At the age of 26, Emm Gryner has already released seven full-length albums, founded her own record label, and worked with such diverse international recording artists as David Bowie and Rob Zombie. Her most recent release, Asianblue came out in July. Led by the first single, “Beautiful Things,” it may prove to be her most successful recording yet. Gryner continues to combine pop, jazz and folk melodies in a similar vein to fellow Canadians Chantal Kreviazuk and Martina Sorbara, with an approach to songwriting all her own.
“It’s doing really well,” says Gryner. “It’s released independently and we’ve managed to get a bunch of radio stations to play the first single.”
Most of Canada has been receptive to “Beautiful Things,” but the Sarnia, Ontario native has had some trouble breaking into the lucrative market located only one hour from her hometown.
“It’s been tricky in Toronto, but everywhere else in Canada they’ve been really supportive. I think the radio stations across Canada tend to be pretty open-minded and look more at the song as opposed to the label that it came out on. That’s been my experience with this one, anyway.”
Gryner is a little hesitant to blow her own horn when describing the new record. She recalls fellow musician John Mayer, who wasn’t as humble when promoting his recent release.
“[Asianblue] is so great,” laughs Gryner. “No, I’m just kidding… In [John Mayer’s] own interviews he called his own album ‘shamelessly melodic.’ I just thought that was so pompous.
“This album is the album I’ve wanted to make for two or three years,” she continues. “It’s very similar to my first album, The Original Leap Year, in the way that the pop songs are really up, and the ballads are pretty down. I wanted an album that was full of those things. I wanted an album of songs that people could sing along to and that was creative in some way.”
Asianblue is something of a departure for Gryner. Her previous works have been primarily acoustic ventures, relying a lot on her own songwriting, while the new release takes an approach to production and joint songwriting that Gryner hasn’t tried before.
“The last two or three have been very acoustic. One I did in my bedroom practically and the other one was my covers album, which was just piano and vocal and cello, and they were all ballads pretty much. This album is more of a studio record and it involves more collaboration. I tried to break out of that mould of doing things all on my own and tried to reach out to other people which is really hard to do when you’re kind of stubborn. But it really worked out and I was so thankful for all the people who collaborated with me. I co-wrote songs for the first time, which turned out to be great.”
Gryner sought out producer Wally Gagel, whose work with Folk Implosion had caught her ear. Gryner hoped to make a record similar to those of Lou Barlow’s Sebadoh side-project.
“I always loved that combination of lo-fi with more movement,” Gryner explains. “Wally was the perfect person to do this album with.”
Despite how happy she is with the way Asianblue turned out, Gryner can see herself returning to the raw, acoustic format that has served her so well in the past. At the same time, she wants to continue the growth that she has experienced over the course of those seven albums.
“I think that I’ll always have that in me, that I’ll want to do sort of acoustic songs, quiet songs that resonate in a more subtle way. I feel like with every album I’m coming more alive; I feel like I’m letting go a lot more. When you’re a kid, you pretty much have it figured out. You can scream and yell and be crazy. As you grow into your teens, in my case anyway, I became really shy and started to worry a lot. The past five to seven years of being in my 20s, I’ve been trying to get back to that feeling of being free. Hopefully the next [album] will be more… liberating.”
One would think that the responsibilities of a full-time music career, coupled with running your own record label would hamper that freedom, but Gryner says her experiences have proven otherwise.
“It’s the complete opposite. I worried way more when I was in a major label situation, just because everything is very much out of your hands when your music is being sold by a corporation. While I’ve been independent, I know who I’m working with, I know that they want to be working with me. Creatively it’s been the greatest thing to be able to put out an album every year and tour on my own schedule and not have to answer to anyone. The worrying has actually been less.”
Gryner’s last project before Asianblue was Girl Versions, an album where she covered groups whose sounds are, for the most part, drastically different from her own including the Clash, Def Leppard, Fugazi, Thrush Hermit and Blur. The recordings were often praised by the original artists, although their fans were not always as receptive.
“They’re all songs that lyrically meant something to me. Either that or I thought it would be really funny to make these rock songs into female ballads. There’s a little bit of irony in the whole project in that some of these songs are really close to people’s hearts. These are like anthems to people… to take them and make them powerful in a different way, which means stripping back everything, really was eye-opening to some people, and they either love it or they hate it. That’s a good thing, I think,” she says, laughing.
The songs Gryner chose for Girl Versions reflected the way she writes her own material, requiring a certain amount of sincerity in the lyrics that typically limits her from recording other artists’ words.
“A lot of the lyrics I really related to. ‘Crazy Train’ is so relevant right now… the lyrics are so incredibly relevant, it’s so awesome. I find it really hard to sing songs where I can’t relate to the lyrics, which is why when I co-write, I refuse to write lyrics with anyone. I’ll write music, but I won’t write lyrics. It has to be something that I really feel good about singing.”
There is a great deal of incongruity between Emm Gryner’s style of music and that of Rob Zombie. Still, that didn’t prevent one of the scariest men in music from asking her to sing back-up vocals on The Sinister Urge. It was a family connection that brought the two apparent opposites together.
“My brother records all [Zombie’s] albums–I’m like the little sister hanging out in the studio. They needed someone to sing and I was there. It’s kind of cool because, like Bowie, he’s one of the few people today who has a persona, who puts on this character. I find that really interesting.
“I knew some of the White Zombie hits, but I’ve never owned any of the records. It was great. I’m really drawn to people who are down to earth even though they’ve achieved some level of success, and he’s definitely one of those people. He’s a really nice guy, despite his scary exterior.”
Rob Zombie isn’t the only big name who has recognized the benefits of having Gryner’s voice in the background. David Bowie, recruited her to provide vocals and play keyboards and clarinet in his touring band between 1999 and 2001.
“He’s great; he’s incredibly smart, incredibly kind, but he’s also a big snob too,” Gryner remembers, laughing. “He’s just taught me so much. The whole experience of touring with him was so positive for me and came at the right time. I wasn’t a fan before I started singing with him, but now that I know so much of his stuff, I really admire him.”
Despite having performed Bowie’s songs so many times, she is still able to listen to his records.
“It kind of makes me nostalgic, but in a different way than other people would find it nostalgic. I just think of all the amazing people I met in that time and the crowds and his effect on people.”
Unlike many artists, who retreat to their green rooms and trailers when not on stage, Bowie got to know the members of his group, including Gryner, whose friendship with Bowie continues to this day.
“He’s not one of those people who when you go on tour he just disappears. He very much sticks around and likes to know what the people in his band are up to. I ask him advice on my music and I send him records and we talk about music and stuff, which is really nice.”
Emm Gryner will be appearing with Toronto’s Andy Stochansky at Mount Royal College’s Liberty Lounge on Sat. Oct. 26. For further information about Gryner, check out emmgryner.com.