Meryn Cadell is an American-

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

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 beyond the boundaries of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on craft and technique, such as narrative structure, character ...

Program at

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

Early life and education

Cadell was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, 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, Ontario, Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto, but it is n ...

, and later moved to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in the mid-1980s. Cadell is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design.

Career

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 eas ...

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

reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

. 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 the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario. His mother taught piano lessons to neighbourhood chi ...

Barenaked Ladies Barenaked Ladies (BNL) is a Canadian Rock music, rock band which was formed in 1988 in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their Barenaked Ladies (EP), self-titled 1991 cassette becoming th ...

Bob Wiseman Robert Neil 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 Canadia ...

and members of Rheostatics. 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—a remixed sample of

Syd Dale Syd Dale (20 May 1924 – 15 August 1994) was an English self-taught composer and arranger of big band, easy listening and library music. His themes and underscore music played an important role on television, radio and advertising media of the ...

’s jazzy instrumental track “Walk and Talk”. The monologue revolves around a girl's thoughts about a boy's sweater. Canadian

figure skater Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic d ...

Josée Chouinard performed a memorable, high-scoring routine to "The Sweater" at the 1997 Ladies' Professional Championships final in Pensacola, Florida. 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 Gotteh ...

. This album featured guest appearances by Rheostatics,

Ben Mink Benjamin Mink (born January 22, 1951) is a Canadian songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer best known as a longtime collaborator of Canadian singer k.d. lang. He plays several string instruments, notably the guitar, violin, and the ma ...

Tyler Stewart Tyler Joseph Stewart (born September 21, 1967) is the drummer for the Canadian music group Barenaked Ladies. Early life Stewart was born in Toronto, but was raised in Newmarket, Ontario. He is the son of Sandra Stewart and stepson of Robert Stew ...

, 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 r ...

. 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, Chris Wardman and Jason Sniderman (

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC ...

), Paul Brennan (

Odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outcome. Odds are commonly used in gambling and statistics. For example for an event that is 40% probable, one could say that the odds are or When gambling, o ...

) 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, K ...

. 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 LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

as transgender on

Bill Richardson William Blaine Richardson III (November 15, 1947 – September 1, 2023) was an American politician, author, and diplomat who served as the List of governors of New Mexico, 30th governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. He was U.S. ambassador to ...

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 o ...

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".

Personal life

Cadell is a transgender man who transitioned in 2003."Tall Poppy Interview: Meryn Cadell"
. Torontoist.com, February 26, 2007.

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 male bloggers Canadian performance artists Canadian male songwriters Transgender male writers Transgender male singers Canadian transgender writers Canadian transgender musicians Academic staff of the University of British Columbia American expatriate academics in Canada Living people Year of birth missing (living people) OCAD University alumni Musicians from Waterloo, Ontario Transgender academics Canadian LGBTQ singer-songwriters Canadian LGBTQ academics Transgender singer-songwriters 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Writers from Waterloo, Ontario Canadian transgender men