ZWERG

Artist Information

Biography

Two-time Music New Brunswick Award nominee Eldon Thiele, aka ZWERG, began singing onstage at the tender age of 3, and began studying piano at age 5 under the watchful guidance of his music teacher father. He later attended the prestigious Notre Dame D’Acadie music school, going on to win numerous 1st place awards at The Greater Moncton Music Festival. Much of Thiele’s childhood was spent touring with his family’s singing group The Betts Family. At age 18, Thiele conceived his one-man band ZWERG, which has released 4 CDs to-date, as well as a music video which aired on MuchMoreMusic. His first two releases, Sepsis & To Myopic Mutts, were featured extensively on national radio shows Radiosonic & Brave New Waves, and were well-received by college radio. ZWERG has collaborated with the likes of John Mullane (In-Flight Safety), Rick White & Marc Gaudet (Eric’s Trip/Elevator), Tim Isaac (Isaac & Blewett), Alex Madsen (The Divorcees), Danny & Mike Bourgeois, Robin Anne Ettles (Mel Keith, Sol) and Stacy Ricker (Sol); he has shared the stage with such musical luminaries as Jessica Rhaye, Matt Mays and El Torpedo, and Wintersleep. Thiele has played numerous acclaimed music festivals such as Pop Montreal, The East Coast Music Awards, and Music New Brunswick Week, and is presently recording a Maritime folk-influenced album at his home studio.

Whims 'N' Words (2012)

ZWERG's "Whims 'N' Words" is a post-modern exploration of traditional and contemporary East Coast Canadian music.  The first half of the LP, "Whims", consists of original songs inspired by frontman Eldon Thiele's life and loved ones in the Maritimes provinces, and Newfoundland & Labrador.  The second half of the LP, "Words", consists of well-known East-Coast Canadian covers.  "Words" marks a sojourn back into Atlantic Canadian musical antiquity, beginning in the present with modern pieces by Wintersleep and In-Flight Safety, slowly introducing more traditional musical mainstays, before ending in the deep, dark past with the rich folklore of New Brunswick's legendary "The Dungarvon Whooper".

The album features performances by many of Eastern Canada's most prized musicians, including John Mullane (In-Flight Safety), Tim Isaac (Lovestorm/Isaac & Blewett), Robin Anne Ettles (Sol/Dangerous Parade/Mel Keith & The Strombachs), Dan Bourgeois (The Melanie Morgan Band/Chris Cummings/George Belliveau/Jean-François Breau), Dominique Dupuis, Marc Gaudet (Elevator/Eric's Trip), Jessica Leigh Cook (Jessica Betts), Stacy Ricker (Sol), Mel Keith, Devin Quinn (Feedback Scars), as well as Toronto's Jordan Kern (ARGYLE CLUB/Emm Gryner/ESCALATE!/Yacht Rock), among others.??

On "Words", ZWERG covers songs by East Coast favourites such as Wintersleep, In-Flight Safety, Stevedore Steve, Don Fulford, Donald A. MacLeod, and Cajun artist Zachary Richard.

Instrumental versions of 12 of the songs are also available for digital download.

Album available for purchase at:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/whims-n-words/id507530938
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/zwerg4

Instrumental Versions: http://cdbaby.com/cd/zwerg5

Instrumentation

Eldon Thiele-Vocals, Piano, Keyboards, Programming, Bass, and any random instruments lying around the studio.

Discography

-WHIMS 'N' WORDS (2012)
-PACKAGE UP MY SOUL ep (2010)
-INTO THE 4TH DIMENSION (2007)
-TO STAND, KNEEL dvd single (2005)
-PLAYED WITS (2000)
-TO MYOPIC MUTTS (1998)
-SEPSIS ep (1997)

Links

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Last.fm
• ZWERG Official YouTube

Audio

• Permeate Your World
  Listen  
• New Brunswick
  Listen  
• A Moose Jare
  Listen  
• Leah's Lullaby
  Listen  
• Package Up My Soul
  Listen  
• I Lost A Loved One Too
  Listen  
• Jeddie
  Listen  
• Sunny Brae Babe
  Listen  
• I's The B'y
  Listen  
• Northern Lights Of Labrador
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Package Up My Soul
• Sunny Brae Babe
• Jeddie

