SUZANNE NUTTALL

The future is never promised. Suzanne Nuttall creates accordingly: fully present, fully vulnerable, and fully alive in the moment.

For almost four decades, Suzanne has been carving a special path through the Canadian music landscape, moving fluidly through a folk duo, soul-funk collective, queer performance art, multimedia storytelling, independent touring, and emotionally immersive solo performances. Hers is a career defined not only by longevity, but also by reinvention, resilience, artistic fearlessness, and an unshakable belief in the impact of live music in bringing people together.

Born to a francophone mother from rural Quebec and an anglophone father from small-town Ontario, Suzanne grew up between languages, cultures and perspectives. Music was always present in the home. Suzanne comes from a family line of musicians. Her grandfather played the fiddle, and her father played the guitar. Her childhood home was always filled with music; her father played records from the folk revival era, and Harry Belafonte was a household favourite whose behind-the-beat phrasing would quietly shape Suzanne’s own vocal style for years to come. 

As a child, Suzanne instinctively memorized melodies and lyrics after hearing songs only once. But it was hearing Joan Jett’s defiance and Chrissie Hynde’s emotionally raw perspective that sparked what Suzanne now calls her “sonic awakenings.” At a time when female voices were still vastly underrepresented in rock music, she realized songs could carry complexity, sexuality, vulnerability and emotional truth without apology. That realization would become foundational to her songwriting and artistic identity.

There is a queerness woven throughout her work, rooted not only in identity but also in fluidity, perspective, and resistance to rigid definitions of the human condition. Her songs move through a spectrum of emotions, intentionally open enough for audiences to find themselves reflected inside them.

Suzanne first emerged nationally as co-founder of the acclaimed Montreal duo Bare Bones with Patrick Hutchinson, a genre-blending project that fused folk, soul and rock influences during the height of the grunge era. The duo released three albums, toured extensively across Canada from Charlottetown to Whitehorse, performed twice at the renowned Mariposa Folk Festival, earned “Best Unsigned Band” honours from the Montreal Mirror, and opened for numerous celebrated Canadian and international artists such as Johnny Clegg & Savuka, Timbuk 3 and Ani DiFranco, among others.

From the beginning, Suzanne carried enormous creative ambition.

Her move to Toronto opened the door to larger artistic collaborations and an immersion into the city’s queer arts scene. Toronto also gave Suzanne the freedom to live more openly and fully within her identity at a time when queer visibility still carried real vulnerability. Immersing herself in the city’s creative and LGBTQ+ communities allowed both her artistry and sense of self to expand in tandem, deepening the emotional honesty that would become a defining characteristic of her songwriting and live performances.

She founded the six-piece soul-funk band Sue de Nym, releasing the album Fanfaria while becoming known for emotionally charged performances that blended soul, rock, theatricality and storytelling. Suzanne also created and produced celebrated collaborative productions, including Disco Dyke Divas, Princess: The Grrrls Play Prince Live, and Bless Your Purple Heart, bringing together some of Toronto’s strongest queer musicians and performers in bold, community-centred live experiences.

Alongside her music career, Suzanne spent over 30 years working professionally as a video editor. As technology evolved, she merged those visual storytelling instincts into her music career, independently creating and editing many of her own music videos, which screened at more than 20 international film festivals.

But Suzanne’s story is not simply one of creative progression. It is one of resilience.

At 35, she lost her mother suddenly to pancreatic cancer, a devastating loss that permanently altered her relationship with grief, time and mortality. Years later, Suzanne would face her own cancer diagnosis and emerge as a cancer survivor herself. The experience sharpened her perception of presence and deepened the emotional honesty already present throughout her work.

As her career evolved, Suzanne’s understanding of success expanded outside of traditional music industry markers into something more lasting: creating spaces where audiences feel deeply connected, seen, and transformed through live music.

That philosophy came fully into focus during her 2019 cross-Canada Pop-Up Tour. Whether performing in theatres, listening rooms, or unconventional pop-up spaces across Canada, Suzanne creates intimate environments in which vulnerability becomes connection and strangers become community. The experience confirmed her conviction that music can create intimacy and emotional connection anywhere people are willing to gather openly.

Her latest release, Live Without A Net, captures that spirit perfectly. Recorded during the final performance of an eight-city tour, the live album strips everything back to its essence.

A quote from David Bowie has inspired Suzanne in her artistic journey:

“Always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth, and when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting.”

It is a philosophy that is deeply woven into Suzanne’s life and work. Whether stepping onto a stage alone, reinventing herself creatively, or building intimate spaces rooted in honesty and connection, she continues choosing the vulnerable edge where growth, emotion, and transformation live.

Suzanne’s solo performances blend storytelling, humour, looping, and a beatbox. Emotional intimacy and her flair for the theatrical are front and centre, creating experiences that feel like collective emotional journeys. Whether performing in an intimate music venue or on a festival stage, she brings the same emotional intensity, authenticity and connection to every performance.

Audience members often describe her shows as experiences that make them feel seen.

And perhaps that is Suzanne Nuttall’s greatest gift.

Not simply songwriting.
Not simply performance.

But the ability to form spaces where people experience permission to feel.

Now based in Ottawa alongside her partner whom she met through online concerts played during the pandemic, Suzanne continues to evolve creatively while building increasingly powerful experiences for audiences across Canada. More than four decades into her career, she remains a fearless, emotionally compelling artist whose work teaches us that vulnerability is not weakness. It creates connection.

And in Suzanne Nuttall’s world, connection is everything.