Sound of Lions

"One, by Sound of Lions, from the album 11:44: Spacious, trippy rock, and soaring over the top is the voice of Whitney Delion. The song builds, and it should broadly appeal to fans of Coldplay or U2. This band has much potential for both commercial and critical success." - Ottawa Citizen Newspaper

4. 11:44, by Sound of Lions (independent): A very stripped down performance at the NAC’s 4th stage recently was riveting. Whitney Delion’s voice fills the room, and the music on the album is big and brooding, with borderline-psychedelic guitars and arrangements. There’s even some rapping. What an impressive debut this is. - Ottawa Citizen Newspaper

As Best of Ottawa's winner of Best New Act and Best Album, Sound of Lions take a look back at 2011

It's said that good things come to those who wait, but Ottawa band Sound of Lions has not had to be patient very long. With only their debut album, 11:44, the five piece of guitarist Will Assaad, drummer Marco Campagna, bassist Joel Soucy, singer Whitney Delion and keyboardist/ turntablist/sampler Christian Awad landed Best Album and Best New Act awards in the Ottawa XPress Best of 2011 poll.
"We're all really surprised, as there was a great list of local bands in competition," says Awad. "It's truly an honour to find ourselves rated by our peers as being in that class. It's also great to see a new project like ours grow legs and start to walk on its own."

Trip-hop has been the tag most associated with Sound of Lions in their short lifetime, and elements do bear similarities to the great progenitors of the genre. Still, Delion's voice has more size and is less haunted than that of Portishead's Beth Gibbons, or Toronto's Esthero, with a size, volume, intonation and emotion closer to modern soul singers like Duffy or Amy Winehouse. The beat programming is also very different than an early DJ Shadow piece - the first artist to receive the trip-hop label in the early 90s - with less tunrtable experiments, sampling and quarter-beat drum juggling than was traditionally associated with the genre. In the end, Sound of Lions comes across less as a 90s trip-hop act and more like something between hip-hop, rock and soul, but well capable of straddling these multiple genres without sounding gimmicky.

As Delion's partner on and off the stage, Awad indicates that, ultimately, their sound is an apt reflection of the tight relationship between the band's disparate parts.

"I think overall we are quite mood driven, but we all came from very different musical backgrounds and bring that to the band," explains Awad. "I, myself, was involved in the hip-hop scene in Ottawa, and Toronto when I lived there, so I've been performing for over 10 years. Our drummer was a punk drummer for a long time; our bass player has been in a whole bunch of different bands and he's pretty well known in the Ottawa community; Whitney and I met in a previous group, and we started working on this project in a way to give her a good base to sing. We got everyone together to make that base, and it's gone really well. I think it's very hard to define our sound, because we've taken a lot from various areas. Still, it's our own spin on all these styles we've come from - it's a new take on some classic sounds, with a little bit of something different and current, but we're very much a solid team."

The band's name is derived from a compound structure of loose translations of the surnames of Awad (Lebanese for "musicmaker") and Delion (French for "of lion"), and while Sound of Lions has this at its root, the strength of the project is certainly its ability to shape-shift. One minute a soul project, the next all beats and raps by frequent Ottawa guests and collaborators Flight Distance, it's never too long before the guitars, bass and drums lead into ostensible rock territory. The band is certainly still discovering its sound and flexing newly pumped-up muscles, but there is already a solid sonic foundation in place that cannot be found elsewhere in the Ottawa area.

"We sold out our CD release party at Zaphod's, and things have moved pretty quick because our members come from different backgrounds and bring their networks in," says Awad. "The nature of our music is pretty open-ended, so we're able to attract fans from the hip-hop, indie, jazz and blues scenes too. I think we're inspired by things from the past, but want to keep things as new as possible. It's like any other artist - you want to grow and develop, and try new things to keep yourself intrigued. DJ Shadow is a good example. He gained early notoriety with the drum-heavy compositions and moody samples, but his later stuff showed growth away from that template. We're going to take our time as well, working out our sound as we move forward with recording." - Xpress Ottawa

As Best of Ottawa's winner of Best New Act and Best Album, Sound of Lions take a look back at 2011

It's said that good things come to those who wait, but Ottawa band Sound of Lions has not had to be patient very long. With only their debut album, 11:44, the five piece of guitarist Will Assaad, drummer Marco Campagna, bassist Joel Soucy, singer Whitney Delion and keyboardist/ turntablist/sampler Christian Awad landed Best Album and Best New Act awards in the Ottawa XPress Best of 2011 poll.
"We're all really surprised, as there was a great list of local bands in competition," says Awad. "It's truly an honour to find ourselves rated by our peers as being in that class. It's also great to see a new project like ours grow legs and start to walk on its own."

