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Del Suelo and Billie Zizi
All Ages
$10 advance
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Band Details
From the Promoter
DEL SUELO
Del Suelo is the pseudonym of Erik Mehlsen, who has spent the better part of the last decade touring as a member of the internationally successful The Dead South, winning a Juno Award in 2018, and performing with and writing songs for The Andino Suns, winning a WCMA in 2017.
Fans have been waiting patiently for a follow up to Del Suelo’s breakthrough 2016 release — a 10 chapter/10 song combination project titled I Am Free — an innovative art project forcing the collision of the worlds of the music and literature.
Since the release of I Am Free in 2016, Del Suelo has taken philosophical alt-pop sounds across Western Canada and Northern Europe (Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark and Austria). His virtuoso guitar playing, soaring vocals, and storytelling abilities have earned a him a reputation as a must-see live act. From festival to intimate cafe, he has shared the stage with acts such as Sloan, Corb Lund, and Chixdiggit.
Buzz is heating up regarding Del Suelo’s forthcoming release The Musician’s Compass: A 12 Step Programme, a wildly playful yet deeply sobering project about the highs and lows of living life on the road. The novel and LP will be released in September of 2018.
BILLIE ZIZI
If you’ve ever spiraled through the heaviness and lightness of love, then you can get behind Billie Zizi’s new album Moon of Honey (2016). This tour-de-force carries all the agonies and ecstasies of all those late night spent alone in your room waiting for your lover to call. Her sound is heady mix of dirty-soul-indie-jazz-pop—and these tracks give off serious bedroom vibes.
Billie Zizi was born on April 4th 1989 in dusty Edmonton, Alberta to a fiddle player (Cam Neufeld) and an abstract painter (Marianne Watchel). Taught to live and breathe art from a young age, Zizi took notes from her father on music-making and learnt how to paint from her mother. After high school, Zizi went to Grant MacEwan University for music, graduating in 2009. Zizi has traveled the world—living, working, and traveling through West Africa, Asia, Europe. In 2010, she did a busking tour with her father that began in Turkey, moved through Eastern Europe, and ended in France where they attended Samois, a festival in celebration of Django Reinhardt.
In 2015, Zizi received a 10k20 Ralwco Recording Grant and, that same year, successfully released her first studio album Gun Metal Dress. In Penguin Eggs, Tom Murray enthusiastically describes it as “a fine first album, laying down ground work for what will no doubt be one of the country’s most inventive voices for years to come.” Her side projects include work on The Gadjo Collective, The Black Wonders, Gypsy Jive, and Jive is Dead. Zizi lists her musical influences as her dad, insomnia, and love. She still likes to paint and she creates her own album art. Notable festival appearances include Ness Creek Music Festival (Big River), Alianate Arts Festival (Iqaluit Nunavut), North Country Fair (Driftpile), Sasquatch Gathering (Rangeton Park), The WorksFestival (Edmonton), Heart of the City Music Festival (Edmonton), Road to Django (Grand Prairie), Artists on the Rail (VIA Rail), Wild Mountain Music Festival (Hinton), South Country Fair (Fort Macloud).
Zizi’s work has low-key obsessive quality. Her layered, cyclical sounds give the impression of someone whose thoughts are on repeat. Speaking about her process, Zizi remarks, “Looping is unwieldy…It can really go south on you. I’ve been lost in a terrifying loopland before.” Listening to Moon of Honey, there is nothing terrifying about this loopland—Zizi has brawled with her demons and created a lush country of sound out of them. Listen in and hear the sun filter in through the blinds.
For tour dates and venues, check the blog section of this website.