Following up on an invite from friend Jennie Laws attended a joint fundraiser held at Lou Dawgs on the evening of December 14, 2014 in Toronto. Before Jennie’s set Anna Cyzon took to the performance area. She sang alongside a guitarist who I later learned was soulful rock guitarist Geoff Willingham. The music could be best described as slow rock. Anna later described the names of some of the songs performed. They included Break which Anna described as a song about `Breaking up with someone who you once kept coming back to and allowing to hurt you.’ She described the opening lyric of this song: `No more second chances, you chose your battles wisely.’ She also described another notable song from the evening entitled Whiskey Stained Nights which Anna called ‘A piano ballad about desperately needing that one, losing them and yearning for that burning flame that was once their love to come back.’ Connected with Anna after Jennie’s performance that night at Lou Dawg’s at which time I arranged to interview her in order to better understand the workings of her career. We met several weeks later in her stomping ground of Roncesville, Toronto. During the subsequent interview I learned that she came with her family from Poland to Canada at the age of six. She spoke fondly of her Polish heritage. Her parents were a big influence. Her father performed Goralskie (Polish folk) music . Her aunt was a pianist. Jumping forward several years I learned that, prior to getting more deeply involved with music, Anna worked as an E Talk presenter which was a job she obtained after an audition on Canadian Idol. She recalled that the audition took place in 2004 – the second season with Kalan Porter. She describes herself as self-managed however her sister, who works at Universal Music Canada she explained, is closest to being her manager. She describes her music as pop rock adding that she has been doing the music thing ‘since diapers.’ We also discussed some of her video production shoots. Her first was Reputation, then Young Boy, the third was Love Me, fourth Electric Dir by Miz Monday, and her fifth made in 2013 is called Into the Sun. She describes herself as live-performance – focused. In 2010 Anna performed Love Me for Eurovision which earned her a following in Poland. The video of Young Boy apparently caught the attention of Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons who Anna said offered her a deal through his pop rock label Simmons Records. A deal she eventually declined. Anna also described an offer she received from EMI Eastern Europe in 2010 to record a new album after her song Love Me received second place in Eurovision. In terms of more recent developments: in 2014 and last month, Anna performed at the Roncesville Polish festival in Toronto. In addition, in a break from her independence, Anna released her most recent single Wannabe through FMLY on Universal. Very recently, Anna wrote and sang on Eminence’s Knock Me Out which is out on Monstercat and, also has a sexy video (Anna’s sixth) shot in Toronto!
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