Louise Burns

Louise Burns, a Canadian singer and songwriter based in British Columbia, launched her professional path inside the teenage pop-punk group Lillix before carving out a wide-ranging solo identity across the 2010s that encompassed jangling indie pop, new wave, jazz, country, and vivid synth pop. After the Polaris-nominated Young Mopes LP, she ended the decade by issuing her fourth solo album, the 2019 release Portraits.

She first appeared publicly at age eleven as bassist and vocalist inside the all-female teen pop-punk outfit Lillix; when that band broke apart in the mid-2000s she struck out alone and simultaneously entered the alt-rock trio the Blue Violets. Light Organ Records, the Vancouver imprint, issued her debut solo album Mellow Drama in 2011, a collection that moved through smoky jazz ballads, country laments, and jangly girl-group-inspired pop. Co-produced by the Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner, her 2013 follow-up Midnight Mass drew its propulsion from an affinity for ’80s synth pop. Backed by Ladyhawk’s Darcy Hancock and Ryan Peters, she delivered her third album Young Mopes in 2017; the record earned widespread praise and a long-list nomination for Canada’s Polaris Award. Portraits arrived in 2019 as a concise pop statement centered on the act of recollection and acceptance of earlier chapters.