Trip-hop has been the tag most associated with Sound of Lions in their short lifetime, and elements do bear similarities to the great progenitors of the genre. Still, Delion's voice has more size and is less haunted than that of Portishead's Beth Gibbons, or Toronto's Esthero, with a size, volume, intonation and emotion closer to modern soul singers like Duffy or Amy Winehouse. The beat programming is also very different than an early DJ Shadow piece - the first artist to receive the trip-hop label in the early 90s - with less tunrtable experiments, sampling and quarter-beat drum juggling than was traditionally associated with the genre. In the end, Sound of Lions comes across less as a 90s trip-hop act and more like something between hip-hop, rock and soul, but well capable of straddling these multiple genres without sounding gimmicky.

As Delion's partner on and off the stage, Awad indicates that, ultimately, their sound is an apt reflection of the tight relationship between the band's disparate parts.

"I think overall we are quite mood driven, but we all came from very different musical backgrounds and bring that to the band," explains Awad. "I, myself, was involved in the hip-hop scene in Ottawa, and Toronto when I lived there, so I've been performing for over 10 years. Our drummer was a punk drummer for a long time; our bass player has been in a whole bunch of different bands and he's pretty well known in the Ottawa community; Whitney and I met in a previous group, and we started working on this project in a way to give her a good base to sing. We got everyone together to make that base, and it's gone really well. I think it's very hard to define our sound, because we've taken a lot from various areas. Still, it's our own spin on all these styles we've come from - it's a new take on some classic sounds, with a little bit of something different and current, but we're very much a solid team."

The band's name is derived from a compound structure of loose translations of the surnames of Awad (Lebanese for "musicmaker") and Delion (French for "of lion"), and while Sound of Lions has this at its root, the strength of the project is certainly its ability to shape-shift. One minute a soul project, the next all beats and raps by frequent Ottawa guests and collaborators Flight Distance, it's never too long before the guitars, bass and drums lead into ostensible rock territory. The band is certainly still discovering its sound and flexing newly pumped-up muscles, but there is already a solid sonic foundation in place that cannot be found elsewhere in the Ottawa area.

"We sold out our CD release party at Zaphod's, and things have moved pretty quick because our members come from different backgrounds and bring their networks in," says Awad. "The nature of our music is pretty open-ended, so we're able to attract fans from the hip-hop, indie, jazz and blues scenes too. I think we're inspired by things from the past, but want to keep things as new as possible. It's like any other artist - you want to grow and develop, and try new things to keep yourself intrigued. DJ Shadow is a good example. He gained early notoriety with the drum-heavy compositions and moody samples, but his later stuff showed growth away from that template. We're going to take our time as well, working out our sound as we move forward with recording." - Xpress Ottawa

HEAR THEM ROAR
Get excited for 11:44 — it’s the debut album from Sound of Lions, an Ottawa trip-hop band led by Whitney Delion. Her honey tones and melancholic musings form the basis of the songs that are time-stamped with a surging urgency that’s pretty irresistible.

The band’s Centretown-soul tunes are hip-shaking good with a late-night mood, thanks to beatman Christian Awad’s cinematic samples. Capsule, It Was Good, and The Hunter are standout tunes amongst the ten tracks. Be at the CD release show and get lost in the sounds — a guaranteed good time. - Ottawa Magazine - Sound Seekers

HEAR THEM ROAR
Get excited for 11:44 — it’s the debut album from Sound of Lions, an Ottawa trip-hop band led by Whitney Delion. Her honey tones and melancholic musings form the basis of the songs that are time-stamped with a surging urgency that’s pretty irresistible.

The band’s Centretown-soul tunes are hip-shaking good with a late-night mood, thanks to beatman Christian Awad’s cinematic samples. Capsule, It Was Good, and The Hunter are standout tunes amongst the ten tracks. Be at the CD release show and get lost in the sounds — a guaranteed good time. - Ottawa Magazine - Sound Seekers

The five-piece band revives ’90s trip-hop with honey-toned front woman Whitney Delion parsing tangled inner conflict to a sweet mesh of beats, bass, record scratching, and vintage samples. They know their history too. Their tune “Passive Attack” is a winking nod to the genre’s grand masters. - Ottawa Magazine

The five-piece band revives ’90s trip-hop with honey-toned front woman Whitney Delion parsing tangled inner conflict to a sweet mesh of beats, bass, record scratching, and vintage samples. They know their history too. Their tune “Passive Attack” is a winking nod to the genre’s grand masters. - Ottawa Magazine

Tonight, Sound of Lions is inauguring Après Dark - a series of live music events supporting Ottawa’s emerging musicians and other cutting-edge acts. The Shenkman Arts Centre’s black box studio will be transformed into a nightclub to play host to the event. I caught up with Sound of Lions lead singer, Whitney Delion and DJ/producer Christian Awad on the eve of Après Dark.

Apt613: You’ve been described as Ottawa’s best trip hop band and I thought trip hop was dead… Little did I know. How did you fall into the genre?

