Anya Mia – My Music

I write and record my music as Anya Mia – it’s the name my family called me as a child, and keeps it separate from my writing under Anya M. Wassenberg.

Here’s the Anya Mia One Sheet for PR types.

I’ve been releasing a series of singles since December 2021...
P.S. Click on the images

Freight Train live at the Casbah (April 2023)

Love For My Music

Radio

  • Featured on the European Indie Music Network (Radio) – on the Formula Indie Show (debuted Sept 13, 2022) – And on their website. The radio show is rebroadcast throughout Europe and the US, Taiwan and Jamaica on indie radio stations (list here).
  • Five tracks (Watching You, Love Is An Illusion, Gangster’s Girlfriend, Freight Train & Looking For Heaven’s Ghost) were picked up in the catalogue of Free 99 Radio in East Texas (y’all)
  • Watching You, Love Is An Illusion and Gangster’s Girlfriend are on the playlist for CKMS 102.9FM Waterloo Community Radio (Community Connections show, among others)
  • My three 2021/22 singles have been added to the rotation on KRAC Radio in Montreal, and may randomly play on the Sunday show between 8am and 10am from now until forever (so they say, lol). Kracradio.com is a webradio based at Montreal, Canada (GMT -4h)
  • Love Is An Illusion was added to the playlist for The Bistro afternoon show on Birch Street Radio (Montreal) in February 2022.
  • My 2021/22 singles, and my EP Looking For Heaven’s Ghost is on random rotation at CanuckTunesRadio.ca
  • Freight Train was picked up by the NCRA/ANREC (National Campus Radio Association): 106.5 Elmnt FM Toronto 95.7 Elmnt FM Ottawa; 93.1 CFIS-FM Prince George BC; 95.3 Creek FM Sask; Amherst Island Radio; Arviaqpaluk; Assiniboine Community Radio Society; Axe Radio Nova Scotia; Barrie Community Media; Bay of Islands Radio NFLD
  • Freight Train was picked up by CFYT 106.9 The Spirit of Dawson – a community radio station
My song Watching You live at a charity event (Hamilton, ON) on Apr 15, 2023

Featured in November/December 2022 on the European Indie Music Network:

  • BandWagon Network 🇺🇸 Ash Grove, MO, USA 04.00 PM
  • Central Coast Radio 🇦🇺 The Entrance, NSW, Australia FRI 1 PM / SAT 5 AM
  • Euroindiemusic Radio 🇪🇺 Europe 1 AM / 3 AM / 5 AM / 7 AM / 9 AM / 11 AM / 1 PM / 3 PM / 5 PM
  • Fantasy Radio 🇬🇧 UK 1 PM
  • Front Range Radio 🇺🇸 Lubbock , TX , USA MON-FRI 11 PM
  • Glacer FM Underground 🇺🇸 Seattle, WA, USA SAT 9 AM – SUN 10.30 PM
  • Inondazioni.it 🇮🇹 Lecce, Italy 12 AM
  • JR Radio 🇭🇷 Split, Croatia AFTER 2 PM
  • Kbit Play 🇬🇧 UK 2 PM
  • La Sénia ràdio 107.4 FM 🇪🇸 La Sénia,Montsià, Catalunya 9 PM
  • LimeCity Radio Network 🇺🇸 Huntington, Indiana, USA THU 8 PM
  • Malex Radio 102.7 FM Sigli 🇮🇩 Sigli, Aceh, Indonesia MON-FRI 5 PM , SAT, 6 PM SUN 5 PM
  • Monies New Music 🇺🇸 Fruitland Park, Fl, USA FRI 5 PM
  • Music Team Radio 🇮🇹 Sassuolo, Italy 10 AM
  • N F R S Sound Up Station 🇯🇵 Nishinari-ku, Osaka, Japan 5 AM
  • New Music Radio 🇮🇹 Italy MON & THU 6 AM / TUE 9.30 PM / WED 4 PM / FRI-SAT 12 AM / SUN 4 PM)
  • Onda 87 Radio 🇪🇸 Cadiz, Spain 4 AM (MON-FRI)
  • Onda Teguestera 🇪🇸 Tegueste, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain 11 AM SUNDAY
  • Pluto Radio 🇺🇸 Scottsdale, Arizona, USA SUN 10 PM / MON 4 AM, 7 AM
  • Radio Antenna Petrignano 🇮🇹 Assisi,Italy 2 AM
  • Radio Armony 🇮🇹 Italy 8 AM
  • Radio Energy Web 🇮🇹 Napoli, Italy MON – 9 PM
  • Radio Hemingway 🇮🇹 Abbiategrasso, Italy 1 AM (MON-THU) 2.30 AM (FRI) 2 AM (SAT) 0.30 AM (SUN)
  • Radio Onde Quadre 🇮🇹 Torino, Italy 2.30 PM
  • Radio Patapoe 88.3 FM Amsterdam 🇳🇱 Amsterdam, Netherlands 3.30 PM
  • Radio Piave 🇮🇹 San Donà di Piave SAT 7 PM
  • Radiobar 🇦🇱 Tirana, Albania 3 PM
  • Radiophonica 🇮🇹 Perugia, Italy WED 7.30 PM
  • Taiwan Lounge Radio 🇹🇼 Taiwan FRI 5 PM
  • Tele Radio Vajont 🇮🇹 Italy MON & THU 6 AM / TUE 9.30 PM / WED 4 PM / FRI-SAT 12 AM / SUN 4 PM)
  • TMV Cafè 🇺🇸 USA 6 AM
  • Urbana Radio 🇲🇽 Mexico THU 1 PM
  • WeRocx R920 🇺🇸 Nellysford, Virginia, USA SAT 3 AM
  • Wiru-Db Internet Radio Chicago 🇺🇸 Chicago, IL, USA 2 PM
  • WRN-R 📡Hotbird13B – Europe, Asia, Africa 7 AM / 3 PM / 11 PM
  • XRP Radio 🇬🇧 Birmingham, United Kingdom 9 AM
  • Zanj Radio 🇯🇲 Lyssons, Jamaica SAT 2 AM
A Lie Of Love (at the Casbah, September 2022)

