Wade Imre Morissette (born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian
kirtan and
indie
Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Gaming
*Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies
*Indie game, any game (board ...
pop-rock musician.
Early life
Wade Morissette was born on 1 June 1974 at
Riverside Hospital of Ottawa
The Ottawa Hospital (french: L'Hôpital d'Ottawa) is a hospital system in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The system was formed through the merger of the former Grace Hospital, Ottawa Riverside Hospital, Ottawa General Hospital and Ottawa Civic Hospit ...
in
Ottawa, Ontario
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, the son of Georgia Mary Ann Feuerstein, a
Hungarian-born teacher, and Alan Richard Morissette, a high school principal of French and Irish descent. Wade is the twin brother of
Alanis Morissette, whom he names as "one of the biggest influences in my life";
["Wade Imre Morissette on MySpace Music"]
MySpace. they have an older brother, Chad.
Music
Wade took to music at an early age, studying piano as a child and guitar and djembe in his teens. During a trip to India, he encountered devotional yoga and chanting, and decided to combine his interests in yoga and music, to create his own blend of indie rock/pop music with Sanskrit and English chants.
In 2004, Wade was asked to be an ambassador for
Lululemon
lululemon athletica inc. (; styled in all lowercase) is a Canadian multinational athletic apparel retailer headquartered in British Columbia and incorporated in Delaware, United States. It was founded in 1998 as a retailer of yoga pants and ot ...
, the popular yoga-inspired athletic apparel company. At the same time, he had self-released his debut album, Sargam Scales of Music. This turned into a world tour to promote both his album and the clothing line with the company signing on as a sponsor. The Lululemon Yoga Pilgrimage kicked off in 2005 and took Wade to Tokyo, Hong Kong and 32 cities in North America and continued on through early 2006 with stops in Thailand, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico.
In late 2006,
Nettwerk Music Group
Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk Management, and Nettwerk One Publishing.
Established in 1984, the Vancouver-based company was created by Nettwerk principals Terry McBride and Mark Jowett as a record ...
CEO and yoga enthusiast Terry McBride signed Wade to the label's Nutone Music division.
Wade has since released his second and third albums, Strong as Diamonds: Om Vajra Kaya Namaha, in 2007 and Maha Moha – The Great Delusion in 2008.
[
During live performances, Wade often begins with bliss dance and ends with a kirtan. Wade, on guitar and ]harmonium
The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. Th ...
, sings out a phrase; the audience responds until the musicians and audience mesh.
Yoga, Reiki and other
Wade has been practising and teaching yoga since 1995. He has completed Iyengar
Iyengar (also spelt Ayyangar or Aiyengar, pronounced ) refers to the name of an ethnoreligious community of Tamil-speaking Hindu Brahmins, whose members follow Sri Vaishnavism and the Visishtadvaita philosophy propounded by Ramanuja. Found mos ...
, Classical Ashtanga and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga teacher training. He has studied Vinyasa, Viniyoga
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Venkata Desikachar (21 June 1938 – 8 August 2016), better known as T. K. V. Desikachar, was a yoga teacher, son of the pioneer of modern yoga as exercise, Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. The style that he taught was initi ...
, Anusara
Anusara School of Hatha Yoga, also known as Anusara Yoga (In Hindi:अनुसार योग) is the successor of a modern school of hatha yoga founded by American-born yoga teacher John Friend in 1997. Friend derived his style from the I ...
and Kriya yoga, as well as zazen
''Zazen'' (literally " seated meditation"; ja, 座禅; , pronounced ) is a meditative discipline that is typically the primary practice of the Zen Buddhist tradition.
However, the term is a general one not unique to Zen, and thus technicall ...
, Vedic chanting
The oral tradition of the Vedas ( Śruti) consists of several pathas, "recitations" or ways of chanting the Vedic mantras. Such traditions of Vedic chant are often considered the oldest unbroken oral tradition in existence, the fixation of the Ved ...
, and active movement and sound meditations with some of the best-known teachers in Canada, North America, and India. He is also a Reiki
is a Japanese form of energy healing, a type of alternative medicine. Reiki practitioners use a technique called ''palm healing'' or ''hands-on healing'' through which a " universal energy" is said to be transferred through the palms of the ...
master, certified Phoenix Rising yoga therapist, and Viniyoga Therapist. He leads teacher trainings, workshops, retreats, and music-dance evenings internationally.
Writing and speaking
Wade has had features published in the Yoga Journal
''Yoga Journal'' is a website and digital journal, formerly a print magazine, on yoga as exercise founded in California in 1975 with the goal of combining the essence of traditional yoga with scientific understanding. It has produced live events ...
and Maclean's Magazine
''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian persp ...
. His work also includes the book ''Transformative Yoga: Five Keys to Unlocking Inner Bliss'' (2009), which he co-authored with his twin Alanis Morissette. He is also planning a series of motivational seminars.["Living Your Joy , Today's Vancouver Woman"]
Today's Vancouver Woman.
Discography
* ''Sargam Scales of Music'' (2004)
* ''Strong as Diamonds: Om Vajra Kaya Namaha'' (2007)
* ''Maha Moha – The Great Delusion'' (2008)
* "Savasana Land"
Videography
* ''Together and Calling'' (2007)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morissette, Wade
1974 births
Canadian male singer-songwriters
Canadian singer-songwriters
Franco-Ontarian people
Living people
Musicians from Ottawa
Writers from Ottawa
Canadian twins
Twin musicians
Canadian people of French descent
Canadian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
Canadian people of Irish descent
Alanis Morissette