Emm Gryner talks healing, life coaching and her new album ‘Business & Pleasure’

If you’ve been following her career, you know indie Renaissance woman Emm Gryner as a singer, bass player, songwriter, producer, public speaker and author.

Her 23rd solo album, “Business & Pleasure,” will be out in the spring; she’s toured with David Bowie, opened for Def Leppard, made music with astronaut Chris Hadfield while he was on board the International Space Station, and helped introduce impressive homegrown acts Royal Wood and In-Flight Safety to the world through her independent label Dead Daisy Records, which she’s been operating for close to 30 years.

Now you can add one more talent to her impressive portfolio: life coach.

The Sarnia-born multihyphenate, who currently calls St. Marys home, added that distinction to her resumé almost by accident just before the pandemic hit in March 2020, a natural extension from giving voice lessons.

“I had already done vocal coaching, which led to mentoring, which led to more life and career coaching,” Gryner, 47, explained recently over Zoom. “So, through the pandemic, I was able to focus on that.

“A lot of people thought that it was a response to not being able to perform, but it was actually to where life was headed, with a book already on the go.”

More on the book in a moment, but Gryner’s venture into coaching came from a motivation to be less self-centred, and a desire to help others following a dark period of her life when the mother of two dealt with an unexpected divorce and alcoholism.

“When ‘Glastonbury 2000’ (a posthumous David Bowie live album featuring Gryner on vocals, keyboards and clarinet) came out, that was a turning point for me,” she said. “Not in terms of giving up drinking or anything like that, but just crawling out of that hell hole of marital breakup.

“I started to look at my voice and that was when I thought about writing the book and doing more giving back to others. In a pop music world, you’re really focused on yourself all the time. You’re always thinking, ‘How can I appear more likeable? How can I appear more successful?’ It was the first time that I felt like all that had flipped and I was thinking of others.

“That was a huge healing point for me. So, to see all the things that cleaning up your life can bring you, I can’t really separate this coaching from the rock ’n’ roll now.”

Gryner said embarking on a life coaching path has been a gift.

“Everyone’s different and that’s the benefit of having a one-on-one coach: it’s really about knowing yourself,” she said. “We’re so distracted by life and we feel so obligated to do things that we kind of forget who we are.

“It’s a pretty joyful experience to see these people have these realizations.”

However, coaching wasn’t the only development in her life. Gryner’s book, “The Healing Power of Singing : Raise Your Voice, Change Your Life (What Touring With David Bowie, Single Parenting and Ditching the Music Business Taught Me in 25 Easy Steps),” published by ECW Press, affected her both personally and professionally, as she entered into a romantic and creative relationship with Michael Holmes, the ECW executive editor who acquired her book.

“Things changed very quickly when I met my partner, Michael,” Gryner said. “But it didn’t turn into a personal relationship until about three months into the pandemic and that was a pretty huge personal shift; and then, as it turns out, creative shift, because he co-wrote all the songs with me on my new album.”

She deems “Business & Pleasure” — out on four different labels around the world in April — her happiest, even though the origin story of her recently released first single “Valencia” — based on the 1906 shipwreck of the S.S. Valencia off the coast of British Columbia — was a metaphor for her 2016 divorce.

“I did a little video — I do a vlog now — and I was talking about the inspiration behind the song,” Gryner said. “So much about this historic shipwreck story was like my life. You don’t set out at sea knowing that you’re going to die, right? And there was so much about that story of this ship like what I went through … that a lot of people’s relationships are years in the making, but the fallout was blindsiding and I think a necessary rock bottom for me to climb up again.

“I changed the chorus of ‘Valencia’ to being joyful, because there were these stories of ghosts being seen in the lifeboats after and I imagined them dancing in the moonlight, the redemption of another life.”

After a string of albums that include Gryner’s take on jazz (“Just for You”), ambience (“Aonorán”), sci-fi (“Only of Earth: Days of Games”), an EP of covers (“Slant”) and a cassette from her hard-rocking side project Trapper (“Songs From the Electric North”), the singer and songwriter has decided to celebrate the California West Coast sound with “Business & Pleasure.”

“I think that’s been the upside of not being on a major label,” Gryner said. “Because there’s no major label that would have supported 20 years of these kinds of decisions (to record in diverse genres).

“The jazz album was a gift to my dad. The ambient record was literally a piece I had to do to survive my divorce. And even now, ‘Business & Pleasure’ is a tribute to the West Coast sound and all of that music we love: Michael McDonald and Fleetwood Mac and Steely Dan and all of that.

Gryner recorded in Nashville, hooking up with a producer that relocated to Music City decades ago but who has a storied history in Toronto: Juno Award winner Fred Mollin. If Mollin’s name seems familiar, he helped launch the long defunct improv group Homemade Theatre in the city; co-produced Dan Hill’s 1977 hit album “Longer Fuse” and its hit single “Sometimes When We Touch”; has provided the scores for two “Friday the 13th” movies; written music for “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Forever Knight,” and produced projects with everyone from Billy Joel and Barbra Streisand to Lyle Lovett and Tenille Townes.

He also worked with the soulful Doobie Brothers singer McDonald, whom Gryner was initially hoping to recruit for an album duet because he’s her favourite singer.

“I think that was part of the pandemic’s impact: if I’m going to die, what’s my dream? To find my favourite singer,” Gryner chuckled.

She reached out to her colleagues in Bowie’s touring band for a contact and also asked Toronto singer Donovan Woods. Juno Award-winning engineer John “Beetle” Bailey finally put her in touch with Mollin, who encouraged Gryner to send him some songs.

“I knew that Fred had worked with Michael and his wife Amy (Holland),” Gryner recalled. “And when you love something enough, you will ask people. So I asked John, could you introduce us? It was weird because I didn’t know Fred, even though we had tons of mutual friends. And Fred was like, ‘Yeah, you know. Keep writing some songs and send them to me.’”

Eventually Gryner and the 69-year-old Mollin agreed to work together.

“I thought it was really important to work with someone who was over 65, because I wanted to work with someone who had been through the ’70s and early ’80s who had actually been there, “ Gryner explained.

“Fred’s the perfect person. I had never made a record that way where it was like just bringing in these top-level musicians like drummer Shannon Forrest who played with Toto and Pat Coil, who was Michael McDonald’s keyboardist, just top level guys.”

Whether it’s the horn-accented “Burn the Boats” — the album’s second single, out Jan. 13 — the summery feel of “The Second Coming” or the soulful “Jack,” the overall feeling of the 11-song “Business & Pleasure” is one of elation.

“It’s pure joy, really,” Gryner said. “So much of it was inspired by the piano keyboard parts of Michael McDonald and the Doobie Brothers; the grooves of Steely Dan and the vibe of Fleetwood Mac.

“And I just love the soul of the things I listened to when I was younger on American Top 40 coming over from Detroit, like Anita Baker, that Detroit soul kind of thing.

“It’s also like it being elevated to the place that it’s at because of the musicians who worked on it and the mixer and the mastering. It’s definitely brought a lot of joy and a lot of closure. Arriving at this place is almost a new beginning.”

Did Gryner ever get to record with McDonald?

“I decided to cover the Doobie Brothers song ‘Real Love,’ but we never ended up asking him,” she responded. “It felt like ‘Real Love’ was a thank you to him, because he really inspired something that I think is the greatest thing that I’ve ever done … But I sent him the song and he responded and said it was beautiful.”

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