Sc Mira

Sc Mira are everything you never knew you wanted in a band. They are five painfully unique, flawed individuals, that despite their differences, have created something that is difficult to define. For Sc Mira, there is no “file beside”, no “for fans of”. They are pioneers in an age of sameness, when everyone is claiming to be different – and don’t worry, the irony of doing just that isn’t lost upon them.

Formed in 2013 when singer-songwriter Sadye Cage met lead guitarist and all around jack-of-all-trades, Ty Vega, at a warehouse-turned-studio in the heart of the historic Exchange District in Winnipeg, Canada, the duo began inconspicuously enough, playing small acoustic gigs in their hometown. Coffee shops and open mic nights barely scratched their creative itch, and it wasn’t long before Cage and Vega found themselves enlisting additional musicians to play with them both live and in-studio; and so their 2015 debut, Waiting Room Baby, was born.

Produced by Vega and mixed by Montréal legend, Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Basia Bulat), the six-song album was recorded throughout 2014 in a century-old bank, complete with vault, under the guise of candlelight and several late nights. Featuring a rotating cast of many of the musicians that had joined them on stage throughout the prior year, the critically-lauded record is a snapshot in time – an album that, according to Noisey, “will give you the bad feels in a good way,” and found its way onto countless year-end lists.

Maybe it was their own inner-demons, or maybe they decided to embrace it when, in the very same article, Noisey continued that Waiting Room Baby would make you “feel gloomy”, but for whatever reason, Cage and Vega wanted to get heavier, creepier even, and wrap it all in a hypnotic package that would drive your emotions to move your body in its place.

Tired of a revolving door of hired guns without a shared vision, the band officially added bassist Mario Lagassé and then-drummer, Jed Desilets to the fold while on tour with CBC Radio 2 personality Rich Terfry, better know by his rapping alter-ego, Buck 65. The swift-worded poet adopted the band, his own “baby giraffes”, and after cutting their teeth on the impromptu tour, the Sc Mira we have today slowly came into focus. Upon returning from tour, keyboardist Caro LaFlamme rounded out the five-piece, with drummer Joel Leonhardt filling the vacant spot left by Desilets in late-2016.

Now, two years after Sc Mira discovered their darkness, the band is back with a new collection of songs, beginning with the aptly titled Keep Crawling EP, consisting of singles “Mexico”, “Free”, and “Breaking My Skin” – three songs that are bright on the outside and cold on the inside. The self-produced EP was guided by an unlikely partner in mix-engineer Ferro Montanino, a pop producer and composer with a knack for film work and an inspired collaboration with electronic superstar Skrillex under his belt. Ferro’s knowledge of the electronic and pop world complimented Sc Mira’s synth-driven dance-rock in an unusual way, and thus the term “death pop” was born.

It’s been a wild ride for this young band, with performances and major festival appearances ranging everywhere from Chicago and New York, to Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, as well as an unforgettable show to an immense crowd of teary-eyed fans in Tokyo. Still, it feels as though this is only the very beginning.

Sc Mira will make you uncomfortable – you’ll question who they are and where they came from, trying to put them in a box that they’ll never fit in. Once you get over the initial shock, though, you’ll realize that you are hearing something new for the first time in a long time, and you just might find yourself beginning a sentence with: “I knew them when…”