Rebekah Higgs Walks In The Woods With Bunnies And Ballons

HALIFAX — Rebekah Higgs modestly released her self-titled album at the start of the last school year. Since then, the wide-eyed 25 year old has performed in sold-out venues, toured like mad and got in cahoots with Labwork Music.

"I am constantly encouraged by the response from people at my shows," says Higgs. "I've noticed a huge change in the crowd response in Halifax.

"Last week 250 people crammed into Gus' Pub for my birthday show. It felt like such a community event."

Higgs is a musical chameleon. When she's not drawing listeners in with her dreamy, diary-like music, she's fronting an experimental trip-hop project under the alias Ruby Jean And The Thoughtful Bees. While she lends her ethereal vocals and tends to the Bees, Colin Crowell and AA Wallace (The Sleepless Nights) work on production and instrumentation, Sean McGillivary (Great Plains, Jenn Grant And The Night Painters) sits in on drums and Jason Vautour plays guitar.

According to Higgs, there's a division between fans of the solo material and of her more expressive, dancefloor-flooding Ruby Jean alter-ego, which was coined after her grandmother.

"We have yet to release the Ruby Jean record or tour with the Thoughtful Bees, so there's not much of a juggling act. I find that people either gravitate to my solo stuff or the Ruby Jean work. Some people just don't get it."

Prior to Higgs' departure date for an extensive five-week long, cross-Canada tour, the seemingly hyperactive spitfire sat down for a costume fitting for an upcoming video shoot for her single "Winding Watch," an orchestral lullaby filled with sparkling accents, building drums and splashes of bells — all rounded off by an earful of triumphant trumpets.

"I met with director Andrew Hines, who came up with the concept for the video," Higgs says. "I'll be walking through the woods in white carrying balloons.

"An animation company in Toronto is working on the animated animals and butterflies. Verve Muendo Dance Troop here in Halifax are working on a dance sequence for mid-song when the bunnies in the woods come to life."

With all of this whimsy and wonderment spiralling around the pop songstress, she admits that there's a downside to her burgeoning stardom: her heart.

"The hardest part of touring is being away from home, and having a normal dating life is pretty much impossible. I have that unlucky in love syndrome, big time. I am never in one place long enough to really start something of substance. Plus, I'm a loose cannon most of the time, so it takes a strong man to be able to put up with me."

Check out Higgs in these cities:

June 1 Quebec City, QC @ Theatre Premiere Acte
June 3 Montreal, QC @ The Green Room
June 4 Ottawa, ON @ Zaphod Beeblebrox
June 5 Toronto, ON @ Supermarket
June 6 Windsor, ON @ Phog Lounge
June 7 Toronto, ON @ Sneaky Dee's
June 7 Hamilton, ON @ Casbah
June 8 London, ON @ Alex P. Keaton
June 9 Guelph, ON @ Jimmy Jazz
June 11 Hamilton, ON @ Pepper Jacks Cafe
June 12 Sault Ste. Marie, ON @ Loplops
June 13 Thunder Bay, ON @ The Apollo
June 14 Winnipeg, MB @ The Royal Albert Arms
June 15 Saskatoon, SK @ Amigos
June 16 Canmore, AB @ Canmore Hotel
June 17 Lethbridge, AB @ The Slice
June 18 Calgary, AB @ The Hi Fi Club
June 20 Kelowna, BC @ Habitat
June 21 Nanaimo, BC @ The Queens
June 22 Victoria, BC @ Logan's
June 23 Vancouver, BC @ Cafe Deux Soleil
June 24 Vancouver, BC @ Railway Club
June 26-27 Banff, BC @ Rose And Crown
June 28 Calgary, AB @ Grand Theatre
June 29 Regina, SK @ O'Hanlon's
June 30 Thunder Bay, ON @ Apollo's
July 1 Wawa, ON @ Naturally Superior Adventures
July 3 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
July 4 Ottawa, ON @ TBA
July 5 Montreal, QC @ TBA
July 6 Fredericton, NB @ The Capital
July 7 Liverpool, NS @ The Astor Theatre