Video

ZWERG - To Stand Kneel

Photo Gallery

Press

• Moncton native takes listeners on a spiritual journey [Here Magazine, September 13-19, 2007] [+ Show ]
  

  Zwerg set to release new CD. By Ashley Bursey At first glance, he looks more like a male model t...Zwerg set to release new CD. By Ashley Bursey
  
  At first glance, he looks more like a male model than a psychedelic pop artist, but Jason Betts assures me that’s exactly what he is…and that the kitschy medieval-style photo art from his newest album – under the name Zwerg – was just an “extravagant rock” look – kind of like his tunes.
  “(My music) is just kind of an amalgam of all the styles of music that I like. I’d love to say that it’s really accessible to all people, but a lot of people kind of turn their head and go, ‘huh?’ when they hear it,” he says. “So it’s kind of avant-garde and more European than North American.
  “It’s not as digestible, I don’t think, as modern pop radio music, but it’s a fusion of a lot of genres that people like – dream pop, classical, rock influences, a lot of electronic elements, too. It’s kind of a hodgepodge.”
  This CD, Into the 4th Dimension, is what Betts calls a bit of a spiritual journey, fusing ambient with alternative and easy-on-the-ears crooning.
  “’Into the 4th dimension’ is my term for the spirit world. I just kind of came to the point – we’re all aging, and as we do, it seems more and more people in our lives are passing away,” he explains. “All of a sudden it seemed like more and more people in my life were dying, and I was out on my own in Toronto, and I just felt this need to explore or come to terms with religion, (specifically) the very strict Christian religion I was brought up in.
  Christian, and highly artistic; his father was a music teacher and his mother taught art in Moncton. Betts went to Moncton High; it’s where he got the World of Warcraft-esque getups featured on his Myspace page.
  And music, he says, was always something he sort of fell into. I ask him if he’s a prodigy. For a moment he pauses, speechless for the first time, then: “Um…yeah. I’ve been called that,” he says, slowly. “I never saw myself as a prodigy, because, like I say, music was just a part of life.”
  He remembers going into the Moncton Music Festival expecting to take first prize as a kid…and then the tougher years in Toronto, working to make it as an actor or an artist, when “you’d walk in (to an audition) and there are like 50 other guys with better resumes and who are better looking. It’s so competitive.”
  But after six years in the T-dot, Betts is back in his native Moncton. The CD has been a compilation of the past few years spent as a sort of starving artist in Toronto, saving the cash to buy his own studio equipment, experimenting with music and religion and all sorts of different career paths.
  Being back in Atlantic Canada, he says, is like experiencing an entity all to itself.
  “I never realized what kind of identity we have as Atlantic Provincial Canadians until I got [to Ontario] and people would, of course, always call New Brunswick, Nova Scotia or Newfoundland. They’d ask, ‘wow, what’s it like there? Is it igloos, fishing shacks and stuff?’
  With his typical candor, he adds: “And I would play it up: ‘Let me put it this way: one time a partridge flew into our sliding glass door and we ate it.’ The vegans didn’t like me after that.”
  He’s always been that kid, the curious, fun-loving guy – and it shows in his music.
  “I remember the smell of the 8-track machine, the plastic, it was the most exciting smell in the world,” he says, excited. “You know when you get a smell memory? They take you back to a time in your life you forgot about? I ran around the house listening to the BeeGees in nothing but my training pants with big ol’ 70’s headphones, eating Cheese Nips.”
  Zwerg’s newest album, Into the 4th Dimension, will have its official CD release at the Paramount Lounge in Moncton on September 13. Check out www.myspace.com/zwergband for more details. -h
  
  
  

• Pop: Gonzales, SoCalled, Zwerg [Midnight Poutine, October 3, 2005] [+ Show ]
  

  October 03, 2005 The street outside the Mile End Cultural Centre, aka the Green Room and Main Hal...October 03, 2005
  
  The street outside the Mile End Cultural Centre, aka the Green Room and Main Hall, seemed like a good place to be last night. Up in the Main Hall, the Dr. Noh show was at least an hour behind schedule, and Quadraceptor was on the stage. I could only take him in small doses, although I couldn't help but be impressed - there are only so many huge black dudes in samurai armour who stomp around the stage making shrieking sounds. Meanwhile, one floor below, Zwerg had taken the stage, pancake makeup, waxed chest, pierced nipples, and all. By remaining mainly on the street, I was able to glimpse occasional bits of both shows without being too heavily traumatized.
  
