Your name:
Shaina Silver-Baird.
Where are you from?
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Name of band:
Crooked House Road.
Who else is in your band?
Mirian Kay
(vocals/acoustic guitar), Derek Gray (drums/percussion), Gram Whitty (bass) and Joshua Skye Engel (electric guitar/mandolin).
How would
you describe yourselves?
Known for
soaring harmony and raw emotion, Crooked House Road pulls on folk, blues, soul,
bluegrass and pop inspiration to create a sound all their own. Having just
released their debut album with producer Ken Whiteley, CHR’s strength is in
their live performances which are both intimate and powerful.
Who are your
main influences musically?
Modern Americana bands with lots of harmony like
The Lone Bellow and The Civil Wars. Classic folk like Joni Mitchell and Crosby,
Stills, Nash. And the blues and jazz greats old and new like Nina Simone, Ella
Fitzgerald and Adele.
What do
you hope to achieve in music?
My aim has always been to tell stories through my
music. I think the more honest a song is the more an audience can connect with
it. And that’s really what this is all is about for me: connecting with an audience
and putting on a performance. If we’re having a blast up there, then our
audience is bound to have fun as well.
What has
been the highlight of your career so far, and why?
The highlight of my musical career has to have been
the process of recording this album. There’s so much work that goes into a
project like this, over so many months. But the couple weeks in the studio,
recording with the band, Ken and our guest musicians, was bliss. It was an
exciting time, having all these amazing musicians dedicated to working on my
music. It was surreal.
And what’s
the moment you want to forget?
About a year ago we played a gig closing off the
night for a friend’s band, and I lost my voice mid set. And I mean seriously
lost my voice – I could barely make a sound by the third song. I had to end our
set halfway through and it was the worst feeling.
If you had
to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and
why?
Goodbye My Friend. It’s one of the first ones I
wrote and has this exhilarating, uplifting quality despite the fact that I
wrote it after a crushing break up. I love that it makes people in a crowded
bar shut up, listen and clap along, despite being so bittersweet.
Where can
we listen to it?
You can find it on exclaim.ca in their
premiere of the album:
Where can
we find out more about your music?
Anything
else you’d like to say about your band/music that I forgot to ask?
If you like
what we’re doing or want to have us come to your local venue we’d love to hear
from you! Write us at crookedhouseroad@gmail.com; find us on Facebook or tweet us at @CrookedHouseRd!
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