AURAL Heather is the new weather, a unique, sublime fusion
of song and spoken word by firey poet-vocalist Heather Haley and
dazzling guitarist- producer, Roderick Shoolbraid.
“The intricate interplay of Haley’s words and Shoolbraid’s
music works well in a studio recording and it was a pleasant surprise to see
them carry it off so well in a live setting. These works are complex enough to
have foiled a less talented duo. The poetry and music here is vital and alive.
The performance has its own energy that draws in the audience. Put these words
and music together and the whole truly is greater than the parts.” -Sound Bytes
These charming redheads, working in a myriad of media and
from disparate backgrounds, have joined forces in bold experimentalism to
produce a much-lauded video—Purple Lipstick—and
their inaugural cd, Surfing Season.
Roderick Shoolbraid has always been open to re-working the paradigms at hand,
though classical music and jazz are the pillars of his career. Haley is an
artist intimate with the music of language, often found pushing boundaries and
always on the vanguard. Raised on folk and country music, she discovered rock
and was composing songs and poems from the age of six. “A Canadian national
treasure,” she started writing verse in high school and formed HHZ—Heather
Haley & the Zellots—praised by LA Weekly music critic Craig Lee as one of the city’s “Ten
Great Bands.” AURAL Heather’s brawny, uncompromising and emotionally charged
spoken word songs rouse audiences with a high-impact live show that places them
in a genre-crossing, category-defying position, truly and only unto themselves.
• “Poetess and ramrod Heather Haley proves there's rock and
roll beyond art.”-LA Weekly
• “Powerful words driven by great beats and sounds.” -Harry
Kipper, Kipper Kids
• “Brilliant! You rock, and you’re going to make your
audiences rock.”-Biff Mitchell, BlackTop Motorcyle Gang
AURAL Heather has recently been featured on CBC Radio's "Signal",
Liquid Lunch and Howl with Nik Beat-CIUT Radio 89.5 FM-Toronto, CKUT-FM-Montreal,
Wax Poetic-CFRO/Vancouver, CKXU-Lethrbridge, Word Slingers-WLUW FM/Chicago,
Outsight Radio Hours-Detroit, Nette Radio and Blog Talk Radio/Los Angeles and
covered by the Village Voice, Tom Harrison-Vancouver Province, Vincent
Tingueley-Montreal Mirror. They recently returned from the first leg of their
international tour and dates in Ottawa, Kingston, Chicago, New York, Montreal
and Toronto.