  Anyway, Zwerg. I was standing near the stage (and the door, which was crucial), with Pop Mtl. folks Dounia and Dan Seligman, plus Josh Dolgin (aka SoCalled) and Torq from Stars and his girlfriend. Yeah, check me name-dropping. Everyone but Dan and Dounia had a perplexed expression on their face, due to Zwerg. It's really not something that translates to words very well, and I actually pondered purchasing his DVD to prove what I saw. But then I didn't. So, here goes.
  
  He is, apparently, from Moncton, N.B. He's got streaked, frosted blonde glam hair of the variety that you see in posters in the windows of hair salons that should be avoided. Piercing eyes, a well-sculpted face, and a repertoire of hilarious looks/facial poses straight out of Zoolander. Said looks are produced at various points throughout his songs; he looked down at his Yamaha keyboard (something recent and expensive, it looked like), uttered some lyric, and then looked back up with one of the several different looks, which instantly caused pretty much everyone in the audience to snicker. Holy fuck, man, it was hilarious and creepy. His songs have about 800 different melodies in them, and sound vaguely like the kind of music that weird salesguy from the piano section of a music store would know how to play.
  
  Before leaving, Seligman noted to me that tonight's Gonzales/SoCalled show (and this is basically the only reason I put those names in the title) is supposed to be semi-formal. This strikes me as another one of Seligman's nutty schemes, part of some secret plan of his, the intentions of which wil become apparent later. But maybe I'll wear a suit.
  
  Then Josh Dolgin and I got out of there, finally. We had divised a condition in which if Zwerg did something weird in the current song, we had to stay for the next one, and that forced us to stay for quite some time. In fact, I think we eventually just abandoned that plan. Walking west along St. Viateur, we discussed whether Zwerg was serious or whether it was some Neil-Hamburger-esque deliberate badness. We came to no conclusions. Josh seemed a bit worried about his show tonight. He kept asking me if I knew anyone who could play an oud. I think that's what he said, anyway. But Josh always seems kind of worried. If he wasn't worried, I would be.
  
  
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• Blood runs thicker than musical taste -Siblings record very different discs [The New Brunswick Reader, June 23, 2001] [+ Show ]
  

  The two faces pictured on the albums by Zwerg and Jessica Betts couldn't seem farther apart. Moncton...The two faces pictured on the albums by Zwerg and Jessica Betts couldn't seem farther apart. Moncton's Zwerg, with his spiky green, blue and yellow hair offers up some advanced electronica, while Jessica's self-titled disc is gospel. The link? They're brother and sister. Zwerg, aka Jason Betts has been making keyboard-based programmed music for several years under a few different names, what he accurately describes as "psycho-delic." What I like about it is his cross-generation style; his keyboardistry is based in '80s synth-pop, his mood more in tune with modern techno-philosophers such as Badly Drawn Boy, the lyrics actally meaning something. What he avoids is programming and hi-tech simply for the sake of it, refusing to belong to any electronica genre just because it's cool. The song remains important, and the musical tools are simply what's available to your average one-man band these days.
  How does a gospel singer come out of the same family? No surprise it's a musical one. Dad is one John Betts, whose career has included stints as the educator behind Moncton's school music program, and a city councillor. Jessica's strength is her voice, a soaring enjoyable gospel sound, very modern. She's a bit of a belter, not unlike many of the young women crowding the airwaves, except she's not guilty of oversinging the songs. She just sings them strongly. Her tunes have a pop side, a bit of rhythm and blues. And, as befits such a musical family, she's also writing her own, the praiseful power ballad 'Nailed Sorrow'. And who arranged it and played all the instruments? One Jason Betts.
  Jason is currently recording his fourth CD, but it's his acting that's really catching fire. He just finished a role in the Daniel Baldwin movie 'Irish Eyes', that's being shot in Saint John, and this Sunday, he's moving to Montreal for his next job. He has a principal role in a new TV show called 'University' that's being shot there.
  As for Jessica, she also had two cuts on a compilation CD 'In Jesus Name We Play' which was launched in Charlottetown during the ECMAs. And she'll perform a full-length concert on July 1, 6 p.m. at Camp Wildwood.
  
