Theresa Sokyrka
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Theresa Sokyrka

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2004 | INDIE | AFM

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada | INDIE | AFM
Established on Jan, 2004
Solo Folk Alternative

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This band has not uploaded any videos

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"Something Is Expected From Theresa Sokyrka"

Thursday July 20, 2006 @ 06:00 PM

Canadian singer/songwriter Theresa Sokyrka is hoping to strike gold again with her second album, Something Is Expected.

The album, which will be released on August 29 by MapleMusic Recordings, is Sokyrka's follow-up to last year's independently released These Old Charms. That album of jazz standards and covers earned her a 2006 Juno Award nomination for best pop album and sold more than 70,000 copies in Canada.

The new album is a collection of earthy love songs that were all written by Sokyrka except for one. Production on Something Is Expected was split between Cowboy Junkies' Michael Timmins in Toronto and The New Pornographers' John Collins and The Evaporators' David Carswell in Vancouver. Lead single "Waiting Song" is now at radio.

Sokyrka first came to national attention when she was the runner-up on Canadian Idol in 2004. The Saskatoon resident will perform at the PNE Festival in Vancouver on August 23.

Here are the tracks on Something Is Expected:
1. "Waiting Song"
2. "Believe Me"
3. "Tell Me Why"
4. "Enemy"
5. "Falling Out"
6. "Something Is Expected"
7. "Yours Is Yours"
8. "River Bend"
9. "Sandy Eyes"
10. "Without Waking"
11. "Here I Am"
12. "Bluebird"

—Arti Patel - ChartAttack.com


"THERESA SOKYRKA GETS A LITTLE COARSE ... WELL, FOR HER, ANYWAY"

ROSS MOROZ / ross@vueweekly.com

The last time Vue spoke with Theresa Sokyrka—the 2004 Canadian Idol runner-up whose surprisingly (and impressively) legitimate solo career continues to build steam with the August release of her second album, Something is Expected—the bespectacled, soft-spoken, presumably Baba-loving Ukrainian-Canadian from Saskatchewan was almost implausibly nice.

She defended Ben Mulroney (“It’s the writers that make him seem super-cheesy,” she insisted), disagreed with my assessment that her finishing second in the contest to the insufferably cherubic Kalan Porter (who? Exactly) was a gross miscarriage of justice (“I really honestly think he was the one who should have won,” she gushed) and, most notably, requested that I omit any curse words from her quotes, even though upon listening to the tape of our interview I discovered she hadn’t uttered even one.

What a difference a year has made. This time around, after endlessly slogging across the country and becoming familiar with the dirty rotten business that is the Canadian music industry, Sokyrka has become considerably more world-weary, dispensing trenchant criticism of the biz and the sometimes-shady characters that inhabit it. With swearing!

“It’s such a shitty business, sometimes—it’s just like ‘oh, man, I can’t believe this is the way it is,” she admits, specifically remembering how excited she was to meet many of her own personal musical, ahem, idols, only to find out that many are, well, kind of dicks.

“People that you think would be completely grateful to be where they are just not,” Sokyrka bemoans. “It’s so weird. They are big huge stars, and you’ve listened to their music for ages, and when you meet them and it sucks you’re just, like, ‘fuck—why do they have to be like that?’”

Even with this new-found cynicism, though, it’s doubtful that Sokyrka is in any danger of turning out “like that.” She still comes off as completely unpretentious, totally honest, and is probably—somewhat unbelievably—as nice as she seems.

But her experience in the music industry over the past couple of years has also helped her develop more confidence as an artist, confidence that allowed her to dictate the direction of Expected, which, unlike her debut, These Old Charms, is almost completely made up of original songs written by Sokyrka, a difference she’s particularly proud of.

“The most important thing to me was to be considered a songwriter, and my first record wasn’t that at all,” she explains. “This album I just really wanted to write myself—it’s really important to have some integrity I think.”

That an ex-Canadian Idol would even think about things like legitimacy and integrity is impressive enough; that Sokyrka is actually managing to make music that, despite being a little bit on the easy-listening side (more MuchMore than Much, if that makes sense), actually delivers on that promise is pretty remarkable, considering how easily she could have fallen into the pit of vacuity that is mainstream Canadian pop.

It makes sense, though, considering her oft-repeated desire to actually have a real career in music, as opposed to simply cashing in on her 15 minutes of CTV-sponsored media saturation like so many of her Idol-mates have.

“I’m not going to be able to pay the bills as a songwriter forever—I know that, and I want to stick with this for a while and learn different aspects [of the music business],” Sokyrka explains.

