Carmen Villain

The project of half-Norwegian, half-Mexican singer/songwriter Carmen Hillestad, Carmen Villain makes ethereal yet challenging music that boasts an eclectic array of influences ranging from Sun City Girls and Sonic Youth to Broadcast and This Heat. Also a model who has graced the cover of Vogue, among other assignments, Hillestad penned the lyrics to her songs in years' worth of notebooks, inspired by writers such as Charles Bukowski and Mikhail Bulgakov. Meanwhile, she had also been playing with loops, vocals, and drum programming. Enlisting the help of Serena Maneesh's Emil Nikolaisen and Prins Thomas as co-producers, Hillestad recorded Carmen Villain's debut album at studios including Oslo's CSX Dungeon, playing guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, and drum machines during the sessions. The results, Sleeper, arrived in early 2013 on Smalltown Supersound.