Sister Says – Heart Placement – 02 – Heart Placement 4:26
Sister Says – Heart Placement – 01 – Abel’s Underneath Sister Says 2:40
Sister Says – Heart Placement – 06 – Hold Until the End 4:31
The Only Way Sister Says 4:03
Get Lost Sister Says 3:29

It’s been an amazing summer…

20604657_1419255644797066_8775690145892722986_n — Photo by: Yvonne Chew at Unceded Traditions. Unceded Territories. Gallery Reception.

This summer has probably been our most busy summer yet! We’re super grateful for all the gigs. We also feel that we’ve worked hard and it’s so nice to get a really positive response.

Kispiox Valley music Festival was such a good time. So many awesome people! Also, we really enjoyed all of the music. For those that don’t know, Kispiox is gorgeous Gitxsan territory. We stayed in a serene house with a big backyard, pigs, a dog and five little puppies during our time there. So idyllic….

It was an honour sharing the stage with inspiring Indigenous musicians Kinnie Starr, Diyet and Joel West at Celebrating Together Festival in Smithers. We were a little concerned about the forest fires on our way up there but everything ended up working out in the end. The organizers and everyone else involved were so lovely. It also rained previous to our performance slot which was great!

Drum is Calling in Vancouver was a treat to perform at as well. It was also the first time we had our own trailer and full on artist area. Talk about spoiled! The Unceded Traditions, Unceded Territories exhibit reception at Queen Elizabeth with the band was a blast too. We also had a chance to catch up with extremely talented Haida artist Jim Hart.

Performing in a project for so many years can be very rewarding. If you’re dedicated and fully into it you grow, get smarter about how you go about things, and make lasting meaningful connections and friendships. This summer was beautiful reminder of that.

Thanks to everyone that’s supported us this year!

xox

Gillian

Upcoming Summer Shows…

Check it out! We’re looking forward to our upcoming shows in Smithers, Vancouver & Kispiox!

Gillian

Giving Voice Recap & THANK YOU!

Wow! Giving Voice on June 15th was SO special! I’ve taken a little bit of downtime and time off from posting as much because we’ve been pretty busy with gigs. Also, Giving Voice required a lot of love and energy in order to happen. We are so happy that the night happened and that it was such a success. There was a great turn-out and all the diverse artists involved added their own unique magic to the night.

We’ll say it again…a BIG thank you to Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art and Christ Church Cathedral for being such awesome partners. THANK YOU all you lovely audience members that were in attendance! ALSO, a very big thank you to our concert funders! Some of the themes of the night included celebrating diversity, bridging the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous artist spaces and continuing the legacy of Bill Reid’s music concerts.

Below are some pics that the talented Derek Stevens Photography took during the night. The rest of the photos can be found on Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art’s facebook and Sister Says’s facebook pages.

Gillian

See you at Hindenburg Nov 11th!

We can’t wait for our show happening on November 11th (Remembrance Day) with Victoria based synth pop/rock band Fortune Killers (formerly Isobel Trigger), indie-folk rock act Zulu Panda and captivating loop artist Cassandra Bangel at Hindenburg in Vancouver! We’ll be performing with our full band which includes Max Ley on drums, Keith Sinclair on guitar and Trevor Ainsworth on percussion. Fortune Killers will also be releasing their brand new single “Fool’s Gold!”

RSVP here to the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/990249604418367/

Tickets can be purchased NOW on eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/sister-says-fortune-killers-zulu-panda-cassandra-bangel-live-tickets-6779667167?aff=es2

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Gillian

September News + Check out ReelLit’s Video!

This September Rob and I have taken some time to decompress & organize plans coming up. We’ve also been songwriting quite a lot for the recording of our 3rd release which will likely be an EP….

Here’s a few other news worthy items:

-Check out the sneak peak of Sister Say’s artist spotlight on Digital Drum! Our artist spotlight and video with Digital Drum is coming soon…check out our Instagram at @sister_says for the post (it can be also found on our other main social media sites).

-Rob and I are looking forward to presenting some music at a First People’s Cultural Council private event coming up.

-Gillian with be playing the lead role in talented filmmaker Patrick Shannon’s new short film. Watch for it. Check out more about Patrick here: http://evilpatrick.ca/

-Here’s an awesome lyric video that a youth program called ReelLit from an alternative school in the West End in Toronto created for our song Give me my love!!

Gillian

Ahh Yes! Kaslo Jazz Festival + More

This week has been a particularly busy one for Rob and I! It’s been amazing.

We recently were at The Space Studio in Vancouver, recording a performance and new track “Full like the Moon” for a Digital Drum video, an Indigenous music platform (out soon…). We had a great time! The Space Studio team + Digital Drum folks were great. Daniel Klenner was engineering and created such wonderful sound.

Below is a pic of the studio and some of our set up….some of our team, Lonny Eagleton on guitar and Max Ley on drums joined Rob and I and it was such a treat.