  --Bob Mersereau is a Fredericton-based freelance writer. He can be reached a kitts@nbnet.nb.ca

• ZWERG 'Played Wits' (Waspy Mic Mac) [Chart Magazine, April 2001] [+ Show ]
  

  Jason Betts displays the kind of uncanny Canadian talent that only gets airplay on late-night CBC ra...Jason Betts displays the kind of uncanny Canadian talent that only gets airplay on late-night CBC radio and campus stations. This is a shame because the Moncton pianist creates alluring pop tunes under the name Zwerg. His latest release, Played Wits, is equal parts quirky new wave and virtuosic piano-pop, riding extended song structures that never sound tired. Betts's neurotic vocal delivery and lyrical profundity bring to mind The The's Matt Johnson, placing him in very fine company. In all, Played Wits is true iconoclastic pop that bridges the gap between the fringe and the mainstream. (Contact: zwerg@nbnet.nb.ca)
  -- DK
  CCCC
  -- Darrin Keene; Chart, Canada's Music Magazine; April, 2001

• Played Wits [The Ryersonian, February 28, 2001] [+ Show ]
  

  Played Wits -> In an industry overun by cookie-cutter pop-rock and one-hit wonders, Played Wits has...Played Wits ->
  In an industry overun by cookie-cutter pop-rock and one-hit wonders, Played Wits has Zwerg's Jason Betts in the catbird seat with a collection of eclectic stylings anything but mainstream. The signature piano arrangements and smooth vocals of the Moncton, New Brunswick native's first two releases are back on Played Wits, but this time accompanied by percussion and computer sequences blipping and whirring or zipping like shooting stars in and out of songs.
  
  The synth on Played Wits is sometimes heavy, but broken up enough between songs so as not to overwhelm the listener who vowed never to experience 80s-style synth at an intoxicating level again.
  
  Betts' lyrics, with mythological ("The Lamia") and fantasy ("Rooty Toot-Shoot") references interspersed, are curiously abstract, making one wonder, "Just what was he whinking about when he put that down?". Then again, part of the intrigue of Played Wits is deciding what the lyrics mean. Ah well, it's all relative, anyway. A standout track is "Just as I am", a traditional 19th centruy piece on which Betts' vocals and piano show up clear and pronounced. Played Wits is that hard-to-come-by kind of music that just may give you what you've been missing.
  -- Laura Pearce, Ryersonian, February 28, 2001

• ZWERG Played Wits [EXCLAIM Magazine, December, 2000] [+ Show ]
  

  While I'm sure many people assume everyone in Moncton must listen to Sonic Youth and play distorted ...While I'm sure many people assume everyone in Moncton must listen to Sonic Youth and play distorted indie-rock, Zwerg proves that there is a lot more going on. Zwerg is the project of a certain Eldon Thiele, aka Jason Betts. On his first full-length album, 'To Myopic Mutts', he enlisted the help of fellow citizen Rick White, of the Eric's Trip/Elevator lineage. Instead of rocking out, this album honed in on his skills as a singer and songwriter, with most of the sound attributed to Betts and his piano. Things take a sharp right turn with 'Played Wits', which features a heavy presence from synthesisers, effects and electronics. If that weren't enough, his smooth voice reminds me of 80's pop star Nick Kershaw. The album's ten tracks are all solid efforts and clock in at longer than average times, which allows Betts the room to explore all the sounds he has in his head. While the goofy programmed nature of this record will be hard for many to swallow, at least it's not predictable. (Waspy Mic Mac, 64 Oakmoor Terrace, Moncton, NB E1G 1T5)
  --Rob Bolton

• To Myopic Mutts [Moncton Times & Transcript, January 7, 1999] [+ Show ]
  

  To Myopic Mutts -> This Moncton band's indie release may not be the future of rock, but its definit...To Myopic Mutts ->
  This Moncton band's indie release may not be the future of rock, but its definitely cutting edge. With their cunningly inventive use of high-brow piano and straight-jacket verbalized pun-and-rhyme lyrics, Zwerg needn't be concerned about competition because they are in a field of their own.
  
