About Caroline McQuaig
I thought about writing this in third person, but since I’m among friends, no need to pretend there’s some harried intern writing this bio. Just little ole me here.
I’ll start at the beginning, in Fairfax, VA. I was born and raised there, and it’s where I started performing. My earliest career goals and their inspirations were as follows: lawyer (Legally Blonde), FBI agent (Miss Congeniality), figure skater (Ice Princess), and pop star (my need for attention). Eventually I landed on Actor. I could be all those things I dreamed of, minus the 8+ extra years of higher education! It was perfect!
I started taking voice and acting classes when I was 12 and promptly fell in love. I started doing musicals like Godspell, The Little Mermaid, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Musical theatre was my first true love, and there will never come a day when I’m asked the question “where ya goin” and I don’t respond “Barcelona.”
I know everyone here may not be a musical theatre person so let me move on to the next phase of my performance progression- SHAKESPEARE. Oh, that’s even more divisive? You don’t like that either? That’s fine, I feel you and I totally get it, but I cannot get enough of the stuff. Deciphering, understanding, and performing classical theatre is a shot of pure dopamine for me. And if I do say so myself, I think the education in poetry and prose I got from all those hours spent with my Shakespeare lexicons and collected works made me a much stronger storyteller, and therefore, songwriter.
These two loves carried me into my college career (and my other love, my sweet husband, Ian) at Marymount Manhattan College. Go Griffins! I got my BA in theatre performance in your standard 4 years, in your not at all standard campus of New York City. The city is another one of my great loves. I fall in love a lot.
Senior year, with showcase fast approaching, I decided I needed something to show for myself since I wasn’t cast in any summer stock productions. So I called on an oft neglected love of mine- songwriting. I brought together friends of mine that were also singer songwriters and created a concert called Siren Songs. I donated the money to End The Backlog, got a curated concert of all my favorite artists that also happened to be my friends, and voila! I had something to show for my performance education.
After 2 years of putting on a Siren Songs show every few months at awesome venues like The West End Lounge, Pianos, Rockwood Music Hall, and Jammin Java, my friends convinced me it was time to record some of the music I’d been sharing at these shows. 2020 started off strong with my determination to make an EP and break onto the music scene an overnight superstar. I started recording. I started to like my own music, which I didn’t think I would. My producer, Corey Kline, took my melancholy acoustic poems and made them into full blown pop songs.
Of course COVID-19 threw a bit of a wrench into all of our plans, but my music still came out, and I hope you find some joy/ catharsis/ humor/ distraction in it. You can stream my debut EP Underground Summer on your preferred music platform, and follow me there for new releases.
You can follow me on Instagram for all my updates, and check back for some blogs!