Mae Anderson

Anderson. Mae Anderson. Does that name sound familiar? Well yeah, sure, you might just recognize this young woman.

The eighteen year old singer songwriter has, after all, been making the rounds of the small festivals and venues in the area for about three years now. She’s got a couple of singles, not to mention an eight song ep, for sale on iTunes. Is that where you know her from?

Maybe, or just maybe, you know her as the one on Radio-Canada who teaches kids to cook.

“The last season that I did, I made a chocolate pie that you can make in two minutes, I’ve made fruit salad in a waffle cone, but my favourite one was a special grilled cheese sandwich and you put cinnamon and apples in it. It was so good, you have no idea,” says Anderson.

There will be no recipes (as far as we know) tonight at Wunderbar, however. Tonight, Anderson will most definitely be wearing her musician’s hat as she takes part in Songwriter Sunday 6 at Wunderbar, alongside Ian McIntosh and Matt McKeen.

A songwriter can know they’re a songwriter long before they write their first song, but they can also write their first song long before they know they’re a songwriter. Which one of these is Anderson? Probably a bit of both. She says she wrote her first song when she was twelve and got a manager and began pursuing music in earnest about three years after that, but it runs deeper than that.

“One of my first memories of my childhood is going on camping trips and listening to American Graffiti and the Beach Boys and Elvis Presley,” she says. “It’s always been an important value in our family and I think it was only natural that I tried to find a sort of release that way.”

So while Anderson can hardly be considered an amateur or rookie, she still admits that she finds herself at a very early point in her career, where things still have the potential of going a number of different ways. Her primary focus has been on graduating from high school in June and she’ll attend NAIT in the fall to study television, but in the meantime, Mae Anderson has big plans.

“Now that summer’s coming up, I’m going be starting back up with the festivals and the gigs like this one at Wunderbar. But besides that stuff,” she enthuses, “this summer we are finishing up demos for four new songs, I’ve made arrangements to do all sorts of collaborations with other people. We’re going to be releasing a music video. It’s going to be busy. And awesome.” - Craig Elliott

by JOELLE TOMEK

Mae Anderson's first pop single is called 'Rainy Day', but there's nothing cloudy about Mae Anderson's disposition. And the Bonnie Doon teen has a lot to smile about. For proof, just check her Twitter account, Facebook page, MySpace page or her official website, www.maeanderson.com.

The 16-year-old singer songwriter, who works in both Edmonton and Montreal, spends hours each day successfully promoting her music in cyberspace. From responding to emails to blogging and making Youtube videos, Anderson says she easily spends five to seven hours daily connecting with fans and music colleagues online. Her MySpace page, which has been viewed more than 40,000 times, features a fictional Youtube series called 'Come What Mae', narrated in Twitter tweets. And according to Twitter - as of Monday at 4:13 pm, she was back from soundcheck, had tons of fun at CityTV, and heading back to her Calgary hotel to relax before an evening concert.

While she pours most of her promotional energy into web work, Anderson's Montreal manager is helping her make a splash in traditional media. An acoustic version of Rainy Day has regular airplay on 14 eastern Canadian radio stations, as well as Edmonton's CKUA and Joe FM.

Shannon Fox, Joe FM's music director, says the hit station doesn't usually play indie tracks but after listening to Anderson's single 'again and again', station staff decided to make an exception.

"We've had a great reaction to her song", Fox says. "People say they really like it." In Quebec, the single surged from 77th to second place on Joliette, Que's 103.5 FM.

Anderson recorded her 5-song EP in Montreal, the birthplace of her mother. Having grown up with two first languages - French and English - Anderson makes a point of incorporating bilingualism into her work. While all songs on her EP are English, she hopes to eventually record in both languages.

"It doubles your opportunities", she says. "I'm so proud I've kept my (French). It's a beautiful language."

Anderson's EP album 'Off the Floor' is available at all local HMV stores. - Edmonton Examiner

by HEATHER ANDREWS MILLAR

Edmonton-born Mae Anderson is a talented singer-songwriter who lives her passion for music to the fullest. The charismatic performer, who got her first stage exposure at the age of three singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, will be one of the headliners at this year's Edmonton Chante. The Francophone music and art festival will run September 26th to October 3rd at various venues around the capital city.

