8 Things You Should Know About POESY

When Toronto-based singer-songwriter POESY sat down at the piano at NYC’s Rockwood Music Hall Stage 1 last week, many in the the crowd were wrapped up in their own conversations, barely aware that it was time for the next artist on the bill to perform. As soon as she launched into her first song, however, her remarkably powerful vocals had everyone’s attention.

Leading off with her latest single, the dark alt-pop song “Multiply,” she grabbed hold of everyone in attendance, and didn’t let go for the entirety of her set.

To say POESY was impressive would be an understatement, as she immediately became someone everyone wanted to know more about.

With that in mind, here are eight things you should know about POESY.

She’s had a big voice since childhood 

POESY discovered her voice when she was just nine years old, and it was big even back then. This created some problems for her as a young aspiring singer, as the current pop trends weren’t geared in any way toward such vocals. “At the time Britney Spears was such a big thing, and all of these people with more high pitched, soft, and airy voices, and I didn’t have that. Everyone always compared me to these people like Sarah McLachlan, and at nine you’re like, ‘But she’s like a grown up, and I want to be cool!’”

For her first talent show as a kid she performed the Dixie Chicks (now The Chicks) song “Travelin’ Soldier,” but it didn’t take long to find a song that better suited her – that song would be “My Immortal” by Evanescence. It was an interesting choice for a pre-teen, and she says, “Everyone was like, ‘This is really dark,’ and I was like it’s amazing!”

This is when POESY began the journey of embracing her voice. “I think at the beginning I was really uncomfortable with it, but then when I grew into it I realized it was something that set me apart. I found other women with big, powerful voices, like Florence + the Machine, Kate Bush, and PJ Harvey, and then I felt a lot more comfortable.”

Her high school days were spent writing songs 

Every class in high school turned into a songwriting class for POESY, as she remembers, “I used to get in trouble for writing lyrics a lot instead of paying attention.”

While those lyrics have never been recorded as songs – she actually laughs at the thought of this – she says they were all part of the process. “They were who I was at the time, and I’m sure for being 14 they were pretty good.”

She makes music for the underdogs of the world

Despite wowing audiences with Evanescence covers as a kid, POESY says, “I was really uncool for most of my life, (but) I don’t think that’s bad. I think that actually makes someone kind of interesting.”

This is why much of her music speaks for, and represents the underdogs, and the underrepresented.

“When I was growing up, I’ve been this tall since I was 12. I’m 5’11’’, and I have really big hair, and I just didn’t really fit in with a lot of other people. I liked older music, and being really eccentric, so I think for a lot of my life, when I was discovering music I identified with ‘Creep’ by Radiohead, and I wanted to make music for people like that, because there’s a lot of them, and that’s the music that I love the most, (music) that makes you feel like this person that I don’t know has represented this thing that I’ve gone through so well.”

She expects to change musically, and change often

“My favorite band of all-time is Queen,” she explains, “I really love Freddie Mercury because he combines theatricality with rock n roll, and he once said – I never want to make the same Queen record twice, because why would I do that?”

POESY is embracing that kind of musical exploration with her own career.

“I think people who are a fan of me should get ready for that kind of trajectory,” she says, “because there are so many things I want to explore. The defining moments will always be the lyricism, and my voice, by I think instrumentally it can go so many ways.”

This is perfectly evidenced by how different a song like “Multiply” is from “Steel Heart,” which was chosen as one of the anthems for this year’s Canada Summer Games.

Her big reality TV appearance almost didn’t happen 

POESY was a winner on the Canadian music competition series The Launch, but she nearly passed up the opportunity.

“I got a Facebook message form this girl who had seen a YouTube video of mine, and said, ‘We really like you’re stuff. We’re doing this TV show. We’d love you to be part of it.’ I was like – this has to be spam, because it was to my personal Facebook, so I was like how did they find this? This makes no sense. Then I looked her up on LinkedIn, and she really did work at Universal, and it was like whoa. I thought about it for a while, but I was kind of still unsure. The day that the audition tapes were due they were like, ‘We haven’t seen yours come through. We’d really like you to do one.’ Then I filmed a video in my pajamas of me singing ‘Zombie’ by The Cranberries, which is one of my favorite songs to cover.”

POESY made the show, and after what turned out to be a whirlwind 72 hours of filming, which included working with fellow indie artists, as well as Fergie, and producer Stephan Moccio, she came out on top, being crowned the winner of her episode.

She loves performing in intimate venues 

While large shows have their obvious perks, POESY has a special place in her heart for intimate venues because of the deeper connection she feels with the audience.

“I love when you can see everyone’s reactions to everything as it’s happening. Sometimes I’m like, if this is the thing that I can give to other people – I didn’t become a doctor, or a lawyer, or anything like that – I think this is my little thing that I can give people, and it’s really cool to see that in real time.”

Plenty of new music is on the way 

“I made a record during the pandemic, like so many people did. It’s done. It’s been done. It’s slowly starting to come out. ‘Multiply’ was part of it, but I’ve been writing a lot recently, and it’s been stuff that’s very different from that, so I’m kind of like preparing for the next thing that’s gonna come after this record, as well. I’m really influenced right now by like Bon Iver, and more singer-songwriter-y stuff, but with the cinematic darkness underneath. Darkness is always a theme”

During the pandemic she picked up two new hobbies, and a new best friend 

In addition to recording a new album, POESY also picked up two new hobbies during the pandemic – tarot, and rollerskating – as well as a new best friend, her shelter cat, Penny.

Tarot was something POESY had always been interested, in, and the pandemic gave her the time to really dig into the subject. “I really love to read” she says, “so I just took out every book I could find on the internet that someone had recommended about it, and got really into it. I like it as a meditative, self-reflection tool.”

She adds that, much like she doesn’t believe in locking herself into one genre musically, she doesn’t necessarily believe in singular definitions for each of the tarot cards. “I think you can get so much more out of it if you don’t just think, ‘Oh, The Fool represents this,’ but you (instead) just look at the pictures, and try to not filter yourself, and be like that’s what this image reminds me of, so that must be what’s going on.”

Her cat, Penny, was two when POESY adopted her from a shelter, and is named after the character Penny Lane from the movie Almost Famous.

For more POESY, check out poesymusic.com, follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.