Little Scream is the stage name of American-born,

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumental musician and artist Laurel Sprengelmeyer. Her debut album '' The Golden Record'' was released on

Outside Music Outside Music is a Canadian record label and distributor founded by Lloyd Nishimura in 2001. In 2007, it expanded to include an artist management division which includes Jill Barber, Matthew Barber, Aidan Knight, Justin Rutledge as management ...

in Canada and

Secretly Canadian Secretly Canadian is an American independent record label based in Bloomington, Indiana, with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Berlin. Secretly Canadian is a label included in Secretly Group, which ...

elsewhere on March 15, 2011. Her musical style has been described as a blend of

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fo ...

, pop and art rock. Laurel Sprengelmeyer was born in

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

, where she studied

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

as a child. After moving to Montreal, she connected with well-known Canadian musicians, including some from

Arcade Fire Arcade Fire is a Canadian indie rock band, consisting of husband and wife Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, alongside Richard Reed Parry, Tim Kingsbury and Jeremy Gara. The band's current touring line-up also includes former core member ...

, Thee Silver Mt. Zion and The National, who would later collaborate on her debut album. Little Scream is also a visual artist, using her own oil painting on the cover of ''The Golden Record''. ''The Golden Record'' was co-produced by Arcade Fire's Richard Parry and received a

2011 Polaris Music Prize The 2011 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 19, 2011

longlist nomination. Little Scream appeared in the 2011 lineup of the MusicNOW Festival. Prior to her solo recording as Little Scream, Laurel Sprengelmeyer contributed vocals to The National's album ''

High Violet ''High Violet'' is the fifth studio album by The National, which was released on May 10, 2010 in Europe and on May 11, 2010 in North America via 4AD. The band produced the album themselves, assisted by Peter Katis with whom they worked on their ...

''. In January 2016, Little Scream joined

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

and

Dine Alone Records Dine Alone Records is a Canadian and American independent record label, founded in St. Catharines and Toronto by Joel Carriere. The label is now based in Toronto, Nashville and Los Angeles. History Dine Alone was born out of founder Joel Car ...

(Canada) and announced an LP to be released later in the year. The first single, "Love as a Weapon," premiered on February 10, 2016, and the album Cult Following was released on May 6, 2016. Little Scream is one of the featured artists on the upcoming Red Hot Organization compilation album

Day of the Dead The Day of the Dead ( es, Día de Muertos or ''Día de los Muertos'') is a holiday traditionally celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31 or November 6, may be included depending on the locality. It is widely obser ...

produced by

Aaron and Bryce Dessner The National is an American rock band of Cincinnati, Ohio natives, formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 1999. The band consists of Matt Berninger (vocals), twin brothers Aaron Dessner (guitar, piano, keyboards) and Bryce Dessner (guitar, piano, ...

of The National, covering Grateful Dead's Brokedown Palace alongside Richard Reed Parry of

Caroline Shaw Caroline Adelaide Shaw (born August 1, 1982) is an American composer, violinist, and singer. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for her a cappella piece '' Partita for 8 Voices'' and the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Contemporar ...

, and

Garth Hudson Eric "Garth" Hudson (born August 2, 1937) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a ...

Discography

Studio albums

* '' The Golden Record'' (2011) * '' Cult Following'' (2016) * '' Speed Queen'' (2019)

References

Living people Canadian indie rock musicians Musicians from Montreal Musicians from Iowa Year of birth missing (living people) Merge Records artists Parry family (Canada) Secretly Canadian artists Dine Alone Records artists {{Canada-singer-stub