"This is a great opportunity for me to reach out to the people in my French culture," she says. "And it opens up more doors for me to perform and to share my love of music with everyone." While well attended by the 20,000 plus population of the Francophone community, Chante also appeals to music enthusiasts, those who are interested in different cultures and the general English-speaking public.

She honed her singing skills through pariticipation in community and school choirs, and more recently began training with a vocal coach. "I attended French schools here in the city, starting out at the elementary level at Ecole Ste. Jeanne-d'Arc, and currently attending Maurice-Lavalee high school. "I'm currently in Grade Eleven." Although her family isn't especially musically inclined, they are all supportive of her emerging career.

Anderson listens to different musical styles but especially enjoys the music of several popular artists including her favorite band, Simple Plan, as well as the Beach Boys, Hilary Duff, and Evanescence. "I write very personally, I put my heart on my sleeve, so a lot is based on stuff that's happened in my life, or what my friends and I talk about," she says. "I am open to and conscious of the world around me, to learn of other people's experiences for inspiration in my lyrics."

She has been playing guitar since she was 12 years old and while she enjoys the instrument, when she performs she concentrates solely on the vocals. She currently has a production team in Montreal, managed by Session 5 Entertainment, and expects as her career progresses she will be increasingly visiting Quebec for performances. The bilingual singer has been showcased at Montreal's popular nightclub 'Club Soda', and has had at least three songs in rotation in la Belle Province. She travels frequently to Montreal, writing new songs and recording demos but she still enjoys local audiences as well.

"In addition to Edmonton Chante, I am having a show at the Arts Barn on September 29th, when I'm releasing my CD entitled 'Off the Floor." The release is an unplugged version of seven of her songs, which are acoustic versions featuring everything from pop-rock to folk, and it's being distributed by Universal Canada. "As an artist, I love to be musically diverse. Folk, for example, is very easy-listening and has a special ambience of its own," adds the sixteen-year-old. She recorded some of the tracks on a recent trip to Montreal including the exciting 'Truth or Dare' and 'Right Now', where she collaborated by writing the lyrics while Dan Volj and Martin Bachand supplied the music. To hear some of the tracks, go to www.myspace.com/officialmaeanderson while her website at http://maeanderson.com gives details of her performances and activities, including the details of a webcast series called 'Come What Mae', in which she is featured in two new episodes monthly. "Director and editor Susan Fuda has created three-minute scripted stories about a girl named Mae who is trying to achieve a music career. Funy things happen and situations occur which attempt to get in her way, so even though it's somewhat biographical, it's really a fiction story and it puts to use some acting skills that I've acquired," she explains. She is also performing at the HMV stage at West Edmonton Mall at 1:00 pm on October 3rd.

This is the sixth annual Edmonton Chante and it has caught the attention of residents and visitors alike over the years of its existence, growing expoentially. Many of the city's prime venues are eagerly waiting to welcome the upcoming performances, with more than 50 free shows in various establishments along Whyte Avenue, downtown, and elsewhere around the city including the Funky Buddha, Millcreek Cafe, Normand's, and the Blue Chair Cafe to name just a few.

Anderson and fellow Albertan Raphael Freynet are spokerspersons for Chante. Freynet, a winner of the 2005 Albertan Gala de chanson contest and member of the Francoforce roadshow that toured Canada in 2007, says that the week-long activities will be packed with fun events and activities. "I personally believe it's a great showcase for Francophone music, not only for Edmontonians but for people from elsewhere." Freynet enthrals audiences with his bluesy melodies and Motown-rock grooves, and writes and sings his own songs.

Other local artists include the duo of Stephane Mayer on piano and Emilie-Anne Neeland on violin. Friends since childhood, the Francophone artists play exquisite classical music when their busy schedules allow. Neeland is studying muscial performance at the U of A, while Mayer attends McGill. Their rich and varied prepertoire includes a bit of everything, from the opuses of masters like Bach and Beethoven to the unique sounds of obscure figures. - Real Estate Weekly

By CODIE MCLACHLAN

Sixteen-year old Mae Anderson of Edmonton has been dabbling in music since she was three, but it wasn't until last year that she decided to pursue it as a career.

"I enrolled in a lot of choirs in elementary (school)," Anderson says. "After that, it was more keeping to myself. I had a little scare of giving away 'my' singing secret. I was just a little nervous and scared to show my talent."