BUT WAIT. NEXT SISTER SAYS SHOWS:

We’re super stoked to be performing at Kaslo Jazz Festival in Kaslo, BC with guitarist Keith Sinclair and drummer Max Ley on July 30th. We’ll also be doing a duo set with hip hop duo Mobb Bounce’s Travis Hebert on percussion at Edge of the World Music Festival in Haida Gwaii, BC on August 7th .

ALSO….

Currently Rob is on tour, playing bass, with talented bluesy rock and roll artist Sadie Campbell. Rob and I have both been prepping for our week long Contemporary Songwriting Workshop in Haida Gwaii. It’s for ages 15-30 and is free! If you know anyone who might be interested tell them to visit this page: https://www.facebook.com/events/275770729440064/ (all the info is here about rsvping/location etc). Also..my dear and talented songwriter/artist friend Claire Love Wilson and I will be doing a set of songs we wrote together and songs from our other projects at Jeff Gladstone and The Bad Ideas Cabaret at Guilt and Co. in Vancouver this Tues, 9:30pm till late.

Hope to see you all soon…

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Gillian

Thank you’s & Listening Party

Thank you everyone again who attended the first run of Silenced (workshop piece). What a ride! Rob and I feel so amazingly lucky to have been given the opportunity to collaborate with such talented and wonderful people. Big thanks to Urban Ink Collective, Urban Ink & rEvolver Festival.

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Our next show is at The beautiful Capilano Tea House in Gastown. It’s an extra special night because contemporary-classical Indigenous artist Jeremy Dutcher, all the way from Toronto, will be performing! Balladier pixie Claire Love Wilson also shares the bill. It’s going to be a great night of chill, music and botanical soda/tea goodness. Buy your ticket online or at the door but I suggest online because the space is intimate and tickets will be going fast! RSVP HERE.

Gillian

Sofar Video & New Shows!

Guess what?! Our Sofar collaboration video with singer songwriter Claire Love Wilson is up! During last summer Claire and I did a lot of jamming and songwriting in homes and parks. Here’s one of the songs that we jammed on together being backed by Sister Says.

UPCOMING:

This Saturday we’ll be at Leləm’ Arts and Cultural Cafe in Langley from 7pm-9pm. CLICK HERE for info.

Rob and I contribute music, writing and acting to interdisciplinary theatre piece Silenced, a collaborative creation by the Urban Ink Collective which will be presented at rEvolver Festival May 12th & 15th! CLICK HERE for more info.

On Saturday, May 28th, we’ll be performing at The Capilano Tea House, sharing the bill with Toronto-based composer and vocal artist from Neqotkuk First Nation Jeremy Dutcher & heartfelt singer-songwriter Claire Love Wilson. More details TBA soon!

Gillian

Recap & Upcoming..

Hi world!

Well….long time no blog (we got a little busy 😉 )! We’re happy to say that we’ve been songwriting for our third album and have started to perform new material at recent shows. It’s always great to get a chance to work out new songs live on stage and we’re excited to say that the audience reaction has been great. We’ve been experimenting with a lot soulful sounds. More shows are booked and are in the works (local + travel) . ALSO Rob and I have been collaborating with a diverse performance group called Urban Ink Collective and have been creative writing, songwriting and working on movement for an interdisciplinary piece called Silenced which will be presented at rEvolver Festival on May 12th and 15th. It’s the first time that we’ve ever worked on a piece like this to be presented at a festival! It’s been quite the journey.

You can learn more about the show by clicking HERE

Past shows highlights….

This month Sister Says performed in Victoria for the first time as a duo at Felicita’s Campus Pub. We had a great time sharing the stage with Isobel Trigger & Anneda! Victoria has an awesome music scene and wonderful people. Photo below taken by our good pal Kaihlee Riley.

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We performed a duo show at the Talking Stick Festival in February and shared the stage with Niska Napoleon. The lovely Nadya Kwandibens took some rad live shots of us….here’s one below:

Rob and I took part in an amazing music industry retreat called Aboriginal Music Program for the second time in Falcon Trails in Manitoba from January 31st to February 5th. This time around we did our showcase both solo! At the very end Rob and I had the opportunity to collaborate with some wicked artists/projects including Melody McKiver, Mob Bounce, Bebe Buckskin, Drezus, Arthur Renwick, Jeremy Dutcher and Wolf Saga .

Here’s pic of me singing with Melody McKiver, Arthur Renwick, Drezus, Mob Bounce and Wolf Saga!:

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We had an amazing time at our Sofar Sounds show back in January! It was so great to do a collaborative show with singer-songwriter Claire Love Wilson and play with drummer Trevor Ainsworth. The Sofar staff were so great! We can’t wait to share our Sofar Sounds video with you when it’s ready.

Here’s a snap of us that the Sofar team took:

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