Veda Hille

Veda Hille Independent musician and in-house composer for Vancouver’s Theatre Replacement vedahille.com

What’s on your iPod?

Well, gosh, a lot of stuff. Just looking randomly at the N section here: Neutral Milk Hotel, Neil Young, Nico, No Kids, Nat King Cole...

Cutting-edge or cacophony?

I have both those things, yes.

Guilty pleasure time: If we jacked into your shuffle, we’d be surprised to hear…

I try hard not to feel guilty about music. There are so many other guilts. But surprising? How about Twiggy? That surprised me the other day. I still don’t know everything that’s on that damn machine.

Your favourite song of all time is…

my favourites change all the time. Lately I’m obsessed with the song “Myriad Harbour” by Dan Bejar/The New Pornographers.

You wouldn’t be caught dead listening to…

Howard Stern. Best music for working up a sweat (at the gym or otherwise)? I just figured out how to make a playlist on my iPod, and I’m totally excited about my “gym bunny” mix. It’s got Le Tigre, the Streets, the Kinks, Gwen Stefani, Elvis Costello, Belle and Sebastian, the Go-Go’s... I love it. Of course, if we’re talking about sexy sweat, I’ll always go for Nick Cave: darker, slower, and fairly kinky. Rrrrrrr.

Music that brings back the most wonderful memories?

My husband Justin and his friend Randy deejay at our parties, and those are some of the best times I’ve ever had, dancing with my friends to “Surrender” by Cheap Trick, “Hey Ya” by Outkast, “I Will Survive” (the Cake version), and all the Prince songs. Heaven.

If you could hang out with any musician—living or dead— who would it be?

Judee Sill.

Who is your favourite Canadian band?

Again, I shy away from favourites. I love Christine Fellows, Ida Nilsen, John Southworth, Kim Barlow, Final Fantasy, the Hidden Cameras, the Weakerthans, the Rheostatics... a long list.

What was the last live music event you attended?

I just finished a tour with my band, and on our day off in Berlin we got to go see my husband’s band, No Kids, playing with Why? and Mount Eerie at the Volksbühne [theatre]. Oh, and then on another day off we saw a beautiful show of Brecht songs in an old room that hadn’t been used since 1943. Gorgeous.

If there were a soundtrack to your life it would be…

hopefully very long and varied.

—Erica Gehrke