Veda Hille (born August 11, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, keyboardist and tenor guitar player from Vancouver, British Columbia. She writes songs about love and tragedy, as well as about topical British Columbia subjects. As well as solo work, she has taken part in many musical collaborations, and has organized two recording projects, Duplex! and The Fits. Early life Hille was born in 1968 in Vancouver, and grew up both there and in nearby Langley. She started playing piano when she was six, at first studying classical music, and later pop music, and jazz. She attended Vancouver Community College, as well art school studying sculpture, film, and performance art. Hille also plays banjo and accordion. Career Hille worked for a year as a lounge musician. She began writing music in 1990, and self-released a cassette, Songs About People and Buildings, in 1992. She started performing locally, and later across Canada. Hille set up her own label, Ball of Flames, and in 1994 released her first CD, Path of a Body with Stephen Nikleva, Steve Lazin, and Martin Walton; next was a pop album, Spine, recorded with various Canadian musicians. By 1997 she had assembled a band and had toured in Canada, the US, and Germany. Two performances in Bremen, Germany were recorded and released in 1997 as Live at Women in (E)Motion. In 1997 Hille began working with Martin Walton (bass, lap steel, ukulele), Ford Pier (guitar, organ, French Horn), Peggy Lee (cello), Barry Mirochnick (drums, xylophone, singing saw, and found instruments), and later Patsy Klein (vocals, flute). The members of this group have performed in many shows and festivals together, and have collaborated on five records. Hille was commissioned by Mascall Dance to create the score for their choreography "The Brutal Telling", about the Canadian painter Emily Carr. All the lyrics were taken from Ms. Carr's journals, letters, and published writings. The songs were released in 1998 as the album Here is a picture (Songs for E Carr). In 1999 Hille, along with Oh Susanna and Kinnie Starr, went out on the "Scrappy Bitches Tour". The same year, she recorded You do not live in this world alone, a collection of fairy tales for adults. Beginning in 2000, Hille began collaborating with Christof Migone, to create a set of sparse computer manipulated songs. The songs were later released in 2004 as the album Escape Songs. In 2000 Hille commissioned