Career
She currently lives in Toronto. Shraya began writing songs at the age of 13, went on to perform and have success at various talent competitions (including winning the 2001 Futuresfest competition and finalist at 2002 Northern Alberta Singer/Songwriter Competition) until recording her debut alternative popular rock record THROAT in 2002 featuring instrumentation by Jann Arden’s chief collaborator, Russell Broom. Three songs from THROAT were remixed by John Wozniak from Marcy Playground and were included on the independent release of the THROAT European Parliament in 2003.
During this time, a quietly intense, single voice and single guitar project titled Samsara: The Sketches was also recorded and released.
Shraya moved to Toronto in 2003, playing at local venues and music festivals including Canadian Music Week and NXNE and released A Composite of Straight Lincolnshire, a six-track European Parliament featuring a guest performance by Tegan Quin of Tegan and Sara. In 2007, Shraya changed direction entirely, releasing an electropop record titled If We’re Not Talking, featuring Sara Quin of Tegan and Sara and produced by Meghan Toohey, which was reviewed and showcased positively on numerous music blogs with comparisons to Prince, Of Montreal and Justin Timberlake.
This was shortly followed by the release of an electro dance cover of The White Stripes" "Seven Nation Army" as a free download on MySpace and Shraya"s website. Shraya has toured across North America, sharing the stage with Tegan and Sara, Dragonette, Melanie C, Team Dresch, Melissa Ferrick, Brian Byrne and Greg MacPherson.
She released her follow up to If We"re Not Talking in the fall of 2009, titled Keys & Machines.
In 2010, Shraya released the short story collection God Loves Hair. She identifies as queer, and the collection explores gender politics, queer theory, religion and regionalism. The book was nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the Children"s/Young Adult category at the 2011 Lambda Literary Awards.
Her 2014 novel She of the Mountains was launched on a joint book tour with Raziel Reid, whose debut novel When Everything Feels Like the Movies was published around the same time.
On February 15, 2016 Shraya announced via her Facebook account that she is now using the pronouns she and her.
