The short story:
Suleyka is a guitarist/singer/songwriter living in the Mile-End neighbouhoor of Montreal. Having travelled all over the world and learned from many cultures, she mixes her unique fingerpicked nylon-string guitar style with modern yet soft indie-folk aesthetics. Her songs tell stories of longing, self-discovery. She is currently producing her debut album, to be released in the spring of 2010.
The long story:
Suleyka was born in Saguenay and raised in Laval, Qc. Although a painfully shy child, she always loved art, poetry and music, playing the piano and making up songs when no one was looking. In girl scouts she soaked up any opportunity to learn and teach and sing songs.
In her teens she listened to the Beatles "Sergent Pepper", Bob Dylan's "Blonde on Blonde" and Leonard Cohen's "Best of" over and over again until she just had to pick up the guitar. She also loved the strong women of the grunge era : Liz Phair, Veruca Salt, L7, Tori Amos..
After brief studies in Arts & Litterature, she set out to travel the world for five years, ofter with nothing more than a guitar and a change of clothes. She learned Sanskrit chanting in India, played drums on the street in Australia, studied shamanic music in Brazil. In California she was adopted into the local underground acoustic scene, performing at festival and opening for other artists.
When she came back to Montreal after years away from mainstream culture, she was in shock. But little by little she embraced the modern aesthetics of her contemporaries such as Feist, Bon Iver, Cinematic Orchestra and more. Living in the culture-rich Mile-End neighbourhood of Montreal and being exposed great musicians and songwriters of the local scene has furthermore inspired her.
She is currently finishing her debut album, collaborating with Andrew David, a talented musician/producer, to create music to reflect her sensibilities in a soft yet modern sound, to be released in the spring of 2010.
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