Rebecca May presented by IndieMusicPeople.com

Rebecca May is a 24-year-old singer and music producer from Caledon, Ontario who says music has always been a part of her life. She has been playing the piano and singing since the age of four and recalls being able to read music before being able to read.

She attended Mayfield High School for the Arts where she sang in the Magnetics, a vocal ensemble that has won numerous Downbeat Jazz Awards, and she studied voice with Lisa Martinelli, a prominent jazz vocalist in Toronto. Rebecca works with noted Canadian film and television composer Chris Dedrick arranging and orchestrating, engineering sessions and editing and mixing scores and records.

She has been a featured vocalist on films such as The Saddest Music in the World (IFC/Rhombus Media) and Child Star (Rhombus Media), and on the Marina Records Free Design album, “Cosmic Peekaboo”.

Here is what Chris Dedrick says about Rebecca May:

I first heard Rebecca May’s singing voice when I needed to demo a little lullaby for a TV series I was scoring, “Emily of New Moon”. Becca sang the tune for me, and it was like bathing in soft wild blueberry honey. Yes, she was at that age very much within herself, but I thought, when that voice comes out it’s going to give a lot of people a lot of pleasure.

When we first met she had become a fan and had assimilated much of the music of the two vocal groups that I have been associated with: the Free Design and the Star-Scape Singers. Not a big surprise that she was on hand to make a big contribution to the only Free Design reunion album, “Cosmic Peekaboo”.

She always seemed to be part of the family, anyway.

Filing some old tapes, Becca (that’s what we call her at work) found some old songs of mine that probably would never have been heard again, liked them and said she would like to record them. This was a fairly big step out of a safe cocoon for her, and I could only say to myself, “It’s happening; the star will rise.”

Here’s the thing: Rebecca succeeds. It’s built into her. She is gifted with a large dose of talent and smarts, but her chief feature is that she rises to the challenge.

I got great kicks as a producer working with her on her vocal performances, always convinced that she could take the song to another level. She opened up like a rose. The voice took on new colours and strength. That musical feeling that we call “soul” enveloped the sound.