Piper Davis

So I was just hipped to this super talented artist out of Vancouver last week by the good homie Craig Hill of YYZ Records and the Embrace Management team. I was so stoked on her, that we ended up asking her to join our CMW bill in Toronto on March 11th. Ohhhh did I just leak that info? Anyways... Peep her myspace, as well as the super cool video above. "Academics" is my joint. Raw talent here. Very refreshing.

- Keys N Krates

"You know, you might describe Piper's music as "neo-soul," except I hate anything called "new-soul" and I love Piper's self-titled EP. I love "Academics" so much that I asked her to let me remix it, and she's such a sweet woman, that she even said "yes." Rather than torment you with my production, here's the original in all its ass shaking glory."
- Quinn Omori

Piper Davis is reserved. She smiles but rarely shows excitement even though the Vancouverite has been handpicked out of thousands of applicants and is the only Canadian enrolled in this year’s Red Bull Music Academy. But the former rave promoter’s taciturn persona simply underscores her seriousness — and her serious promise, both as a soulful, Esthero-esque vocalist and as her own beatsmith.

Though normally backed by a band at live shows, at the RBMA’s opening party she performed solo, on the floor in front of her laptop in a strange Barcelona club where one wasted local dude was dancing a little too close. “I was jet-lagged that night and clearly way out my element,” she recalls a couple days later. “But it’s good to have shows like that — sometimes there are tons of factors against you and sometime there are tons of factors for you.”

Davis’s day job is bussing at the Commodore, Vancouver’s best mid-size venue, where she collects glasses, sweeps up trash and cleans up puke. Her first big show was on that very stage, opening for Dragonette. Unlike most electronic music vocalists, Davis makes her own music. “I always thought someone would find me and they’d have these great beats,” she says. “But it’s hard finding someone you musically click with — it’s like finding someone you’re in love with. Y’know, I don’t want to marry everybody.”

Piper’s still in the early stages of her career — right now she just knows she likes to make music and sing over it. That’s why she applied to the Red Bull Music Academy: to see what she can learn, who she can meet, what she can make. Maybe it will push her in a new direction, or further in the direction she’s already headed.

“My friends in Calgary that I used to throw parties with told me I should apply because I was doing something a little bit different than DJing,” she says. “Then randomly my boyfriend’s little brother, who makes industrial music, met somebody on a bus and ended up at an information session in Edmonton and I randomly ended up talking to him on the phone two days before the deadline. I guess it was just meant to be because everything just fell into place.”

Now she’s in Barcelona, learning how to properly mic a drum, watching Sly & Robbie rock a riddim, putting together a radio set and making use of one of the “world's best sound engineers” to lay down some live stuff she couldn’t afford to record back home.

“People have told me, ‘this is going to be your big chance’ but I don’t think it’s really like that. I don’t think forwarding my career is what’s happening here. My tracks are really rough because I have only a basic understanding of the technical side of things. So I’m hoping to learn some skills and make connections all over the world with other people who are at the same level as me, and doing the same things as me. It’s a great opportunity on a personal level. It’s super inspiring.”

- Exclaim Magazine

My Fave Five: Week of June 29, 2009

Even though my weekend was drenched in Michael Jackson hits, I didn't want Mr. Thriller to loom too large over my entire list this week. So I dug down deep and snagged a plethora of singles ripe for the audio picking.

From old school Naughty by Nature and Jackson 5 (I had to include one at least MJ track), to newbies like Metric and Franz Ferdinand, this weekend was more rounded than a "Biggest Loser" premiere. But the stand out gal rockin' my cranium was the adorably hip Piper Davis. Her voice and attitude are equally punchy and the single that drove my passion to a full-fledged breakout is the kitschy "New Machine." Simple piano notes and lyrics about being a cosmonaut are bound to keep your imagination in check.

Give a listen to all five favorites after the simple little jump


http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/popwrap/my_fave_five_week_of_june_V4k7S0dEnvro8vqB9M2pjM
- New York Post

Piper Davis
Maybe the most charismatic female performer in Canada. Sounding like a white Santigold, Piper lights up a stage (literally, she has a young lady on stage with her singing backups AND putting on a light show) despite a very early show and a poor turnout. Risk brother Derek thinks she channels Mick Jagger with her swagger. Just cocky enough while performing, she lights up when we talk to her after. “Thanks for coming! I had a great time!” Band that goes on after her puts up a visual that reads something about “As heard on MTV’s The Hills!!!”. Ew.


http://www.ionmagazine.ca/2009/08/ion-at-north-by-northeast/
- Ion Magazine

Piper Davis had her work cut out for her. After the Heard left the well-liquored Bourbon crowd screaming for more, a DJ squad detonated the dance floor, mixing and meshing Bonecrusher with a selection of tracks that suggested Saturday night in Trenchtown.

Give Davis credit, then, for stepping up and delivering. Flanked by a bassist and backup singer, and powered by a drummer and a couple of Mac laptops, the Vancouver up-and-comer took all of one song to win the crowd back. Sonically, Davis draws on everything from Santigold-brand dance-funk to NYC art-pop to indie-tinted trip-hop. What really stands out, though, is that she’s got the kind of insane, effortless charisma that separates the Karen Os of the world from the vast legions of also-rans.


http://www.straight.com/article-247649/nothing-disappointing-about-olio-festivals-first-night-acts
- Georgia Straight

"Davis is so close you can taste it... Vocally and the way she moves, she's already there... She has the potential to be Canada's response to Goldfrapp, only less tart and more art." - Issue 6 Vol. 1 June 17 - July 1, 2008

With impetuous, Jagger-like swagger and bedroom eyes, Piper Davis owned the stage from the moment her soulful trip-hop started up. With a crack rhythm section defining the songs, and back-up vocalist/laptopper, Piper was free to roam across the stage, hand cockily on her hip, mannish shirt hanging, and soul-singing her wised-up melodies. - Guttersnipe Media

"Her sound is an intensely successful amalgamation of world music, indie pop and synthesized electro. With funk bass and her seductively husky voice taking centre stage, Piper’s hot shit live, delivering each line with something close to deadpan nonchalance. But as the layers of her band coalesce and you hear the Old World collide with the New in offbeat jazz- and reggae-inspired rhythms, you begin to realize this wasn’t something concocted overnight." - ThatRockBlog.com

"Blending genres to create uniquely beat driven, breathy, funky songs is what makes the music of Piper Davis stand out." - Discorder, UBC, Vancouver

"Piper sounds kind of like a soulful, slightly more brazen Leslie Feist, but she spins her lyrical yarns over curiously organic laptop funk instead of folky guitar. The result is both original and sporadically mesmerizing, and some of the songs are practically salivating to be remixed." - Luke Simcoe