bass), Ryan Granville-Martin (drums) and Dan Goldman (guitar) provided the musical accompaniment on this album. We played live off the floor, for much of it, at Chemical Sound Studio in Toronto. Vocals and some overdubs were done at home. Howard Redekopp (Veal) engineered and co-produced the album with me. You can find out more about it when you buy it. Heh, heh.

Other stuff? I've toured with the band and solo across Canada and in the US, sung on a bunch o' albums, such as the Rheostatics' Harmelodia, Andy Stochansky's Radiofusebox, Kurt Swinghammer'sVostok 6 and Black Eyed Sue. The band (I like the name "the getouts" for them 'cause that's what my mom used to call a vagina. And these guys are a bunch of girly men!) and I have played on Open Mike with Mike Bullard, TVO's Studio 2, CBC radio, etc., played a zillion gigs -- some of which were really fun: Blue Rodeo's Stardust Picnic, The Taste of the Danforth, Harbourfront on the BIG stage, NXNE. Yeah, we're a bunch of effing stars! And we keep plowing our way through the Canadian Wilderness known as the music business. I guess we need the eggs. Oh, and the money's great.