Mear is an indie pop collaboration between singer-songwriter Frances Miller and electronic composer Greg Harrison. 

Together, their music combines catchy melodies and poignant lyrics with their shared love of experimental music. 

Miller and Harrison met while working at the music venue Massey Hall in Toronto and began collaborating shortly thereafter by sending tracks back and forth over social media. Their debut single “Perfect Mess” was featured by The East, edm joy, and OMGblog and was selected by CBC Music as a “Song you need to hear this week.” 

Mear has received funding assistance from The Canada Council for the Arts and FACTOR and is set to release their first full-length album Soft Chains on April 21st, 2022.

Tell us about the genesis of your project. How did you get to where you are now?

We met while working at Massey Hall in Toronto. We were both aware of each others’ projects/ musical endeavours and decided to collaborate on a song. When the song was finished we were like “okay, there’s something good here”. Since then we have slowly been building up enough songs for an album. Even though we don’t live that far away from each other (opposite ends of Toronto) we’ve mostly collaborated online during the pandemic. 

What do you want to convey with your music? 

We like to be transparent with our music. A lot of the themes of this album reflect the struggles of mental health and chronic illnesses.  It’s a topic a lot of people can relate to, especially in the pandemic. 

Tell us about your latest release and how it came about

Frances: “The majority of our song “The Order” was written and demoed a few years ago. I first wrote it in the midst of my experience living with a chronic illness but before I was officially diagnosed. At the time, a short activity like a brisk walk could leave me stuck in bed and in pain for few days. My memory and word-recall was really messed up. I couldn’t read. I felt like I was pulling a perpetual all-nighter. I became very depressed and frustrated and unsure of what was happening. I felt really misunderstood and alone during that time, like I was slowly disappearing and no one could see it but me. This song was an attempt to exercise some of that sadness I guess. In some ways writing it was therapeutic.” 

Greg: “This was one of the first tracks we played around with and recorded. We were still in the beginning stages of finding our “sound”. We are both really inspired by the likes of Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel, mostly for the vibe of the recording itself. We wanted this song to live in that kind of world.  Originally the ending of the song went into a rock jam with a banger of a sax solo. We sat on that for probably 2 years (pandemic) and couldn’t admit that we both hated it. We finally decided to rewrite the end, and the song took on a more two-part type thing.”