Suzie has performed at Bez twice and we can’t wait to have her back - no one delivers the songs and stories quite like her. This time she’s bringing her old friend and touring partner Veda Hille along. Veda is one of East Vancouver’s most loved theatrical composers and a delightful entertainer with a long list of recording projects and theatre productions. They will be on stage together swapping songs and, as you can probably imagine, the banter and beauty of these two great musical storytellers will be outstanding.
“Not really friends in high-school, things grow together strange" writes Veda Hille in a song called Williamsburg Bridge - a song she co-wrote with her buddy Suzie Ungerleider about their adventures on tour together way back in the late 90s. These two singer-songwriters did indeed go to high-school together way out on the west side of Vancouver where the people run naked and free. They side-eyed each other in the hallways but barely spoke. Baby-punk Suzie secretly envious of artsy Veda who sang songs and played piano while sitting on the floor near the radiators. Artsy Veda reticent to speak to cool (dare we say cold) baby-punk Suzie. Fast forward seven years when Suzie dubbed herself Oh Susanna and recorded a little cassette in the mid-90s. Veda offered her an opening slot on her show at The Railway Club or the Malcolm Lowry Room (which one was it?). They became fast friends, started touring together as The Scrappy B**ches (along with Kinnie Starr) and now have landed here at The Bez! Join them for an evening of songs about love waves, surreal dreams, trophies, friendship, motherhood and walking home in the rain in the little backwater called Vancouver.
Suzie Ungerleider’s
gloriously emotive, crystalline voice and her bewitching performances have captivated audiences for over 25 years. A wordsmith with a keen mind for detail and a wicked sense of humour, Suzie’s songs and voice pierce the heart, inspire a knowing laugh or a welling of the eye.
Born in the USA and raised in Vancouver, Canada, this award-winning singer-songwriter began performing under the name Oh Susanna in the mid-1990s, winning instant praise for her striking voice and poetic songcraft. Her musical path has criss-crossed the mountains and valleys of Americana, folk, and roots, yet throughout her journey she has remained true to her own artistic vision.
Suzie has received many accolades for her artistry. She is the recipient of a Genie Award for Best Original Song and a Canadian Folk Music Award for English Songwriter of the Year. She has also been nominated for three Juno Awards and four Canadian Folk Music Awards.
After being a long-time member of the Toronto roots music scene, Suzie currently lives in her hometown of Vancouver with her husband, her daughter and their dog Willow.
Veda Hille
is a Vancouver musician, composer, theatre maker, and performer. She writes songs, makes records, co-writes musicals, collaborates in devised theatre, and fulfills other interesting assignments as they arise. Veda performs in a wide of array of places, alone or with bands, ensembles, symphonies, and casts. Her career spans 30 years of working in Canada and abroad, and shows no sign of flagging.
Veda spent a few formative years in music school and art school in Vancouver, laying the groundwork for a pretty elusive sense of genre. Her first album, an independent cassette, came out in 1991. She spent the rest of that decade working primarily as a recording and touring indie art-rock artist, releasing 6 more critically revered albums and travelling extensively in North America, Europe, and the UK. In the 90s she also composed scores and played live with many dance works, as well as beginning to explore forms such as song cycles and more experimental production.
In the early aughts Veda began working in theatre in Vancouver, while still continuing to record and tour. At first she considered theatre to be a side hustle, but soon it became clear that she was spending most of her time in rehearsal halls working on devised theatre, new opera, and contemporary musicals. All that said, Veda’s albums continue to be the core of her practice; she has made more than twenty full length recordings. Some are cast recordings from theatre work, and others are collections of songs written around a theme or a time in her life.
Veda’s work circles around many recurring interests: above all she writes about the natural world, amazement and the unknown, and the intricacies of human relationships. She strives for an ecstatic connection through weird detail, the universe visible through a microscope. All fancy language aside though, Veda Hille chases down the songs that are in her head and does her best to deliver them to the world, beautifully.