Interviews

  • An interview with Illustrate Magazine 🎹🎼✍️
  • Thanks to Indiefferential Magazine for an interview in their September 2022 issue round up of new songs – available in print in the UK, and online via issuu anywhere

Reviews

Love Is An Illusion (Live at The Casbah Lounge – February 2023)

Added to these Spotify Playlists:

Winter Woollen Blues

(and here’s the story of why I wrote it).

Check out my debut EP Looking for Heaven’s Ghost, my instrumental compositions here, my electro-acoustic art music project Lingua Franca, or my COVID lockdown video project.

‘Freight Train’ on CHCH Music Friday
Brown dress images by Susan Hawthorne; blue dress images by Kimberley Robyn; B/W photo by Scott Gardner

Selected Stage/Live Performance/Performance Art Credits

In addition to my recording/performing as a singer/songwriter.

Songwriter’s Open Circle & Lyric Party

I host an open mic event for songwriters to play their music, talk about the process, bring works-in-progress for feedback, and to crowdsource lyric ideas.

February 11, 2023
April 8, 2023

Guest Vocalist:

  • Guest vocalist – guesting with bands and shows in the Hamilton, ON region. Notable appearances: The J.J. Cale Show (2018 at This Ain’t Hollywood, 2019 at The Casbah), The Marcus Starr CD Release Show (Feb 22/2020 The Mule Spinner).

Vocalist:

  • Solo vocalist – performing at private parties and events, with backing tracks in Hamilton & area, 2017. 
  • A.R.T. – Anya & Rob – member of acoustic duo/trio playing an eclectic repertoire of originals (including mine), vintage jazz, roots, folk and pop from all eras – occasional clubs, restaurants gigs, charity & outdoor events in Hamilton & area 2015 to 2017.
  • Singing – singing jazz & other standards (lead & back-up) with a trio called the P.U.B. Band occasionally in a local restaurant – 2013

Back-up/Harmony Vocals/Ensemble:

  • Harmony vocals on ‘Only Stars‘ by Marcus Starr on his sophomore EP titled ‘The Wrong Side of the Tracks’ (release February 22, 2020).
  • Singing back-up vocals (roots, country) to covers & originals by Fred D Smith (in a trio with Lisa Swales on guitar) – in local bar & busking, occasional 2014
  • Toronto Complaints Choir, Toronto, ON (Community based music/performance project, part of the 2010/2011 World Stage series at Harbourfront Centre, performances March 21-26, 2011 & July 1, 2011, Propeller Gallery, Toronto July 28, 2011)

Anya Wassenberg  (Anya Mia) by Scott Gardner ©2020

Musical Theatre/Theatre/Performance Art:

