Sonia Jill Kreitzer (born September 19, 1984), known by her stage name Doe Paoro, is an American singer-songwriter based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States, whose ethereal sound blends elements of

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken ...

soul The soul is the purported Mind–body dualism, immaterial aspect or essence of a Outline of life forms, living being. It is typically believed to be Immortality, immortal and to exist apart from the material world. The three main theories that ...

, and R&B and bears strong influence of

Lhamo Lhamo (), or Ache Lhamo, is a classical secular theatre of Tibet with music and dance that has been performed for centuries, whose nearest western equivalent is opera. Performances have a narrative and simple dialogue interspersed with comedy ...

, a vocally acrobatic, centuries-old Tibetan folk opera tradition.Weingarten, Christophe
"Download: Doe Paoro's Untethered, Spectral Born Whole"
''The Village Voice'', 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2012-11-04. Her debut album, ''Slow to Love'', which Paoro composed while isolated in a cabin near her hometown of

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. With a population of 148,620 and a Syracuse metropolitan area, metropolitan area of 662,057, it is the fifth-most populated city and 13 ...

, was released on February 14, 2012.Bradford, Mark
"Doe Paoro"
, ''The Recommender'', 2012-02-11. Retrieved 2012-11-04. She was named an artist to watch by

Stereogum ''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine. ''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several awar ...

shortly thereafter.Singh, Amri
"Band to Watch: Doe Paoro"
''Stereogum'', 2012-02-15. Retrieved 2012-11-04. Her second album, ''After'', was released through

ANTI- Anti- is an American record label founded in 1999 as a sister label to Epitaph Records. Founded by Andy Kaulkin, Anti- first gained attention by releasing Tom Waits's Grammy Award–winning '' Mule Variations'' in 1999. Other veteran recordin ...

on September 25, 2015, to critical acclaim.

Career

A self-taught pianist and vocalist, Paoro trained in

while traveling alone through the Himalayas. During this period, she also spent several weeks practicing silent meditation, which allowed her to reflect on the "space between silence and sound." Her cover of Baltimore

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s ...

band

Future Islands Future Islands is an American synth-pop band based in Baltimore, Maryland, comprising Gerrit Welmers (keyboards and programming), William Cashion (bass, acoustic and electric guitars), Samuel T. Herring (lyrics and vocals), and Michael Lowry (pe ...

' "Little Dreamer" was released in December 2011; original singles "Can't Leave You" and "Born Whole" followed in January 2012. In 2013, Paoro released two songs on a 7" through White Iris Records. Paoro has performed at

Bonnaroo Bonnaroo (or Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival) is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Bonnaroo has taken place at what is now Great Stage Park, a 700-acre (280 ha) far ...

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

Osheaga The Osheaga Music and Arts Festival () is a multi-day music festival in Montreal, Quebec, that is held every summer at Parc Jean-Drapeau on Île Sainte-Hélène. The festival takes place on six stages with various audience capacities. Translated ...

, and

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...

, as well as numerous venues throughout the U.S., She often opens her live performances with an

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

Tibetan prayer, and credits Vipassanā meditation with having a strong influence over the themes explored in her work, which include attachment, detachment, compassion, and disconnection from the human experience. "Hypotheticals", Paoro's first track released through

, was featured on Season 4 of ''

Girls A girl is a young female human, usually a child or an adolescent. While the term ''girl'' has other meanings, including ''young woman'',Dictionary.com, "Girl"'' Retrieved January 2, 2008. ''daughter'' or ''girlfriend'' regardless of age, ...

''.

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

All Songs Considered ''All Songs Considered'' is a weekly online podcast and radio program hosted by Robin Hilton. It was created in January 2000 by NPR's ''All Things Considered'' then-director Bob Boilen and produced by Robin Hilton beginning in 2001. At first, ...

listed Paoro on their Six Musical Discoveries You Can't Miss list. She has been compared to

Fiona Apple Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart (born September 13, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. She released five albums from 1996 to 2020, all of which reached the top 20 on the U.S. Billboard 200, ''Billboard'' 200 chart. As of 2021, she has sold over ...

, James Blake,

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (; born 5 May 1988) is an English singer-songwriter. Regarded as a British cultural icon, icon, she is known for her mezzo-soprano vocals and sentimental songwriting. List of awards and nominations received by Adele, ...

, and

Lykke Li Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson (born 18 March 1986), known as Lykke Li (), is a Swedish singer, songwriter, model and actress. Her music often blends elements of indie pop, dream pop and Electronic music, electronic. Her debut studio album, ''Youth ...

, among others.

2018–present: ''Soft Power''

On 19October 2018, Paoro released her third studio album, ''Soft Power''. The album was crafted in London with producer

Jimmy Hogarth James Dearness Hogarth (born September 1974) is a London-based producer and songwriter, whose production and writing credits include, Anohni, Amy Winehouse, Sia, Tom Grennan, Paolo Nutini, Duffy, Corinne Bailey Rae, Ren Harvieu, Estelle, T ...

and features

Leo Abrahams Leo Matthew Abrahams (born 28 November 1977) is an English musician, composer and producer. He has collaborated with Brian Eno, Katie Melua, Imogen Heap, Jarvis Cocker, Carl Barât, Regina Spektor, Jon Hopkins and Paul Simon. After attending th ...

on guitar. The record was recorded live to tape and is an exploration of power dynamics.

Voice

Paoro possesses the vocal range of a

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Paoro, Doe 1984 births Living people 21st-century American women singers American women pop singers American women singer-songwriters American indie pop musicians American indie rock musicians American contraltos People from Fayetteville, New York Fayetteville-Manlius High School alumni 21st-century American singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from New York (state) Anti- (record label) artists