Madam Sad is Maddison Schrieber. Originally a name created by combining the names Mads and Adam, the band has been a solo project for the full six years since they started writing. Maddison is a disabled, traumatized, and queer person. Making whatever they have access to while still keeping it small, they focus on Americana and folk styles of music. They are guided by the vulnerability and sincerity they see in those styles.
Maddison picked up the guitar seven years ago as a means to try and connect deeper with people around them, even just as a tool to feel more seen. They did it for love. In Hamilton, Ontario, Maddison slowly learned to play and sing from doing covers of their favourite songs, mainly by Karen O. They started shifting from writing poems to writing songs six years ago and, thanks to unforeseen events, was rather isolated for the next three years. Almost all they’ve done since starting, is cope through songwriting. Recovering from trauma and illness, Maddison was finally ready to become a public musician in 2021 and released their first album.
For so long it felt like an ego driven need to be loved. Maddison felt like they made music for a feeling of “slow burn tension” from a lover. It haunts and follows them, unable to be shaken. In the last year though, Maddison found that creating music has always been this love language to themself. A gesture to a proposed self love partnership. As Maddison’s heart aches with loss of that old artistic purpose, it reignites with hope of what they could be just for themself.
