Known for her distinct voice and reggae-inspired guitar technique, Austin native Suzanna Choffel's music has been described as "a unique sound equal parts Beat poetry, smoky soul grooves and indie-pop eccentricity." (Jim Derogatis). Having made appearances at ACL Music Fest, SXSW, Voodoo Fest, as well as on screen in movies like "Catfish" and NBC's The Voice (earning singular praise from Rolling Stone as "the only artist you'd want to listen to a complete album from"), Choffel feels equally at home singing in a dimly lit club as she does front and center in front of (literally) millions.

Over the course of her two decade career Choffel has shared the stage with a diverse array of artists like Buena Vista Social Club, Suzanne Vega, Crystal Gayle, Solange, Carrie Rodriguez, Davíd Garza and many others. As a songwriter she has won multiple awards in both the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and the International Songwriting Contest and her albums have appeared on top 10 lists across Texas.

Choffel was born and raised in Austin and cut her teeth as a teenager singing in beloved hometown haunts like Saxon Pub and Broken Spoke. She moved away to Santa Fe to study music at a small “hippie college” as she likes to call it, improving her guitar & songwriting chops, moved back to Austin & recorded her first album Shudders & Rings and hit the clubs hard, developing a following at places like Momo’s, Strange Brew, (both have closed) and Cactus Cafe. She started to appear on many “one to watch” lists in Austin & in 2009 won Best Indie Band at Austin Music Awards.

Since that time life has had huge changes for her; she did a short stint on reality tv (NBC’s The Voice), moved to New York, toured in France, gave birth to two daughters, recorded & released two more albums, toured internationally and became a radio personality/DJ on Austin’s Sun Radio (100.1FM). Her unique “radio” voice landed her a gig as the voice of Whataburger in 2023.

Choffel released her fourth studio album Bird by Bird on Sept 27th, 2024. Choffel teamed up with Grammy-winning producer Davíd Garza for Bird by Bird, which was recorded in both Los Angeles and the Sonic Ranch studio complex outside of El Paso. The album does keep its Austin bona fides: Adrian Quesada, of the Black Pumas and Grupo Fantasma, and fiddle phenoms Carrie Rodriguez and Warren Hood play on the album.

bird x bird Press release (Sept 2024)

AUSTIN, Texas – As Suzanna Choffel sits outside a coffee shop to discuss her fourth album, a grackle flits underneath the table. The presence of Austin’s most ubiquitous bird barely registers until she mentions that avian creatures have become “kind of my spirit animal” and a theme of sorts in her life—a point affirmed by the album’s title: Bird by Bird - out on September 27 (pre-save link)

The title is from a song inspired by the legendary Anne Lamott guide to creative writing. In it, Lamott recounts a childhood memory of her brother panicking because he hadn’t even started a paper about birds that was due the next day. Their father calmed him, advising, “Just take it bird by bird.”

For Choffel, the idea of facing potentially overwhelming situations by breaking them into smaller parts resonated on many levels, from addressing anxiety to recording her album. Not only was this one created in sections, she explains, “It also felt like putting pieces of me into a collection that paints the picture of my life these past six or seven years.”

When she recorded her last album, Hello Goodbye, Choffel was pregnant with her first daughter. Now a mother of two, she’s viewing life from the perspective of someone dealing with the ups and downs of parenthood, a long-term partnership and a post-pandemic world, not to mention her music career and radio DJ job.

She knew she needed to step away from her daily routine to get in the zone for this one. She also wanted to work with producer and longtime friend David Garza, who had just become a father and was staying close to home in L.A. She booked a flight; he called drummer Amy Wood and bassist Sebastian Steinberg, his co-producers with Fiona Apple on her Grammy-winning album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters.

On Bird By Bird, Choffel finds a noirish sweet spot and hits a new creative peak, segueing from tunes reflecting her love of ’80s pop to smoky jazz grooves on which she channels her inner Peggy Lee. “I believe she is truly the voice of Austin,” Garza gushed in a recent interview. “I hope that with this album, folks worldwide will get hip to her artistry.”

Choffel already had a reputation as a singer-songwriter and performer who glides among genres, eagerly exploring too many influences to fit neatly into any category. Bob Marley, Lauryn Hill and Mary J. Blige are significant inspirations, along with hooky, Madonna-ish dance-pop, Brazilian music, Stevie Wonder and her Mexican heritage. Performing professionally since she was 14, Choffel has won several national songwriting competitions and earned a 2009 Austin Music Award for Best Indie Band, prompting her to muse, “Maybe it actually means ‘independent of genre.’”

Bird by Bird highlights include “Summer in the City,” on which her breathy alto, fanned by Elias Haslinger’s slinky sax, builds from smoldering embers to a barn-burning flame, and “New York,” her “Fever”-pitched Big Apple love note. Evoking images of a chanteuse in elbow-length gloves working the crowd in a dimly lit jazz club (or on Broadway), it could become another classic ode to the city she inhabited for three years after her season three stint on The Voice (about which then-Rolling Stone writer Jessica Hopper said, “[she’s] one of the only singers on anyone's team … who had the sort of voice you'd want to listen to for an entire album”).

She notes that her writing was more declarative in the past, stating, “This is how it is.” Now, she’s asking, “How Do I Make You Feel” and “What Do You Want from Me.” In the former, a quietly powerful song of longing almost belied by its sweet, sensual melody, she wants to know, “How do I make you feel what I want you to feel?”

“This album is so much about just wanting to connect,” she says. “It’s for people who yearn to be seen, held, heard, touched.”

But she also examines a particularly searing example of social injustice there’s simply no way to fix: the killing of Breonna Taylor, shot in her sleep by police who stormed the wrong apartment. “‘Fast Asleep (Breonna)’ is the most specific song I've ever written,” Choffel says. “It originally was a folk song, but Davíd encouraged me to explore more of a gospel/Nina Simone approach.” Moody and forceful, with percolating percussion and Adrian Quesada’s haunting guitar, it notes the irony that the future EMT, had she lived, might have responded to similar situations—and saved others’ lives.

That pain is tempered by hints of hope in “Little By Little” and especially “Bird by Bird”—which floats on a reggae vibe and tropicalia lilt. Choffel wrote it for her stepdaughter, who was struggling with depression and anxiety at the time. “Bird by bird and stone by stone,” she sings, “we can piece this world together / you don’t have to be alone.”

After cutting essential tracks in L.A., Choffel and Garza moved to the famed Sonic Ranch in West Texas—where she’d long dreamed of working, and he could perform his annual music festival gig nearby. Guest contributions (including violin by Warren Hood and Carrie Rodriguez) were recorded at Austin’s Cedar Creek Studio.

As she’s done in every stage of her career, Choffel continues to evolve. With Bird By Bird, she’s stretching her wings — and soaring to fascinating new heights.

-Lynne Margolis-