Liz Labelle

Montreal-native Liz Labelle is a pop rock grown, jazz nurtured multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. She is multilingual and is very proud of her Polish heritage and Canadian citizenship. Her smartly written lyrics, sweet & catchy melodies brought out with an electrifying performance are an exciting and jarring combination that’ll keep you wanting more. This multifaceted artist offers a perfect mix of emotional earnestness and raw conviction.

Music took over Liz’s life when she was 9. She took part in talent shows, performed in musicals and would never stop singing. High school helped mold her into a skilled jazz drummer, percussionist and vocalist. She studied jazz vocals in college and immediately after, she left her job to follow the Vans Warped Tour in 2014. It didn’t take long for her to get noticed by none other than the founder of Warped Tour, Kevin Lyman, who immediately added her to the bill. And that is where her touring career began. Since then, Liz has shared the stage with Diana Ross, GAYLE, Loren Allred, Against The Current, The Ready Set, This Century, Austin Gibbs, Jet Black Alley Cat, Take Me To The Pilot, Hopeland, The Lost Deliveries and many others. She is eager to get back out on the road in Canada, the US and Europe.

Touring brought Liz to Nashville, which has been her home base for the past 5 years. She met her current production team and joined a band with whom she plays shows all over the United States and internationally. She is wrapping up production on 1 of 3 new Eps, the 1st of which will be released in Fall 2023.

Liz Labelle has numerous accomplishments in which she takes pride, starting by the 2009 Montreal Jazz Festival, when she played the main stage. Throughout the years, Liz played in bands with her friends and wandered down the solo route. This currently self-managed artist released a first EP (as Liz Skalak) in 2011, called Nothing To Hide. Her six-song record features tracks Devil In Disguise, Brave and All That We Are among others. Her debut record Tanqueray Dreams was released in 2014. That album features her second radio single It’s Not Me It’s You (reaching top 20 of the BDS charts), Bombs Away (for which she shot a music video), Hot Mess and Painless (most recent music video). She collaborated with two Arizona producers and songwriters, Alex and Sean Silverman (Beach Weather, The Foxies, This Century, The Technicolors), whom she worked with on most of the songs. Four of those songs feature live drums recorded at the 8123 Studio during one of her stays in Arizona, which were engineered by Pat Kirch from The Maine. Two tracks were produced and co-written with John Nathaniel and Ian Lee. Her song Bombs Away won Best pop/top 40 song at the International Songwriting Competition (ISC).

Liz landed a few license deals in the recent past. Bombs Away has appeared in R.L. Stein (Goosebumps) movie Mostly Ghostly and opens the movie trailer for Nickelodeon film starring Victoria Justice called Naomi And Ely’s No Kiss List. Canadian filmmaker Gavin Boothe also picked up 3 songs to include in his feature film The Scarehouse.

During her time in Nashville, Liz slowly continued her studies online and is completing her requirements for a psychology major. She has always felt keen fondness for mental health and keeps up with the latest psychology findings. Her last music video for her original track Painless, depicts mental illness and addiction. In the video she promotes to use of creativity to channel through struggles and life’s difficulties by demonstrating both sides of the spectrum, contrasting positive addiction with negative addiction. Liz hopes to inspire people with difficulty to “choose their weapon” instead of giving in to their struggles.

Liz has had her set of struggles upon moving to Nashville. Finding a means to be able to stay in America was a long, stressful and tedious process, for which she remedied with a residency at some clubs in Nashville where she performs 3-4 nights a week. That in itself brought on other hurdles along the way. In 2019, she was diagnosed with vocal nodules. To most that type of diagnosis is synonymous with the end of a singing career, but Liz was determined to get rid of her nodes in order to keep doing what she loves most. Years of reversing bad habits, learning to implement good ones in her daily routine, many hours spent with ENTs, speech therapists and vocal coaches allowed her to shrink them down once. She continues to struggle with nodules but has a better handle on minimizing them. Liz says her vocal trauma has forced her to become a better singer and musician, but it has also made her learn to accept her new voice. This was a major and life-changing lesson in the pop singer’s journey.

Aside from her solo project, Liz has worked with many artists and writers, taking role as a session vocalist and/or writer: Ashland High (Metro Station) featuring Miley Cyrus (Shot In The Dark, for which she recorded ghost vocals), Sébastien Lefebvre (Simple Plan), Ian Lee (Rock This Town), Alter Ego (Déjà Oublié – Top 20 in 2 weeks and in #6 BDS Top 100 charts in a 4 weeks, Jamais la même, Sauve Moi, Last Call), Jay Lefebvre, The Lost Boys production group, formed by former Mission District members Dave Rancourt and Antoine Rochette, and many more.

Liz also co-hosts a podcast called The Sarcastic Four, where she indulges her love for most things nerdy, along with her friends Brandon, Dean and Ralph. She is a big Star Wars fan and dreams of lending her acting skills to her favourite franchise someday.