"I don't approach music as entertainment," declares Trixie Whitley. "I approach it as something that feeds your soul."

For the 23-year-old artist, music is a life force. It's as essential as air or water. She lived with it for long before she became the voice of Daniel Lanois's Black Dub. It's a part of her very genetic makeup. While spending her first life years in New York City, the first time that Whitley got on stage was at three-years-old, joining her father singer- songwriter Chris Whitley in front of a small arena in Germany. That experience proved seminal.

When she moved to Europe as a child and with the encouragement of her mother, the Belgian-born Whitley joined several theater and dance companies at 11
(Kopergieterij, Victoria, Les Ballets C de la B). They recognized something special inside of Whitley and brought her on the road for four years playing drums, singing, acting and dancing and consequently providing the roots for her own creative expression. Eventually, with an urge for normalcy, she moved back to New York and spent her late teen years working in the city as a waitress with music waiting in the wings. She didn't want to simply follow in her father's footsteps;
she wanted to carve her own path. Serendipity led her back to song though. Soon enough she crossed paths and had opportunities to work with musical greats as Meshell Ndegeocello, Marc Ribot, Robert Plant and Brian Blade to name just a few..

Connecting with Grammy Award winning legendary songwriter and producer Daniel Lanois (U2, Bob Dylan, Neil Young) when he began Black Dub, Whitley formally embraced her talents. She served as the voice for Black Dub's critically acclaimed 2010 self-titled debut, and her sultry pipes, vital musicality and raw charisma and have made believers of fans everywhere. The world got their introduction to Whitley via Black Dub.

In her own music, Whitley pulls from a myriad of influences and styles to express what's inside of her. The result is a primal, poetic, and powerful sound. Her voice crescendos from elegant to emotive, brandishing a raw energy that's entrancing and highly contagious. There are references to the R&B greats she grew up listening to like Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye and Nina Simone but they are fused with the youthful, nearly punkish conviction of PJ Harvey or Catpower.

"I'm a searcher," she reveals. "I'm really interested in innovation and expressionism. Throughout life, I've learned to trust my instincts. A lot of my music is driven by my gut, which obviously makes it very emotional. I'm not hiding anything; this music is who I am and my motive for creating." Whitley recently entered the studio to begin work on her debut solo album. It is the album she’s both passionately and patiently been waiting to make.

Living and traveling all over the world colors her sound. She reveals, "Traveling so much has been a very distinctive part of my style. On the record, I'm embracing this very eclectic sound influenced by so many places. I grew up listening to a lot of world music. My inspiration for writing is being on the road and traveling. I'm always looking for home, but I never really know where it is. That's all in my music."

Along the way, Whitley continues to impress. Venus Magazine lauds her "rustically magnetic vocals that would make Etta James blush." Meanwhile, The New York Times called her "a gutsy soul singer" with "an attack that can hint at Janis Joplin."

She's most at home behind a mic. That's precisely why Lanois chose her as the mouthpiece for Black Dub. "When I first stepped into Black Dub, I embraced it as an enormous learning experience," continues Whitley. "I
absorbed so much of it. Aside from the musical education, there was an intense psychological process that came along with it. My forthcoming solo record represents where I come from in a songwriting aspect and my musical identity within this chapter of my jouney". (Pressetext)