Fast-forward to August 2008, when Anderson met her manager, Jean Ouimet, of Session 5 Entertainment. Anderson's grandmother contacted Ouimet and asked him to listen to Mae.

"We were talking from long distance because my production team is based in Montreal and he wanted to hear a demo," said Anderson, whose first language is French. "It was just something that happened naturally. I was like, 'OK, well, if people believe in me, maybe I should believe in myself.'"

Since meeting Ouimet, Anderson has recorded her debut acoustic folk EP, 'Off the Floor'. It will be relased in Edmonton on Tuesday at the PCL Studio in the TransAlta Arts Barns, in conjunction with the Edmonton Chante, Edmonton's sixth annual francophone music festival.

Although 'Off the Floor' is entirely in English, Chante organizers are happy to back Anderson's CD release.

"Most of the francophone artists from Western Canada have to produce anglophone stuff as well," says French Canadian Association director Sylvain Tardif. He says it is common for artists in the Chante festival to sing some songs in English.

Although Anderson has not yet delved into writing songs in French, she will be playing French covers at the Chante festival.

Her involvement with Chante doesn't end with the CD release party. She has also been asked to be the English speaking spokesperson for the festival.

Finishing school is an important objective for Anderson, who is in Grade 11 at Edmonton's Ecole Maurice-Lavallee. "It's tough sometimes," she says. "I'm really determined to keep balancing it because there's no way I'm not graduating. It's all like a juggling act, trying to keep feet on the ground and keep a level head."

With two years of high school left, Anderson plans to spend the next few months recording her full-length album with New York producer Michael Patzig as well as promoting herself in Edmonton.

"We're going to be releasing my real debut full length next year, so I'm going to be doing a lot of shows to try to get the promo here in Edmonton running even better than it is in Montreal," Anderson says. "After that I'll be trying to do some Canadian touring and we'll see where it goes."

While Anderson's debut EP is centered around jazzy acoustic folk music, one track, a surprisingly heavy power-pop tune called 'Boomerang' shows the direction she intends to take for her full length album.

"I'm going to keep the whole rock'n roll thing," she says. "The real album will be the rock." - Edmonton Journal

By MIKE JONES

Mae Anderson is a busy girl these days. Between being enrolled in NAIT's full-time Television Arts program and hosting the weekly French-Canadian children's program "Oniva!", she is heading back to the studio to work on her follow up to 2009's album "Off the Floor".

"Music has kind of had to take a back seat. It's difficult because I can't do as much as I'd like to", Mae Anderson told The Nugget. "It's definitely a big juggling act. School work doesn't become a priority on the weekends because I'm in studios (filming "Oniva!").

Anderson is happy to be creating some new material.

"It's actually difficult for me to listen to the old stuff now, because first of all I don't sound like that at all," Anderson admitted. "My voice has matured so much."

Anderson is very excited to have more control this go-around. Being only 16 when 'Off the Floor' was released, she feels that her maturity level has increased.

"I think I grew up a little faster than some teenagers did because I was in a world where adults ruled. It's not common to find a 15 year old girl hanging out with 45 year old guys in a music studio," Anderson said.

"I spent high school going back and forth from Montreal and Edmonton, doing final exams and playing shows."

She is also glad to be free of the constraints of being with a label.

"When you're with a label, you definitely have the pressure of having an image," she said.

Although Anderson writes all of her own lyrics and has since the beginning, she feels this go around she has more control over her musical style.

"It's very eclectic," she said. "There is a love ballad, there is a rock song. I don't like to categorize myself into one field of music because I feel inspired by so many different genres."

It's not hard to see where the variety comes from, as Anderson enjoys many different styles of music. She counts Montreal's Simple Plan among her current favorites, but for Anderson there is only one true 'King', as she recently flew to Graceland to take part in the annual Elvis Presley birthday festivities.

She hopes to have the EP released sometime this spring, and will continue to host the children's program "Oniva!" (the title is a French play on words for "Let's Go!") which airs weekends on CBC Television de Radio-Canada.

In the meantime, Mae will continue to work on getting her diploma from the Television Arts program.

I want some sort of higher education, besides high school," Anderson said. "I don't want to be a kids' show host for the rest of my life. Maybe I'll go into anchoring news, who knows?".

Keep up to date with the progress of the album by liking her Facebook fan page at "OfficialMaeAnderson". - The NAIT Nugget