Mear is an indie pop collaboration between singer-songwriter Frances Miller and electronic composer Greg Harrison. Together, their music combines catchy melodies and poignant lyrics with their shared love of experimental music. Miller and Harrison met while working at the music venue Massey Hall in Toronto and began collaborating shortly thereafter by sending tracks back and forth over social media.
How would you describe the music that you typically create?
Frances: Our songs try to bridge a gap between a more traditional, folky, singer-songwriting vibe with a more experimental, electronic underpinning. Most of the music we make has some kind of cathartic element built in either instrumentally, vocally or lyrically. We try not to be too depressing but a lot of the content, particularly in our upcoming album focuses on personal experiences with mental illness and disability. That’s particularly true for this new song “The Order” which is about my early experiences living with a chronic illness before I was diagnosed.
What is your creative process like?
Greg: We tend to work remotely (especially with the pandemic) and send ideas back and forth. Typically, Fran will send me a rough idea of vocals and guitar and I’ll strip it down and build it up again in a new sonic world. That usually sparks the beginning of our collaboration, with each new idea influencing the song’s direction.
If you could go open a show for any artist who would it be?
Frances: That’s a tough one! There are so many incredible musicians we love. In a fantasy world where Kate Bush tours again, I think opening for her would be the ultimate dream. Either that or spend a bunch of money on tickets and just follow her around Grateful Dead style.
Has your musical journey had a deliberate direction, or did it simply gradually evolve in whatever direction it found?
Frances: For me it was really gradual. I think this happens to a lot of people in the arts, but I’d bought into the idea that music as a career wasn’t a path that was open to me. I ended up working in a lot of fields that were music adjacent – I worked in a concert hall box office, I bartended at a venue, I worked on a documentary series about recorded music. But music performance and composition always played some role in my life and gradually they just became more and more of what I was spending my time doing.
What can we expect from you within the next 6 months? Any releases planned? Future gigs?
Frances: We will be releasing our first full length record on April 22, 2022. In the meantime we have some music videos coming out that we’re so excited to share.
Do you enjoy recording and production?
Frances: We both absolutely love the recording process. It’s probably our favourite part of making music. The studio can be such a creative place. With that said we both cannot wait to finally play these songs live. It’s an important element that’s been really missing from our lives over the past two years.
If we were to peek over your shoulder, what does your studio look like? What gear do you typically use?
Greg: Lots of percussion and electronics. I’m a percussionist by trade, so I have a lot of melodic instruments around (glockenspiel, marimba, balifone, etc) which I like to sample and feed through various effects and create a new unique sound.
What is the most useless talent you have?
Greg has some pretty stellar yo-yo skills
Which fictional character do you wish was real?
Greg: Kirby
What do you think the greatest invention has been?
Greg: Finger Tongs – sometimes marketed as “Chopsticks for Gamers.” Now I can eat Cheetos while recording/ mixing and not worry about getting cheese powder on my gear.
What’s your favourite board game?
Frances: Ticket-to-Ride is the ultimate board game. I am also a Dominion stan.
Are you a valuable asset on a Pub Quiz team?
Frances: I’ve played so much virtual trivia with friends during the pandemic. For a year or more we’d play Another Round trivia online almost every week. It was so much fun! The answer to whether I’m a valuable asset is a hard “No”.