Sylvie & Leah Senior

Name: Sylvie & Leah Senior
Start: 2025-10-24T18:30:00+10:00
End: 2025-10-24T18:30:00+10:00
Location: Valla Public Hall

About

Presented by Jet Black Cat Music & Archive

Sylvie is the nostalgia-laced project of SoCal musician Ben Schwab. Born from a box of forgotten tapes recorded by his father’s '70s band, Sylvie channels the golden tones of Laurel Canyon into timeless, harmony-rich songs.

Australian-based folk diviner Leah Senior silences audiences with vivid lyricism and a voice that soars with a disarmingly honest Sandy Denny-like clarity. Leah effortlessly weaves together spring-time baroque pop playfulness with a fragile blend of bedroom folk.

SYLVIE (USA)

Named for a song by British folk-rockers Matthews Southern Comfort, Sylvie is the nostalgia-steeped collaborative project of SoCal native Ben Schwab (Golden Daze, Drugdealer). Reminiscent of the amber-hued sounds of the Laurel Canyon scene, the project and its 2022 eponymous debut album were inspired by Schwab coming across a box of tapes that had been recorded by his father's band in the 1970s.

In 1975, John Schwab and his band “Mad Anthony” sat in a barn in Southern California and recorded their songs. It was a narrative that was common during this period - the band was close to a record deal but it never came, and the tapes were stored in a box in a closet. Decades later, in a small town in Ohio, his son Ben Schwab came across them. The recordings would imprint a sound and feeling that he would end up chasing. They were timeless, effortless, and soulful. A harmonic birthright.

LEAH SENIOR

Australian-based folk diviner Leah Senior silences audiences with vivid lyricism and a voice that soars with a disarmingly honest Sandy Denny-like clarity. Leah effortlessly weaves together spring-time baroque pop playfulness with a fragile blend of bedroom folk. Her fourth album The Music That I Make (2023, Poison City Records) reveals Leah at her most intimate, her songs a cycle of vulnerable meditations on what it means to create. The Music That I Make transports the listener to her sandstone shack in Anglesea, where autumnal British folk meets rain streaked AM radio.

Leah’s previous three albums The Passing Scene, Pretty Faces and Summer’s On The Ground were released through Flightless Records. A chance late night encounter with King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard saw Leah Senior joining their independent label Flightless. In 2022 Leah and her band joined King Gizzard on a national tour of USA/Canada, performing at iconic venues including Red Rocks and Berkeley Theatre.

Leah Senior’s captivating live performances have seen her supporting international artists including Jessica Pratt, Jeff Tweedy and Bedouine and performing at festivals such as Levitation, Desert Daze, Port Fairy Folk Festival and Golden Plains