Serena Ryder

Serena Lauren Ryder (born December 8, 1982) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Born in Toronto, she grew up in Millbrook, Ontario. Ryder first gained national recognition with her ballad "Weak in the Knees" in 2007 and has released eight studio albums.

Serena Lauren Ryder is the daughter of Barbara Ryder and Glen Sorzano and was born into a musical family. Her biological father was a Trinidadian musician who immigrated to Canada in the early sixties. Ryder, the youngest of three children, was raised by Barbara and her second husband, Andrew McKibbon, just outside Peterborough, in Millbrook, Ontario, and grew up listening to old records by the Beatles and Leonard Cohen from her parents' collection. At age eight, Ryder sang at Royal Canadian Legion halls and motels. Having received a guitar from her stepfather, she began playing the instrument at the age of thirteen. Songwriting efforts followed.

At age 17, Ryder left her home for Peterborough, Ontario, where she settled into a community of artists while attending the Integrated Arts Program at the Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational Institute.

In early 1998, Damon de Szegheo, record producer and owner of the Peterborough-based independent record label Mime Radio, approached her about recording. de Szegheo had noticed her when she sang during a set change for a local stage production of Gone with the Wind. The product of their recording sessions (Serena's first time in studio) was a self-titled promotional cassette, Serena (limited to a run of 100 copies) and her first full-length CD, Falling Out, released in December 1999.

During that time, de Szegheo also managed Ryder's touring career and organized many live concert appearances for her with local and touring acts including bands Thousand Foot Krutch, Three Days Grace (then named Groundswell) and Juno-nominated folk artist Craig Cardiff.

Ryder was later managed by Kellie Bonnici. Bonnici approached Ryder with an offer to help her after being moved by her performance at the 2001 Peterborough Folk Festival, where Ryder was awarded the Festival's first “Emerging Artist” award. This award enabled Ryder and Bonnici to attend a regional music festival conference and make some initial connections. Bonnici worked with Ryder to release Live at the Market Hall and A Day in the Studio in 2002.

While Ryder was playing her first show at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, Quebec, owner Paul Symes called Bill Stunt, the producer of the CBC Radio program Bandwidth, and left a voicemail of the live show. This led Stunt and Symes to invite Ryder for a performance recorded by CBC Bandwidth at the Black Sheep Inn. The recording was later released as a live EP, Serena Ryder Live.^{[citation needed]}

Ryder was invited by Erin Benjamin (then the president of the Ontario Council of Folk Festivals) to perform in Winnipeg at a regional music conference. There, her manager Bonnici met the CBC radio host Avril Benoit during one of Ryder's showcases. They later arranged an interview for Ryder on CBC's Here and Now, which caught the attention of the musician Hawksley Workman and Sandy Pandya, who was then his manager. After initial meetings with Workman and Pandya, Ryder was invited to record on Workman's Isadora label. Shortly thereafter, Ryder and Bonnici amicably parted ways, and Ryder began working with Pandya in 2004.