Jane Siberry

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Jane Siberry is a Canadian singer-songwriter known for songs like Mimi on the Beach, I Muse Aloud, One More Colour, and Calling All Angels. She also sang the theme for the TV show Maniac Mansion. For a few years she released music under the name Issa, but she later returned to the name Jane Siberry.

Early life
Jane Siberry was born Jane Stewart on October 12, 1955, in Toronto, Ontario. She grew up in Etobicoke, a suburb of Toronto. She started learning piano at age four, mostly by herself, and she later taught herself guitar by playing Leonard Cohen songs. At school she studied music theory and French horn, and she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in microbiology after switching from the arts. She began performing in folk clubs in Guelph, Ontario, where she met John Switzer. They later worked together for several of her records.

Career beginnings and early success
Siberry released her first album, Jane Siberry, in 1981 on Duke Street Records. The album did well for an independent release and helped her sign a three-album deal with Windham Hill, with Canadian releases on Duke Street and American distribution by Windham Hill. Her second album, No Borders Here (1984), moved toward electronic art-pop. It produced the hit Mimi on the Beach and other singles with videos. The album No Borders Here sold about 40,000 copies and earned her a CASBY award for Best Female Vocalist.

Her third album, The Speckless Sky (1985), continued the art-pop direction and went Gold in Canada. It included the song One More Colour, which had a memorable video. The Speckless Sky also won the CASBY for Best Album, and Siberry and Switzer won Best Producer.

Major labels and later 1980s work
In 1986 Siberry signed with Warner Brothers’ Reprise Records for the United States, while keeping her Canadian deal with Duke Street. Her fourth album, The Walking (1988), was a complex, highly arranged set of songs that explored different perspectives and stories. It attracted critical interest but was not a big commercial hit. The Walking led to more touring in Europe and North America, including a debut in London.

The next album, Bound by the Beauty (1989), moved toward simpler, more acoustic sounds with influences from folk, country, and world music. It did better in sales and helped keep her on the map. In 1990 she toured widely.

When I Was a Boy (1993) marked another shift. Siberry shared production with Michael Brook and Brian Eno, and the album used more layering, funk, gospel, and dance influences. It included the song Calling All Angels, a duet with k.d. lang, which became one of her best-known tracks. The album also introduced spiritual themes that would recur in her later work.

Maria (1995) took a jazz-inspired turn with live, acoustic recordings. It was followed by a shift away from the major labels.

Independence and new directions
In 1996 Siberry left Reprise and started her own independent label, Sheeba Records, in Toronto. She released Teenager (1996), a collection of songs she had written as a teenager. She then moved to New York City and performed live at the famous Bottom Line club, which produced a series of live albums known as the New York City Trilogy (1997–1999).

During this period she released A Day in the Life (1997), an experimental project that mixed sound collages and conversations with collaborators such as Patty Larkin, Joe Jackson, and kd lang. Reprise released a compilation, A Collection 1984–1989, in 1997 for North American markets.

Siberry continued to release music through Sheeba and pursued unusual promotional ideas, like weekend-long Siberry Salons at intimate venues. She also published books of prose-poems and continued composing and performing. Her later work included Shushan the Palace (2003), a Christmas-themed album of hymns, and Love is Everything: The Jane Siberry Anthology (2002), a two-CD career overview.

Issa and a return to name Jane Siberry
In 2006 Siberry changed her name to Issa, a personal renewal. She described Issa as a simple, open name and said new music would be released under Issa. She gave a lecture in Vancouver about decommodifying her life and her new artistic approach. She wrote many new songs and planned a trilogy called the Three Queens. The first release, Dragon Dreams, appeared in 2008, followed by With What Shall I Keep Warm? in 2009. By December 2009 she announced she would go back to the name Jane Siberry, though both names appeared on later covers.

In 2010 Siberry organized a “microtour” through her fan mailing list, offering to play small venues or homes in Europe if fans could arrange a space and an audience. She also gave her back catalog away as free downloads, using a pay-what-you-want pricing model on her site since 2005.

later projects and honors
In 2011 she released Meshach Dreams Back, the first album credited to Jane Siberry in eight years. She used crowdfunding in 2014 to produce Ulysses’ Purse, a limited-edition CD. She also collaborated with Corey Hart on the song Ten Thousand Horses in 2014.

The Speckless Sky won the Polaris Heritage Prize in 2025, and Siberry was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame the same year. She announced a new album, In the Thicket of Our Own Unconsciousness, for the future.

Musical style and influence
Siberry’s music spans many styles, from early new wave and art pop to folk, jazz, gospel, and liturgical music. She has been compared to Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, and Laurie Anderson, and she has cited Van Morrison and Miles Davis as influences. She has often criticized commercial radio and the music industry for its control over artists. One notable idea from her career is the self-determined pricing for music on her website, which allowed fans to pay what they felt was right.

Collaborations and covers
Her songs have been covered by artists such as Sarah Polley and The Rheostatics, and others have contributed to soundtracks and albums with Siberry’s help. She sang on Indigo Girls’ Swamp Ophelia and on Joe Jackson’s Heaven & Hell, among other projects.

Jane Siberry’s career shows a quest for artistic independence and a willingness to explore many musical styles while keeping a distinct, personal voice.