Missy Bauman is gearing up for the release of her brand new album titled "Sweet" next month and we had a chance to ask her about it along with her musical influences, growing up in Ontario, and more.
Q: What inspired you to start writing music?
A: I've loved music for as long as I can remember. My dad would play piano for me and my siblings before bed, which was one of my earliest and most favourite memories of live music. I always loved to sing and perform, but I really dove into music when my fifth-grade teacher taught me ukulele. My dad gave me a guitar that year for Christmas, and music has been a turbulent and wonderful love affair ever since.
Q: Who are your personal favourites? Who are your major influences?
A: I've had the same favourite band for over a decade now - Said the Whale! They are an indie-pop/rock band from Vancouver. My favourite band prior to them was the Beatles. I was absolutely obsessed. But STW was the first band I lived alongside - experienced them evolving as artists firsthand. I've loved their evolution through the years. My biggest influences are all Canadian - Bahamas, Mother Mother, Hannah Georgas, Joni Mitchell.
Q: Tell us about your new album. What is it about? How would you describe the sound?
A: Long story short, it's about falling out of love. I went through a very intense heartbreak and these songs frame it - before, during, and after a breakup. The frustration and the devastation and the darkness - and then finally coming out on the other side as if you were emerging from a long moment underwater. They were all recorded in a very grassroots way - live off the floor at the beautiful Grant Avenue Studios in Hamilton. There are moments where you can hear me turn the pages on the piano. It's all very vulnerable, and delicate, and "sweet". After I mixed most of the tracks, I chose 'Sweet' as the final title, because I felt it describes the songs so accurately.
Q: Do you miss playing live shows? Anywhere you're hoping to play once you get the go-ahead?
A: Just bought a van and I'm excited to start booking tours from coast to coast. I had a cross-country tour planned immediately after our country went into lockdown. An album release show at Burdock in Toronto followed by a train tour to Vancouver and back. It would have been my first time hired by VIA Rail as entertainment and I was so excited! Thankfully when things return to some sort of normalcy I'll be able to take that trip. But the shows I have been missing the most are the ones that will take the longest to come back - the ones where everyone is crammed wall to wall, where the music and friends and energy makes the room warm and lovely. Places like Heartwood Hall in Owen Sound, or Hillside Festival in Guelph. I can't wait to get back there.
Q: Any fond memories growing up in Ontario?
A: Oh, so so many! I grew up in Brantford, and I spent a lot of my free time by the Grand River - doing crosswords, drinking tea, texting my friends. I lived in Toronto for the first few years of adulthood which is really where I became who I am as an artist. We would be out on the town seeing live music every day of the week. I remember all the terrible apartments I lived in (once with a family of raccoons as roommates), and how shocking it was to move to Guelph where things were so much quieter... and less expensive! I'm definitely known for hopping from city to city, but Ontario definitely has a hold on me.
"Sweet" is Missy Bauman's second album, contains nine original tracks and is already garnering critical success having been awarded the “Songs from the Heart” award presented by Folk Music Ontario, the Folk Award from the international John Lennon Songwriting Competition, and was the runner-up in BC Musician’s Songwriting Competition.
We can't wait to hear it!
Be sure to head over to her website and listen to all her wonderful music.
