Shyann

A beautiful voice, plus beautiful songs, plus a beautiful outlook on it all gives us Tricia Gilhooly, a.k.a Shyann. Shyann is taking Canadian pop music by the reigns, quickly becoming a fan an industry favourite. With material that instantly evokes a more sophisticated, but equally entertaining form of pop music, Shyann is someone to look out for!



When did you start getting involved with music? Have you looked back since?

I got involved in music when I was just a little kid. Believe it or not, I was a very reserved, very shy kid that often got bullied on account of the fact that I never spoke up for myself. Then one day, as cliche as it sounds, I was in the changeroom after gym class just singing to myself and when I was done, I looked back and looked up to see that all the girls in the changeroom had their eyes on me. It was amazing and their response was so overwhelming to a person who was used to getting no attention. Since then, I've learned that music is ultimately the way that I best express myself and I've honestly never looked back since.

How would you describe your sound to those who haven't heard it before?

There's definitely an urban element to what I do but I couldn't really place my music under one genre because I'm so heavily influenced by many different ones, from the indie music scene, to jazz, to opera, definitely hip hop and really, any world genres. I draw the best of what my ears hear from every genre of music and my own sound is comprised of many of those elements. I'd love to hear input on how others would categorize my music into a genre.

What do you hope audiences will take from listening to your music?

All that I could hope for an audience to gain from listening to my music would be an understanding of where I'm coming from, be it conceptually or musically. If a person can take their own personal meaning away from what I do, that builds the connection between one music lover to another :)

Where does your song writing inspiration usually come from?

Honestly, my song writing inspiration stems from just living my everyday life, from the greatest moments in the world to the worst, and for all of those moments in between where I'm lost in transition. Or being moved by someone elses' experiences around me. My true release is writing and expressing myself, my thoughts and my feelings through music.

Who are your favourite artists and how have they influenced your song writing if they have?

There are so many artists that are influential to me: Beck, Portishead, definitely Amel Larrieux vocally as well as Raphael Saadiq, Radiohead, and Broken Social Scene, to name a few. They all influence me in that they have found their own sound, they've found their own writing style, their own melody and I aspire to find that sound for myself, as an artist and as an individual.


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Mandippal

23-year old Mandippal wants nothing more than to give audiences some authenticity. In a world where radios are constantly favouring the sound of over-produced pop music, Mandippal strives to maintain his uniqueness. "I'm writing pop music right now but I don't want to compromise what I want to do just to give people what they want to hear. I want to be able to entertain with integrity."

And he does. With a songbook inspired mostly by life experiences (and one song that takes a critical view about the issue of racism) Mandippal makes it a point to stay as real as possible. "I get inspired by whatever, but most of the time it's something that has happened to me." This is not surprising considering his 8 years worth of experience as an indie artist.

The Cambridge resident started off young, as one of the leads in his high school production of Guys and Dolls. "I actually wanted to go into musical theatre", he said. After becoming familiar with a guitar and writing music, Mandippal and his sister had a duo, fittingly called "Sibling Rivalry". "We got pretty well- known in the university circuit. Then she decided to be a teacher and I decided to go solo, so here I am."

And here he is with an uber chill, uber authentic EP called "When It's Only Me Standing". Strictly an acoustic record, "When It's Only Me Standing" features the "unplugged" sound that seems to suit Mandippal well. "I wanted to give people something simple. All but one are about heartache and heartbreak and all of the in-betweens." The title track of the song is a line from "Beggers and Bedsheets", a song that deals with a different kind of relationship, was written in 2005 for Anti-Racism Day. "I was living in toronto for school, at Dundas and Sherbourne, which is this really scketchy area in Toronto. I was walking down and there are cops parked at every corner of the street. That line came in my head and it turned into this really nice political song, which I'd never done before. It's basically about how ignorant we can be, and that's what needs to change. I haven't been inspired by anything else like that before."


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