Imagine that Kate Bush cascaded delicately and provocatively into your ear as intensely as Aretha Franklin or Bjork of Canadian piano pop, and you will experience the heart wrenching, intimate and soaring songs of Ann Vriend.

10 MP3 Songs
POP: Quirky, POP: Piano



Details:
Music has taken Ann Vriend to many places both physically and spiritually. Song writing is a passion, performing is a need, recording an unearthing of gems.

"Ann Vriend sings with the heart-stopping intensity of Aretha Franklin, plays piano with the ease of Norah Jones and writes songs as powerful in their simplicity as those of Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen"
--Elle Magazine, August, 2006

Ann has been putting words to music since her early childhood, much of which was spent âfooling aroundâ on the piano in her parentsâ basement. Thought provoking, infectious and imaginative, Annâs intense and personal music has rapidly gained both popularity and respect in the North American music scene, and has recently attracted intense international attention-- a long way off from her private and shy moments tucked away in an unassuming basement beginnings in Edmonton, Alberta.

Ann Vriend's evocative voice is often the first thing that heralds her music as far beyond the norm. Her vocal style occassionally borrows uniquely from the retro soul era, while Annâs songwriting delivers a contemporary pop appeal fused with the type of lyrical honesty and depth more often found in folk and roots music. Her ability to blend these qualities with her natural gift for melody and song structure invokes a timelessness and sense of immediate familiarity with young and old audiences alike.

This gift has won her first place in a song writing competition (part of the prize took her to Nashville), as well as garnered Ann song writing commissions and interest from both publishing and film companies. Her most recent commission was for the Commonwealth Games 2006 in Melbourne, AU. Her immensely popular song, "Waterfront", was recently featured in a DVD release of the TV series "Party of Five".

Ann cites Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, Leonard Cohen, Bob Marley, U2, and Aretha Franklin as her earliest influences, borrowing and blending various components of each of these stars into her own distinctive pop sound. Her contemporary favourites include Sarah Slean, the Alternate Routes, Coldplay, Bjork, the Scissor Sisters, Radiohead, Sigor Ros, Beck, Nikka Costa and a variety of other diverse and innovative artists.

Besides receiving a number of scholarships while in music school and university, Ann has already reached some impressive milestones in her career, including performances at the Edmonton and Calgary Folk Music Festivals, the Port Fairy Folk Music Festival (Australia), repeat performances at the Leonard Cohen Festival, the International Leonard Cohen Festival (Berlin), New Yorkâs Bitter End, CBGB's, Fez and Arleneâs Grocery, and opening spots for Torontoâs Sarah Slean and Australiaâs Colin Hay (of "Men at Work"), among others. She has played official showcases at a number of the North by Northeast Music Conferences, the Canadian Music Awards, the Western Canadian Music Awards, and the South by Southwest Music Conference. She has been invited to perform for a number of major Canadian and American labels, and has recorded at Sony Studios (NY), The Hit Factory (NY), and Magnet Vision Studios (LA). She has worked with world-class musicians and producers, and in 2005 participated in Alberta Foundation for the Arts sponsored tours to both Australia and Ottawa. Last year Ann also received an Alberta Centennial Medal for the Performing Arts, for her contributions to the Alberta Arts Scene.

Ann's debut album, "Soul Unravelling", was released in 2003, to critical and popular acclaim. It is now in its 5th pressing.

Ann's 2nd album, entitled "Modes of Transport" (produced by Paul Brill in NYC) is now being released across Canada, Australia, and Western Europe. This past winter Ann completed her 3rd tour of Australia, where "Modes of Transport" was warmly received, selling out at the Port Fairy Folk Music Festival, and where her albums are distributed by MGM Distribution.

In Canada the album is currently in heavy rotation on Alberta commercial station Magic 99, independent radio stations CJSR and CKUA, nationally on CBC radio,and has been charting very well on various college stations across the country. Ann has just returned from her first Western European tour (August, 2006), where she secured distribution with Glitterhouse and will be returning for a tour in the Spring of 2007. Ann heads out on her 4th Australian tour in January/February of 2007. During down time between tours she is in the studio, working on subsequent material to follow up "Modes of Transport", and performing in her home province.

Ann mainly performs solo, but occassionally with her band, "The Dropouts"; Moni Mathew on bass, Thom Bennett on drums, Arun Bhaumik on guitar. She also been performs occassionally as a duo with organist and electronicist David Aide, or with background singer Amy Van Keeken (of "The Secretaries").

It may be hard to fathom that Ann has accomplished all this in the space of 6 years, and from her modest hometown base of Edmonton, Alberta. Not showing any signs of slowing down, Ann's fan club is rapidly growing as her music is catching on worldwide.


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