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Serena Ryder (born 1983) was raised in Millbrook, Ontario, Canada, just outside Peterborough. She grew up listening to old Beatles and Leonard Cohen records that she found in her parents' collection. She started singing publicly as a young child after she received her first guitar from her father. She began teaching herself to play and a few years later she made her first demo tapes.

Ranging musically somewhere between folk, roots, country, and adult contemporary, Serena Ryder's three-octave range is commanding and well beyond her years. She studied in the integrated arts program at Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational Institute in Peterborough, and performed solo as well as with many of Peterborough's local bands as a teenager.

Her first independent CD, called Falling Out, was released in December of 1999 on the Peterborough indie label Mime Radio, and included the first songs she had ever written.

In 2002 at the age of 18, Serena recorded some songs from a show she was playing in Quebec into a more official demo. This recording eventually made its way to CBC Radio and earned Ryder an invitation to play live on air. Lucky for her, musician Hawksley Workman happened to hear the broadcast, and immediately contacted the singer at the station and invited her to record an album on his Isadora label. Backed by Workman, Ryder recorded her debut, Unlikely Emergency, which was released in 2004 and reissued in the U.S. the following year. The album included the song Just Another Day which gained significant airplay on many radio stations. Also released on Isadora was Live in Oz, a recording from her tour of Australia, released in limited numbers and available only at performances.

Unlikely Emergency did well enough to give Ryder a spot performing at the 2005 Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame press conference. After this performance it was suggested she cover songs written by Canadian musicians. If Your Memory Serves You Well, a collection of 12 covers, including Leonard Cohen, and three originals, came out in Canada in late 2006, and hit shelves in the States soon after. Ironically it was Ryder’s self-written Weak in the Knees that really propelled the record.

On Serena’s latest release, is it o.k, she is at times transparently sad, vulnerable and even confused, but always remarkably real and in the moment. With is it o.k, Ryder has clearly set the bar higher for artists of her generation…including herself. Her immense growth as a songwriter is unmistakable throughout the album, especially as Ryder is able to bring optimism and energy even to the record’s darker moments. The accomplished result is the strength and new conviction apparent in one of Canada’s most intriguing newest song writing voices.

The album is also tough as nails where it counts.  Serena says that this whole record is about realizing that the more we think we know the less we really do know.  She adds that it’s about her coming to terms with the fact that she’s imperfect and being comfortable with that feeling. 

EMI Music Canada released is it o.k on November 11, 2008, with a U.S. release (via Atlantic Records) scheduled for February 2009. Produced by John Alagia (Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Jason Mraz), she recorded the album in the Santa Monica studio complex, Village Recorder, where her all-time favourite album, Fleetwood Mac's Rumors was recorded. She says that she recorded in Stevie Nicks’ vocal booth with candles all around and stained-glass windows and mirrors everywhere.