Meryn Cadell is an American-

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

writer and

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

ist. He is an assistant professor of song lyrics and libretto writing in the

Creative Writing Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary ...

Program at

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

. Cadell is a

transgender man A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. The label of transgender man is not always interchangeable with that of transsexual man, although the two labels are often used in this way. ''Transgender'' is an umbrella term that incl ...

who transitioned in 2003."Tall Poppy Interview: Meryn Cadell"
. Torontoist.com, February 26, 2007. He released most of his recordings between 1988 and 1997. Cadell was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, grew up in

Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto. Due to the close proximity of the ci ...

, and later moved to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

in the mid-1980s.Meryn Cadell
, Canadian Encyclopedia A graduate of the

Ontario College of Art and Design Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within d ...

, Cadell re-released an independent cassette titled ''Mare-In Ka-Dell'' in 1988 while active as a performance artist in

Queen Street West Queen Street is a major east-west thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Roncesvalles Avenue and King Street in the west to Victoria Park Avenue in the east. Queen Street was the cartographic baseline for the original east ...

scene. As a performance artist, Cadell was particularly known for performing with a heating duct to add

reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abs ...

. Cadell soon signed to Intrepid Records, and recorded with

Jim Creeggan James Raymond Creeggan (born February 12, 1970) is the bassist for Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies. Early life Creeggan was born in Scarborough, Ontario. His mother taught piano lessons to neighborhood children, which Creeggan c ...

of Barenaked Ladies,

Bob Wiseman Robert Neil "Bob" Wiseman (born 1962) is a film composer, songwriter, author and music teacher. Wiseman discovered or produced many artists including Ron Sexsmith, The Lowest of the Low, Bruce McCulloch of Kids in the Hall, Anhai, and former ...

and members of

Rheostatics Rheostatics are a Canadian indie rock band. They were formed in 1978, and actively performed from 1980 until disbanding in 2007. After a number of reunion performances at special events, Rheostatics reformed in late 2016, introducing new songs a ...

. Those sessions were released in 1991 as the album ''Angel Food for Thought'', whose first single "The Sweater" became a surprise hit in Canada in 1992 and was very popular on college radio and alternative stations in the United States. "The Sweater" is a spoken word monologue with a musical backing track—the first 20 seconds of Syd Dale's "Walk & Talk." The monologue revolves around a girl's thoughts about a boy's sweater. In 1993, Cadell released a follow-up album, ''Bombazine'', on

Sire Records Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records. History Beginnings The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehre ...

. This album featured guest appearances by Rheostatics, Ben Mink,

Tyler Stewart Tyler Joseph Stewart (born September 21, 1967) is the drummer for the Canadian music group Barenaked Ladies. Role in Barenaked Ladies Stewart met Steven Page, Ed Robertson, and Jim Creeggan at the Waterloo Busker Carnival in Waterloo, Ontario ...

, Anne Bourne and John Alcorn. Following the album, Cadell took a hiatus from music to do human rights work with

PEN Canada PEN Canada is one of the 148 centres of PEN International. Founded in 1926, it has a membership of over 1,000 writers and supporters who campaign on behalf of writers around the world who are persecuted, imprisoned and exiled for exercising their ...

. Cadell also wrote an independent film, which was never produced. In 1997, Cadell returned to music with the album ''6 Blocks'' on the independent label Handsome Boy Records. Guest performers on this outing included Anne Bourne,

Mary Margaret O'Hara Mary Margaret O'Hara is a Canadian singer-songwriter, actress and composer. She is best known for the album ''Miss America'', released in 1988. She released two albums and an EP under her own name, and remains active as a live performer, as a con ...

Chris Wardman Chris Wardman is a Canadian music producer, musician and songwriter. Wardman was a founding member of Blue Peter, and was their lead guitarist and main contributing songwriter. Wardman was also a member of Breeding Ground in the late 1980s. Wardm ...

and

Jason Sniderman Jason Sniderman is a Canadian musician and businessman. He was one of the chief executives of Sam the Record Man, He also played keyboards on a number of rock music albums, performed with the band Blue Peter, and later released several albums unde ...

( Blue Peter), Paul Brennan (

Odds Odds provide a measure of the likelihood of a particular outcome. They are calculated as the ratio of the number of events that produce that outcome to the number that do not. Odds are commonly used in gambling and statistics. Odds also have ...

) and

Martin Tielli Martin Tielli is a Canadian singer-songwriter. He was a member of the Rheostatics, and has also released material as a solo artist and with the side project Nick Buzz. As well, he has appeared as a guest musician on albums by Barenaked Ladies, ...

. Following that album, Cadell retired from the music business. He publicly

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

as transgender on

Bill Richardson William Blaine Richardson III (born November 15, 1947) is an American politician, author, and diplomat who served as the 30th governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. He was also the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Energy Secretary ...

CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent of C ...

program '' Bunny Watson'' on October 2, 2004, although he had already been out to friends and family for a number of years. In 2007, Bongo Beat released an expanded edition of ''Angel Food for Thought'', including two tracks that were previously available only on cassette as well as the video for "The Sweater". The CD was remastered by Graemme Brown. Cadell is also known for the Christmas song "The Cat Carol".

Discography

* ''MARE-in ka-DELL'' (1988) * ''Angel Food for Thought'' (1991) *"Barbie" (1992) * ''Bombazine'' (1993) * ''6 Blocks'' (1997) * ''Angel Food for Thought onus tracks' (2007)

References

External links

Cadell's weblog
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cadell, Meryn Canadian bloggers Canadian performance artists Canadian songwriters Transgender men Transgender male musicians Canadian transgender writers Canadian LGBT musicians University of British Columbia faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people) OCAD University alumni People from Waterloo, Ontario Transgender academics Canadian LGBT singers Transgender musicians