Maren Ord was born and grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, the eighth of ten chil… Read Full Bio ↴Maren Ord was born and grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, the eighth of ten children in a Latter-day Saint household. She grew up in a musical family; her father was a professor of music, her mother taught voice and piano, and the family toured and performed as the Ord Family Singers. Maren sang, learned piano from her mother, and would teach herself guitar at age 15.

At a 1998 audition for Lilith Fair, Ord met Canadian music impresario Terry McBride of the Vancouver-based record label and management company Nettwerk. She would be showcased at the music festival, and eventually take McBride as her manager.

In 1999, after her sister told her about a talent contest from Edmonton contemporary hit radio radio station Power 92; Maren entered four songs she had written that night, and two of them—"Eternity" and "Falling Slowly"—were recorded on the station's compilation CD, Power Picks Volume II.

The Nettwerk years and Waiting
Waiting, released to different markets between 2000 and 2002.

Once signed with McBride and Nettwerk, Ord continued to perform and record and embarked on years of progressive promotion, including use of her songs on several episodes of the American television series Felicity and her performance of the theme song to the 2000 motion picture Thomas and the Magic Railroad. Her debut album, Waiting, was produced by Stephen Hague and recorded in London, England and New York City.

On November 7, 2000, Highway Records released a special edition of Waiting to a Christian, predominantly Mormon, bookstore market; this edition featured a bonus track that would not appear on the general public release. Nettwerk's record company released Waiting in Canada on February 20, 2001.

While Ord was nominated for a Juno Award for Best New Artist, and her singles "Sarah" and "Perfect" were successful on Canadian radio, an anticipated U.S. and international release with Capitol/EMI in summer 2001 did not come through, and Nettwerk itself, not a major record label outside of Canada, released Waiting quietly in the United States on August 27, 2002.

A second beginning and Not Today
Not Today, released in 2004.

Ord parted ways with McBride and Nettwerk to join Gary McDonald at the boutique Managment firm Frontside, and looked for another mass-market record company, but continued to work with Highway and its focus on the Mormon market for the September 28, 2004 release of her sophomore album, Not Today. Canadian music legend Randy Bachman (The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive), also a Latter-day Saint, collaborated as co-writer, guitarist and producer for the album, which they recorded at Bachman's studio on Saltspring Island in British Columbia.

She performed in two Mormon-themed movies: singing on the soundtrack of the 2002 romantic comedy The Singles Ward, and acting, as Sariah Phelps, in the 2003 family comedy The R.M. (or The Returned Missionary).

Writing in Las Vegas Weekly (December 9, 2004), Richard Abowitz contended that Ord "is a more gifted musician than Alanis, sings a lot better than Michelle Branch and writes songs sharper than Pink and Avril combined." [1]

Over the sophomore hump with album number three Pretty Things

With the release of "Pretty Things" on November 21st, 2006 Ord enters yet another phase of her career, an acoustic one. "Pretty Things" marks the beginning of Ord's production career as she co-produced the entire record herself at a studio in Orem, Utah. The sound is simpler, quieter and more reminiscent of Jack Johnson than Avril Lavigne (whom she's been compared to previously). It saw a world-wide digital release through platforms like iTunes on October 10th, 2006 and was met with mostly favorable reviews from her fans.

Speak
Maren Ord Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

May the words you speak
Mean nothing to me
Mean nothing at all
So I won't feel the pain
And you do not understand,
It's here in my heart
It's here that I cry.
Don't you go away

You can't deny it

And you speak in such a way
That it doesn't faze you
Well, it fazes me
Are you scared of me?

Speak only to me and
Don't hear my words
Don't see me anymore
Just try, see through my past
If only you'd let me.
Just give me a chance

Let me endure to the end
You can't deny it.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Maren Ord's song "Speak" convey a sense of disconnection and unrequited feelings. The opening lines express a desire to be unaffected by someone's words, as a means of protecting oneself from the pain of unrequited affection. The singer acknowledges that the feelings are real and deep, existing within her heart and causing her to cry. The plea for the person not to go away is a manifestation of the longing for a deeper connection.

The next lines describe the disconnect between the singer and the person she desires. The person speaks in a way that suggests that they are unfazed by the singer's feelings, causing the singer to wonder if the person is scared of her. The yearning for a deeper connection persists, as the singer asks the person to speak only to her and not hear her words or see her, hoping that by doing so, they will see through her past and give her the chance to endure until the end.

Line by Line Meaning

May the words you speak
I hope you say things that I can ignore.

Mean nothing to me
I wish your words held no power over me.

Mean nothing at all
I wish your words had no meaning, no effect on my emotions.

So I won't feel the pain
I don't want to feel hurt by your words.

And you do not understand,
You don't know what I'm feeling.

It's here in my heart
My emotions are inside me.

It's here that I cry.
That's where I go to express my sadness.

Don't you go away
Please don't leave me here alone with my sadness.

You can't deny it
You can't pretend that my feelings aren't real.

And you speak in such a way
The way you talk about things is different than my perspective.

That it doesn't faze you
You don't seem affected by what we're talking about.