“I’m really interested in producing at some point, and then probably 20 years from now hopefully I’ll be, you know, smoking a joint with Joni Mitchell or something. That would be super cool.”

A soft-drug reference? And no request to cut out the cursing? Wow—this is getting a little bit, um, rock ‘n’ roll, don’t you think?

“I love songwriting and I like doing it on my own—I’m doing all of these shows on my own acoustically—but I’d love to get a really kick-ass band going,” she laughs. “I’d love to play electric guitar and just wail, you know? That would be awesome.” V - Vue Weekly


"A Canadian Christmas Tour"

Theresa Sokyrka, to join Matt Dusk on Multi-City Canadian Tour

On Dec 5, Decca/Universal Music Canada recording artist and Juno award nominee, Matt Dusk, will stat his multi-city holiday tour entitled, A CANADIAN CHRISTMAS, in Toronto, ON , at the Capital Events Theatre. Dusk will be joined by Canadian Idol runner-uo, Theresa Sokyrka, for the twelve city tour which will include, Montreal,Quebec City,North Bay, Sault St. Marie, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Brandon, Yorkton, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, and Lloydminster.

Many will be able to get a taste of
A CANADIAN CHRISTMAS by hearing Dusk and Sokyrka sing their holiday duet, "Baby It's Cold Outside," on the radio. The show features solo and duet performances of holiday favorites and tunes from Dusk's current Album, "Back In Town" and Sokyrka's soon to be released Holiday Album "Wrapped in Ribbon".

"Back in Town" is a collection of original and classic material. The new songs are a combination of pop, rock country and jazz, while the classic ones are a page out of the American Songbook which included favorites such as "The Best is Yet to Come", "As Time Goes By" and "Get Me To The Church".

"Wrapped in Ribbon" is a collection of classic holiday tunes produced by Sokyrka in sultry jazz renditions. The album also features the Duet with Dusk, and an original pop selection entitled
" The Last Day of the Year".


- With Matt Dusk & Theresa Sokyrka


Discography

Still working on that hot first release.

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Bio

Theresa Sokyrka is a Canadian singer songwriter based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. She became a household name in 2004 as Canadian Idol runner up. Her independently released debut album in April of 2005 “These Old Charms” was granted gold status a month after it's release, selling over 70,000 compact discs, which was an incredible feat those days. The album was nominated for best pop album of the year in the 2006 Junos although Sokyrka’s opinion it probably should have been in the Best Jazz Album Category.

She bought a house in 2005 in Saskatoon and followed music around the world for several years. Her next release was a pop album of originals “Something is Expected” that dropped September 2006, selling over 15,000 units. Produced by Mike Timmins from the Cowboy Junkies and John Collins and David Carswell (The New Pornographers and The Evaporators) the album was a great balance of live off the floor, spontaneous moments to popped up melodies with hooks and click tracks. The digital age was taking hold and industry album sales were plummeting but Sokyrka kept hanging on, although most people would have no idea.

Sokyrka has released a total of 5 albums in her 13 year long career, each one selling less than the next. A totally awesome Christmas album called “Wrapped in Ribbon,” in 2007 was an attempt to recreate versions of Ella Fitzgerald's Christmas arrangements, even using a vintage U47 Neumann ribbon mic to record vocals.

While living in Montreal Sokyrka released her fourth album. A collection of Ukrainian folk songs that was recorded with Benoit Morier in 2010. Even for non Ukrainian ears the album is a hit, featuring the violin virtuoso Carissa Klopoushak.

Sokyrka's latest release was in 2013 “Prairie Winds” a collection of original songs which was recorded and mastered in Madrid in 7 days, free from edits and as pure as the driven snow.

Both of Sokyrka’s videos were directed by Anita Doron. “The Waiting Song” and “Sandy Eyes” both debuted on the top ten MuchMusic Countdown. Sokyrka’s music has been featured in Anita Doron’s films “Mystico Fantastico” and “Europa, East” as well as “CBC’s Heartland.” Sokyrka was a featured artist on MTV Peru in 2005 whilst filming a music video for Sandy Eyes which debuted on MuchMusic at Number 7.  She has had the opportunity to open for David Gray, Charlotte Cornfield, Miss Emily Brown, and Matt Dusk.

Five years ago Sokyrka returned to living life in Saskatoon after 10 years of travelling the globe and living in Toronto and Montreal. She lives modestly with her husband, son, cat Jaco and dog Pino. Putting music on the back burner since her last release there's just no denying that this kid can sing and that creating is unavoidable. She continues to prove to her fans old and new that though it's been almost 15 years since a reality TV show found her in Saskatchewan, Sokyrka is sticking around for the long haul, you might just have to dig a little. 

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