Emm Gryner

Emm Gryner (born June 8, 1975, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada) is a Filipino-Irish pop singer-songwriter based in Canada. She spent her childhood in Forest, Lambton County, Ontario. In 1995 she moved to Toronto, and the following year formed her own label, Dead Daisy Records, through which she released her first album, The Original Leap Year. In 1997 she was invited to play a set at Lilith Fair and subsequently was signed to Mercury Records in 1998, under whom she released her album Public. After being dropped by the label in 1999, she released several more records under the Dead Daisy banner: Science Fair in 1999, Dead Relatives in 2000, Girl Versions in 2001, and Asianblue in 2002. She toured extensively in David Bowie's backup band during 2000 and 2001. She also toured with Swedish band The Cardigans in 2004 on the Chicks With Attitude tour. Gryner has since released a DVD called Videochrome in 2003, featuring all four of her independent music videos and three previously unreleased songs. She released an album of Irish cover songs, Songs of Love and Death, featuring a guest contribution from Gryner's neighbour Kate McGarrigle, in January 2005. On September 27, 2005, she released a limited edition homemade album called The Great Lakes which she wrote, recorded, mixed, printed, hand-stamped, stapled, embossed, cut, burned, packaged, and signed specially for her fans. Gryner married visual artist Sean Odell in 2004. The couple currently lives in rural Ontario. In 2005, she started a new band, Hot One, where she performs bass and vocals. Other Hot One members include Nathan Larson (guitar and vocals), film-score composer and guitarist with of Shudder to Think and Guided by Voices. Larson is married to The Cardigans' front-woman Nina Pearson. Kevin March is Hot One's drummer and Jordan Kern plays guitar. Hot One will be released in late August 2006. Emm's latest studio album, The Summer of High Hopes was released in Ireland on May 12, 2006 and in North America on September 26, 2006. In the November 2006 issue of Q Magazine, celebrating the magazine's 20th anniversary, U2 frontman Bono recognized the track "Almighty Love" from Emm's new album as one of six songs that he wished he had written from the last 20 years of music. Gryner also contributed vocals to the song "It's Always Raining in Dublin" on Vitaminsforyou's 2006 album The Legend of Bird's Hill. She contributed on the 2006 Oxfam album by The Cake Sale.