Whitney Delion: It happened completely naturally. The band began with Christian and myself; we started making music that shared the mood and drive of a classic trip hop song and added our own spin to it. Once the other band members joined, the music took its own path. It helped that we all have similar taste in music and knew what kind of ‘feel’ we wanted to achieve.

Apt613: You’ve been around the Ottawa music scene for a few years now – but various members are involved in other projects - that’s correct? What’s everyone’s background?

Whitney: Christian rapped and produced beats in Toronto (Harbon Flux). Him and I began playing in a four-piece hip-hop group together (VBF) before starting Sound of Lions. Marco’s played drums for a bunch of punk/rock bands (Uninspired Empire, Q Public), Joel has been in some really cool bands. Now he plays bass with us and Old Crowns. Will was always involved with music. He has played in various indie/rock groups and is a certified sound engineer (Oceans,Tara).

We have a good amount of breadth in our repertoire. Everyone is able to draw from their experiences from previous bands. It definitely helps us create a unique sound.

Apt613: Can you tell us a bit about the recent release of your latest album 11:44? What’s been the process for the creation 11:44? Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind it?

Christian Awad: The album was released on Sept 24th. We’ve been getting a great response so far. The music itself is pretty raw and honest. The album features 10 tracks. No secret song. 11:44 took about a year to write, and for me, it represents our experiences. My biggest inspiration is the fans.

We worked with Jay Fee, who co-produce and mix the record. Amazing sound engineer, Jay perfected the style we were going for. He is always very pro and real easy to work with. The album was mastered by Phil Demetro for Lacquer Channel Mastering – a lucky match that put the finishing touches on the whole project.

Originally, we never set out to record an album as soon as we did. After playing a few shows and getting incredible feedback and support from our fans, it just made sense.

Apt613: There’s been quite a bit of buzz around you guys for the last few months. When Apt613 did a quick twitter poll of what Ottawa bands should be nominated for Polaris next year, Sound of Lions came up a couple of times. Do you see that as pressure, is it something you thrive on?

Whitney: We certainly don’t see it as pressure, but rather as support from our city/community. We’re going to take our music as far as we can. If we have an audience, we don’t ever want to stop making and playing music.

Apt613: You’re playing the inaugural Après Noir show at the Shenkman Arts Centre. How does it feel?

Christian: It’s great! I think it is very important to be involved in the local scene. The Shenkman Arts Centre is doing really good things for the city of Ottawa and its arts community.

Apt613: Orleans is an old part of the city but still sometimes gets a bad wrap. Do any of you have particular connections to Orleans? You think it’s important to spread the music scene to beyond downtown?

Christian: Joel, our bassist, grew up in Orleans. He’s beyond excited about playing for the community he grew up in. It’s good to see things happening outside of the downtown area. It’s a great opportunity to reach a new crowd with our music. The folks at Shenkman have done a great job promoting the arts and we are honoured to be a part of it.

Apt613: Can you give us any insights on the “interactive” components of the evening’s show?

Whitney: The show is taking place in the Richcraft Theatre at the Shenkman Arts Centre. It will be set up more like a lounge than a theatre. Before we perform we will be interviewed by Adam Saikaley (CBC Radio) as well as answering some questions from the audience. This is a new format for us, so we’re not sure what to expect! - Apartment 613

In general, I haven't really missed promoting shows since I stopped putting them on last December. That said, every so often I've heard very good Ottawa bands -- Zoo Legacy and Birthday Girls spring to mind immediately -- who've made me...well, they quite haven't made me have second thoughts about my decision to get out of promoting, but they have made me think about how much fun it would be to build a line-up around their sounds, largely because this city has so few other bands inhabiting the same sonic space.

All that, of course, is preamble to saying that, judging from debut 11:44, Sound of Lions fall into the same category of "so awesome that they make me wish I was still promoting shows". They make no effort to hide their influences -- basically, Portishead with a side of hip-hop added for good measure -- but the results are uniformly spectacular, to the point that they're able to make you completely forget that genre hasn't sounded new in well over a decade.

Credit for the band's ability to make their brand of trip-hop sound fresh and new should undoubtedly be spread to the whole band. Frontwoman Whitney Delion has an outstanding voice, to be sure, but, as songs like "Capsule", "It Was Good" and "Enders" show, she's got quite a bit of support -- not only from Christian Awad's beats, but also from a backing band (featuring members of Old Crowns and Oceans) that knows how to make music that perfectly compliments the vocals, the beats and the overall aesthetic.

Ultimately, I have to go back to what I wrote a few months ago about Zoo Legacy: Sound of Lions sound so cool that it's hard to believe they come from Ottawa. Then again, going by 11:44 (which gets its official release tomorrow night at Zaphod's), I have a feeling it won't be long until they belong to the rest of the world.
- iheartmusic.net