Pacha Mimi

Whoever said "Playing music in your living room won't get you anywhere" was wrong in the case of how Mimi of Pacha Mimi met Johnny guitar. As a teenager, Mimi spent many hours a day banging the keys of her old upright piano, with the patio door wide open, writing and memorizing her own songs which quickly became a list of over 50 original works.

Little did she know, she had a secret band member that she would soon meet. Johnny Guitar, a more mature musician, had played in the Winnipeg scene for 30 years in bands like Stratt, Release The Hounds, The Forgotten Disciples and The First, working with Kurt Winter of The Guess Who, Chris Burke-Gaffney (singer/songwriter and producer), Ken (Spider) Sinnaeve bassist of Loverboy, John Hannah of Streetheart and Lou Petrovich of The Pumps along the way. After many years in the business, playing guitar night after night, he decided to give music a rest and lay low for a while, but when he started hearing beautiful melodies and a powerful voice coming from the apartment beneath him, he couldn't help but strum along.

One summer day, Mimi's mom was on her way back to the apartment from the outdoor pool, when a tall, dark, possibly intimidating, yet handsome man, approached her and said "Is that you who plays music in there?" Tina immediately began apologizing, "Oh no, it's my daughter. I'm sorry. Is it too loud? I tell her not to play too latee-" Johnny interrupted jokingly with "Well if you'd just shut up for a minute, I'd tell you I kinda like it!" Little did Tina and John know, they'd be married 4 years later. Isn't life mysterious?

Mimi and John started writing, jamming, recording and playing shows around Winnipeg together. Some highlights include playing many nights at The Academy, playing to a full house at the Park Theater on Osborne, warming up to intimate crowds at Sam's Place and remembering Woodstock, roaring "Me and Bobby McGee" at Ragpicker's in the Exchange. One rare thing about Pacha Mimi's shows is the audience would take interest and connect to the songs even if they had never heard them before, which is tough to do with original material. The listeners would often be tickled pink with tracks like "Sexy Alien Boyfriend," tempted to delve into the dark side with "Escaping This Demise," or inspired with the heart-felt "Candle 4 My Life." Naturally, a following followed Pacha Mimi wherever they went and each show had more and more life force.

Reflection and rest is important for people in general and especially artists. Next it was Mimi and her partner James' time to lay low expecting the arrival of newborn baby Jude. "Pregnancy and the birth of my son was a beautiful time to go inward and be quiet for a while. Lots of funny lullabies came out of this time and a song I wrote for him entitled 'The Stars Shine Brightly For You.'" Now that baby Jude is crawling about, becoming more independent every day, Pacha Mimi are feeling gravity pulling them to the stage.