BIOGRAPHY
Sweet Soubrette features the songwriting, vocals and ukulele of Ellia Bisker, whose dark, edgy love songs have captured fans' hearts and critical praise since the 2008 release of debut album Siren Song (MH Records), which earned attention from reviewers and fans alike. The album received high rotation on national college radio and positive reviews in the indie music press. Since then, Sweet Soubrette has expanded to include a talented backing band that includes up to eight musicians onstage (on violin, piano, bass, drums, glockenspiel, marimba, a 3-piece horn section).
Sweet Soubrette's second record, Days and Nights, was released in January 2011. This playful, thoughtful album is captivating, humorous, and devastating, with a rich and powerful sound. The songs it includes are about troubled love in all its permutations -- from tongue-in-cheek pop tunes about gold diggers and other dangerous women to songs that let their guard down to express longing, hope, and desire. Alternately vulnerable and seductive, Sweet Soubrette’s pitch-perfect evocations of imperfect romance are filled with catchy refrains, gorgeous harmonies, and skilled instrumentation. Witty lyrics and inventive arrangements combine with a dark pop sensibility to create a sound that has been compared to Amanda Palmer and the Magnetic Fields.
"Edgy, honest and sultry...Sweet Soubrette has quickly risen as one of New York's most intriguing songwriting forces...Featuring the vocal and musical talents of Ellia Bisker, whose first album Siren Song was released on the indie label MH Records in 2008, Sweet Soubrette hit the ground running with their sophomore album, Days and Nights, three years later. Both albums encompass Bisker's fantastic incorporation of poetry and life in her sweet-yet-sassy lyrics, and Days and Nights features the addition of band members Heather Cole, Mike Dobson and Bob Smith. An enigmatic performer, Bisker has charmed audiences with her rock star command and intelligently crafted music, generating a buzz for Sweet Soubrette that extends way beyond the borders of New York City." -The Deli Magazine
"Take Amanda Palmer covering Radiohead and then take Phoebe Legere and drain out the jazz and replace it with Jenny Lewis circa The Execution Of All Things and then throw on some fishnet stockings and you have Sweet Soubrette...this time she has a full band and the songs have texture and beauty." -Rock NYC
"What makes a Sweet Soubrette? One part circus performer, one part poet, and third part rockstar...a Sweet Soubrette show is like badass adult story time." -CultureMob
"At once sweet and sassy, celebrating reckless behavior with a charmed wink." -Time Out New York
"Dark vaudeville-pop...sensational." -Philadelphia Inquirer
"Indie rock meets cabaret." -Worcester Magazine
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