  • This Is Not A Musical: The Musical! – role of Beatrice (acting, singing, dancing) in premiere production part of the Hamilton Fringe Festival, creator/director Maxie Dara, July 20-30, 2017. Production won the festival award for highest ticket sales.
  • The Encampment, Toronto, ON (Creative collaborator in an art installation on view from June 8-24, 2012, part of the Luminato Festival and the City of Toronto 1812 commemoration)
  • The Police Station, Toronto, ON (Performance art project by Althea Thauberger, part of Nuit Blanche, October 1, 2011)
  • Deadly Decisions, Toronto, ON (I play a murderer in this indie film by Ben Riley – 2011)
  • I Cried For You, Toronto, ON (Live video performance as part of video art installation by Julia Loktev, performed as part of Nuit Blanche, October 3, 2010)
  • Haunted Hamilton, Hamilton, ON (Ghost storyteller and animator, live performances Summer 2010)
  • After Waking, Toronto, ON (a literary event where I gave a dramatic reading & also hosted/MC’d an author Q&A, The Social Bar, December 2009)
  • Sex, Love and Sometimes…Relationships, Toronto, ON (a monologue show, played at the Poor Alex, Toronto in October 2009)
  • Lee Walton, Toronto, ON (Life/Theater – a live performance art event, September 1, 2008 in Toronto)
  • Burlesquesque, Toronto, ON (Comedy-vaudeville-burlesque performer/spoken word/emcee; performance August 10, 2006)
My singing journey – with a little help from Singdaptive
Anya at This Aint Hollywood Jun 28 16 by Patricia Lynn Bebee
Taken at This Ain’t Hollywood (Hamilton, ON) June 2016 by Patricia Lynn Bebee

For about five years (2012 to 2017) I was also involved in the music industry through a non-profit arts group where I serve various functions including media coordinator, executive administrator among others. The group specialized in presenting world music and arts, including a concert season, 3-day world music festival, multi-disciplinary small venue arts festival, the Queer Cabaret (focusing on racialized lgbtq2s artists) and educational endeavours. The group: Matapa Music & Arts Organization and The Hamilton World Music Festival.

How I Found My Voice

This is slightly adapted from a piece that was originally posted at The Huffington Post.

I have a history of doing things out of synch with the rest of the world.

I tried the straight-and-narrow lifestyle at 20 – married, 9-to-5 job after a university degree, baby a sensible 5 years later. Something happened, though, when I reached my late twenties and the whole normal façade began to fall apart.

I started nude modeling at age 34 (a whole story unto itself). I realized I could sing right about when I turned 50.

Anya Wassenberg by Colin S Carlton
Photo by Colin S Carlton ©2015

An outside observer might have noticed that the signs were there. I’d taken guitar lessons as a pre-teen and was writing my own (admittedly awful) songs as a young teenager. I’d gone so far as to brashly take a tape and my guitar to a studio somewhere in the Big City at age 16, where a producer told me he could work with me on song writing (to the tune of lessons that I had no money for) and remarked, ‘you could also exploit your voice,’ (and his choice of words leads me as an adult to believe that he was in fact an actual studio professional and not a scam artist). He seemed to think I could sing. I actually wrote a lot of songs at that point – age 15 to 17 – some of which I’m now finishing and planning to record.

At the time however, I let myself be persuaded that I had no musical talent – and most particularly, not for singing. I sang my heart out in the car by myself for decades but never even considered the idea that I might be able to sing, like, in front of people.

It was a stint in a public art project – the Toronto Complaints Choir – a few years ago that changed my mind. Belting it out over 30 other participants, I discovered I wasn’t terrible at all. What I found out is that everyone can sing. It’s all lies in discovering your internal physics and letting your musical mind take over.

What parents don’t understand – as I now understand – is the overwhelming addiction that is making music. You’re touching the face of God in truth. There is nothing that comes close except maybe sex and music is not usually as messy or unhygienic.

At the Masque (Hamilton, ON) February 18, 2018 by Vesna Trkulja

Here I’ve been writing about the redemptive power of music to change lives for years – wrote about the devotion of the Sistema kids in Venezuela, the miracle of the Sierra Leona Refugee All-Stars and many more – and it’s only now that I get the true nature of it.

I could get all New Age-y mystical and say that singing is about tapping into some kind of universal song – that I’m only an instrument for the music that originates from some cosmic plane. That’s certainly what it feels like. It’s taken a couple of years of constant work but I’m finally at the stage where my technique is adequate for the kind of material I want to sing and the buzz of being part of a group of people making music is indescribable.

Now I find I want to sing everything; the world is full of an endless repertoire to learn. I’ve played in restaurants and lounges in my area with a little busking – which I love – on the side and a lot of singing and jamming with friends. The how and the wherefores don’t matter – just serving the god of music.

That’s why it really is wrong for parents all over the world to keep telling their kids to forget about music. And also why it’s wrong for instrumental and choral music to vanish from our school systems. It’s the universal language. It brings people together and makes them a part of something larger in a way that nothing else I’ve experienced in this world can do.

And the god of music is always looking for new devotees.

Anya Wassenberg at the Masque (Hamilton, ON) – September 9, 2017 by Nina Unelli

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