Born in England and raised in Toronto, Michelle Willis is a 29 year old singer/songwriter and keyboard player who comes from a family of "let’s sing that James Taylor song again” kind of people at the holidays. She spent most of her upbringing singing in church choirs and learning Carole King and Ray Charles records.
Since graduating from the Humber College jazz program, Michelle stayed busy as a side-woman keyboard player and backing vocalist for a number of bands and songwriters in Toronto, while also performing her own original music in the Toronto area.
Michelle has shared the stage and studio with artists such as the Zac Brown Band, Snarky Puppy, Iggy & The Stooges, Parachute Club and Nikki Yanofsky to name a few.
In 2009, Michelle began working with slide guitarist Don Rooke and his band The Henrys, a modern roots band whose previous front-women included label-mate Becca Stevens. Together, and soon joined b...
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Born in England and raised in Toronto, Michelle Willis is a 29 year old singer/songwriter and keyboard player who comes from a family of "let’s sing that James Taylor song again” kind of people at the holidays. She spent most of her upbringing singing in church choirs and learning Carole King and Ray Charles records.
Since graduating from the Humber College jazz program, Michelle stayed busy as a side-woman keyboard player and backing vocalist for a number of bands and songwriters in Toronto, while also performing her own original music in the Toronto area.
Michelle has shared the stage and studio with artists such as the Zac Brown Band, Snarky Puppy, Iggy & The Stooges, Parachute Club and Nikki Yanofsky to name a few.
In 2009, Michelle began working with slide guitarist Don Rooke and his band The Henrys, a modern roots band whose previous front-women included label-mate Becca Stevens. Together, and soon joined by violinist Hugh Marsh, they formed Three Metre Day. Over the next four years, Three Metre Day played numerous Canadian and U.S venues and festivals, had their 2011 album, Coasting Notes, featured on radio stations across Europe, the United States and Canada and they composed the score to the feature film, Still Mine featuring James Cromwell and Genevieve Bujold. The score was nominated at the Canadian Screen Awards for best original score. In 2013, Three Metre Day and Michelle played pump organ on Iggy Pop’s album Ready To Die.
In 2015, Michelle wrote and recorded See Us Through, her debut solo album, set for release globally on May 13. The word was getting out to the musician and music press community that Michelle Willis was special. David Crosby says Michelle’s voice “sounds like God on a good day" while CBC Radio’s Laurie Brown commented upon hearing the record, “…it's the perfect temperature - how does she manage to sound hot and cool at the same time? This is going to be an amazing record”.
But perhaps best of all descriptions, and following in the footsteps of iconic Canadian female singer songwriters such as Leslie Feist, Joni Mitchell and K.D. Lang, Snapd magazine said: "Michelle Willis is one of those phenomenally talented local musicians that will have her name on the world’s lips soon, and all of us Torontonians will get to casually drop into conversation, 'Well, did you know she grew up in Toronto?’"
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