Emm Gryner (born in Sarnia, Ontario)[1][2][3] is a Canadian-Filipino singer, songwriter, recording artist, and author. She has released 20 albums as a solo performer, and has collaborated with artists including David Bowie and Chris Hadfield.
Gryner's childhood was spent in Forest, Ontario. Her father was of half Irish heritage[4] and her mother was Filipina.[5] She started to learn piano at age 4, picked up bass around age 14, and later took up guitar as well.[1]
Gryner has two brothers, Tony and record producer and musician Frank.
Career
Gryner started her music career in Toronto, where her original song "Wisdom Bus" won a nationwide songwriting contest sponsored by Standard Broadcasting. With the prize money, she recorded an album called The Original Leap Year and released it on her own Dead Daisy Records. The album attracted the attention of Mercury Records, who signed Gryner to a recording contract.
Gryner's first release on Mercury was 1998's Public, a Britpop-inspired album that yielded a Canadian hit called "Summerlong". She was nominated for the Best New Solo Artist Juno Award in 1999.
After Universal Music took over Mercury Records, Gryner returned to her Dead Daisy Records label,[8] releasing several albums, including Girl Versions and Asianblue, which were both nominated for Pop Album of the Year at the Juno Awards.[9]
Gryner released Songs of Love and Death, an album of cover versions of Irish songs, in 2005. The album attracted the attention of Irish media,[10] and Gryner appeared on programs like The Late Late Show[11] during her subsequent tour of Ireland.
Between 2006 and 2020, Gryner released 11 albums, four EPs, and a "best of" compilation with two unreleased tracks. The Summer of High Hopes, produced by Nathan Larson, was released in Canada and later in Ireland on the heels of a performance at Oxegen Festival; The Irish Times' Siobhàn Long said it was "the distilled voice of an original".[12] In the November 2006 issue of Q, U2 frontman Bono recognized the track "Almighty Love" as one of six songs that he wished he had written from the last twenty years of music.[13]
Her 2014 album Torrential was called "superb pop" by The Irish Times' Tony Clayton-Lea.[14]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gryner released the singles "Stronger Someone", in support of Bluewater Health Foundation,[15] and "All Love All The Time" with Rob Wells, as well as the album Just For You, a collection of jazz standards.[16]
Space Oddity in space
In May 2013, Gryner arranged and performed piano on astronaut Chris Hadfield's cover version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity".[17] The music video for the song features Hadfield on the International Space Station and is considered the first ever filmed in space.[18]
Fanshawe College presents an annual Emm Gryner and Chris Hadfield Music Industry Arts Award to a Year 2 student in the School of Contemporary Media who demonstrates "a keen interest [...] in the creative and technical aspects of the music industry [and] leadership characteristics with respect to his or her classmates, faculty and staff, as well as exceptional creativity and dedication".[19]
Other collaborations
Gryner collaborated with Larson in the band Hot One and appeared on the group's self-titled album in 2006.
She is also a member of the collective The Cake Sale, along with Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, Bell X1, Josh Ritter and Glen Hansard. The collective is featured on The Cake Sale, a multi-platinum-selling Irish album with proceeds to Oxfam's Make Trade Fair.
In 2011, Gryner formed Trent Severn with Dayna Manning and Laura C. Bates. Their debut self-titled album was released on Gryner's Dead Daisy Records label in 2012, followed by Trillium (2015) and Portage (2017).
In 2014, Gryner assembled the band Trapper with Sean Kelly (on guitar), brother Frank Gryner (on guitar), Jordan Kern (on bass) and Tim Timleck (ex-Universal Honey on drums),[20] playing "1980s-style melodic hard rock."[21] In May 2015, Trapper opened for Brit-rockers Def Leppard on three Canadian tour dates in Montréal, Ottawa and London, Ontario.[22] Gryner had met and become friends with Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott when she toured as a backing singer with David Bowie.[23]
"When we heard her version of Sugar we were all blown away. It really worked as an arrangement. So I asked her if she fancied doing her version of Sugar with us. [...]" For Joe, this is the most important track on Drastic Symphonies. "It's an absolutely brand new version," he says[...]
