mobarrymusic

Monique has forged a style that marries the everyday to the otherworldly, resulting in musical dreamscapes teeming with innovations, oddities, emotional echoes, and the many stops and starts along the human journey.

One of the great pioneers of the independent music scene, singer-songwriter Monique Barry is an intriguing creative contradiction: she has been hailed for her “delicious sounds and shadows” (Queens Journal) that places her in her own category yet she has been praised as being “so many artists rolled into one” (Yummy Mummy). She writes and performs without imitation, striking musical and emotional notes from the past, present, and future while staying defiantly in the now--which makes her essentially unsolvable, and all the better for it.

Classically trained in voice and piano, and keenly engaged by the possibilities of pop songwriting, Monique's aesthetic range is captured on four distinctive CD's: the supernaturally minimalist campus airplay favourite Moody (1998), which first brought her to attention; Tripping (2003), an ambitious mix of styles, including folk, lounge, rock, classical, ambient soundscaping, and techno pop; the haunting Carbon (2009), which deepened her stylistic and thematic flair; and her release Wake (2013), a bold step forward in her repertoire. 

A well recognized figure on Toronto's club scene, Monique has also performed at the Toronto Jazz Festival, Fresh Wednesdays at Nathan Phillips Square, Gabriola Island Dancing Man Folk Festival, Winterfolk, May Works and at numerous Ontario and Quebec dates with Indigo Books. She was the founder, impresario, and host of The Songwriters Expo, a regular performance event celebrating the talents and visions of Canadian songwriters for ten years.

A labour of love, the Expo grew year by year in the variety and versatility of its guest artists, making it a popular success with both performers and audiences. 

Always broadening her horizons, Monique has also collaborated in scoring the Colin Carter documentary Fight for the Planet (2009), she was a guest producer on the Arlene Bishop CD Twenty Four is Twelve Twice or Twenty Four (2011) and scored Jonah Greisman’s film Recital (2016).

Monique also teaches music and has her own line of skin care products, Aunt Bird's All-Natural Skin Care.