In 2008 Gryner acted and sang in One Week, a film by director Michael McGowan. In the film she sings Un Canadien errant; she also contributed her song "Blackwinged Bird" to the soundtrack.[26]
In October 2016 Gryner starred in Joni Mitchell: River at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario along with Louise Pitre and Brendan Wall.[27] The play and performers met with positive reviews: in the London Free Press Joe Belanger commented that "her vocal range, the emotional qualities of her voice and its sound [are] like a touchstone to Mitchell throughout,"[28] and Mary Alderson wrote that "she is stunning in her a capella numbers".[29]
In September 2021 ECW Press released Gryner's book The Healing Power of Singing: Raise Your Voice, Change Your Life (What Touring with David Bowie, Single Parenting and Ditching the Music Business Taught Me in 25 Easy Steps),[30] described as "part study in the art of singing, part guide to finding one's voice, and part memoir."[31] The book became an Amazon bestseller in 2022.[32]
Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1976 in Sheffield. Since 1992, it has consisted of Rick Savage, Joe Elliott, Rick Allen (drums), Phil Collen, and Vivian Campbell. They established themselves as part of the new wave of British heavy metal of the early 1980s. Their greatest commercial success came between the early 1980s and early 1990s.
Retro Active is a compilation album by the English rock band Def Leppard, released in 1993. The album features touched-up versions of B-sides and previously unreleased recordings from the band's recording sessions from 1984 to 1993. The album charted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 and No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart.
Joseph Thomas Elliott is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of the hard rock band Def Leppard. He has also been the lead singer of the David Bowie tribute band the Cybernauts and the Mott the Hoople cover band Down 'n' Outz. He is one of the two original members of Def Leppard still in the band and one of the three to perform on every Def Leppard album. Elliott is known for his distinctive and wide ranging raspy singing voice.
Philip Kenneth Collen is an English musician who is best known as the co-lead guitarist for the rock band Def Leppard. Collen joined the band in 1982 during the recording of the Pyromania album. Before joining Def Leppard, Collen had performed with a number of bands in the burgeoning British glam metal scene. Outside of Def Leppard, he has been involved in a number of side projects; those projects include the trio Man Raze, with which he is the lead singer and sole guitarist.
"Bringin' On the Heartbreak" is a song by English rock band Def Leppard. A power ballad, it was the second single from their 1981 album High 'n' Dry. The song was written by three of the band's members, Steve Clark, Pete Willis and Joe Elliott.
Dayna Manning is a Canadian folk and pop singer-songwriter, as well as a producer and sound engineer. As a teenager she released her first album, Volume 1, on EMI and Nettwerk, with featured musicians including Sean Lennon and Melanie Doane. A single from the album reached No. 15 on the MuchMusic top hits chart in Canada, and she was nominated for the 1998 Juno Award for Best New Artist.
Yeah! is the ninth studio album by English rock band Def Leppard. It is the first cover album by the band. It was originally intended to be released on 20 September 2005, but it was announced on 31 March 2006 that the album would be released on 23 May 2006. The album charted at No. 16 on the Billboard 200 and No. 52 on the UK Albums Chart.
Danny Michel is a Canadian artist, songwriter and producer.
The English rock band Def Leppard have released 12 studio albums, four live albums, six compilation albums, and two extended plays. Def Leppard also have sold over 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
"Rocket" is a song recorded by English rock band Def Leppard in 1987 from the album Hysteria. It was released in January 1989 as the seventh and final single from the album and reached the Top 15 in the US Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. It is the band’s final single to be released with guitarist Steve Clark before his death in 1991.
Public is the third album by Emm Gryner, released in 1998.
The Original Leap Year is the second album by Emm Gryner, released on Gryner's independent Dead Daisy Records.
Science Fair is an album by Emm Gryner, released in 1999 on Gryner's independent label Dead Daisy Records.
Girl Versions is the sixth full-length album by Canadian singer-songwriter Emm Gryner, released in 2001 on Gryner's independent Dead Daisy Records. It received a Juno Awards nomination for "Best Pop Album" in 2002.
Songs of Love and Death is the eighth full-length album by Canadian singer-songwriter Emm Gryner, released in 2005 on her independent label Dead Daisy Records.
"Hysteria" is a song by English rock band Def Leppard. It is the tenth track on their 1987 album of the same name and was released as the album's fourth single in November 1987. The song became the band's first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 10.
The Summer of High Hopes is the tenth album by Emm Gryner, released in 2006 on Dead Daisy Records.
William Peter Randall is a Canadian musician and municipal politician.
Frank Gryner is a Canadian record producer, mix engineer, audio technician, and multi-instrumentalist. He has mixed/engineered or performed on recordings for multiplatinum artist Rob Zombie, as well as A Perfect Circle, BT, Peter Pepper, and Andrew W.K. among many others.
Trent Severn was a Canadian folk trio composed of Emm Gryner, Dayna Manning, and Lindsay Schindler. Founded in 2011, all of its members shared vocal duties and contributed to the songwriting process. They released their self-titled debut album in November 2012, under the imprint Dead Daisy Records. The band was nominated for two 2013 Canadian Folk Music Awards, and toured and performed around Canada until announcing a hiatus on January 21, 2019.
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