  Depending on your medication, the Lewis Carroll cum I Am a Walrus-inspired tale telling is top notch, curdled as it is with grunts, growls and groans, which although they may become a tad predictable mid-way, make for a fascinating collection. Bolstering this is the varied instrumental bits, as becautiful piano pieces as they come. Though it's quite obvious Betts is striving to reach a surrealist level with his combo of talented key-plunking and knack for turning a worth phrase, what really makes To Myopic Mutts work is the schizophrenic feeling to it all, you can read the lyrics, ignore the music and have a great laugh, or you can ignore the lyrics and enjoy some fine arranging. Whether or not this makes waves in Moncton isn't of concern. That it is available and offered presently without corporate backing, is.
  -- Greg Perry, Times & Transcript, 1998

• Check Out '98 - the year in new music [Watch Magazine, Winter Issue '99] [+ Show ]
  

  ...A close second to Rufus on the bizzaro front was Moncton's Zwerg (aka Jason Betts). Where Wainwr......A close second to Rufus on the bizzaro front was Moncton's Zwerg (aka Jason Betts). Where Wainwright is best described as Elton John with contemporary relevance and WITHOUT cheese, Zwerg is the first solo pianist to deserve to be compared to the incomparable Tori Amos. He's a prolific little bugger, too, having coughed up an EP and a full length in the space of 9 months (more info: rolene@nbnet.nb.ca)

• ZWERG Sepsis [Chart Magazine, May 1998] [+ Show ]
  

  Imagine my surprise when the death metal that I thought I was getting (the look, the titles) turned ...Imagine my surprise when the death metal that I thought I was getting (the look, the titles) turned out to be a unique and harrowing night-time ride of another nature. Zwerg is the domain of one Jason Betts from Moncton, who turns in an intensely homespun performance of barbed, extra tiny piano ditties that sound like Tori Amos, The Inbreds and Smashing Pumpkins, with nods to Syd Barrett and Nick Drake. Very out-there, but quite a thought-provoking trip into frailty. Oh yeah, it's seven tracks totalling fifteen minutes, even though two hours seem to float by. Kinda creepy, really. Contact: 64 Oakmoor Terrace, Moncton NB E1G 1T5. --MP

• Zwerg, Sepsis, **** [The Coast, March 19-26, 1998] [+ Show ]
  

  Originality goes a long way. Luckily, that's not all Jason Betts has to go on. Betts is Zwerg--pia...Originality goes a long way. Luckily, that's not all Jason Betts has to go on. Betts is Zwerg--piano and vocals and writer of all songs. He's thrown in Rick White for bass, guitar, percussion and sounds but Zwerg is really Betts. Sepsis is seven tunes founded in Betts' chilling classical piano and severe voice (one that makes you cringe when you listen to it, though not because it's bad, because it must hurt to sing that way, you think). Listening to Sepsis gives you the feeling that Betts has given you an unadulterated glimpse into himself. There's no translation on this disc, no easing of the songs into listenable form and no striving. The music simply is. And that is a very enjoyable thing.
  --Lezlie Lowe

Setlist

ZWERG's present repertoire (in alphabetical order):

COVERS:
all time low (emm gryner)
beautiful creatures (andrew spice)
bethlehem morning (christmas)
bridal chorus (here comes the bride)
bridal march (trumpet voluntary)
brown-eyed girl (van morrison)
butterfly (tori amos)
crazy for you (madonna)
cooling (tori amos)
every breath you take (the police)
fields of gray (bruce hornsby)
fire and rain (james taylor)
hands to heaven (breathe)
happens all the time (eric's trip)
happy birthday
here comes the bride (traditional)
human (human league)
i's the b'y (traditional)
i remember you (skid row)
just as i am (johnny cash/traditional)
just between you and me (lou graham)
lester the lobster (stevedore steve)
lonestar (emm gryner)
missin' you (john waite)
nothing else matters (metallica)
o canada
one (metallica)
piano man (billy joel)
please come to boston (dave loggins)
rent (pet shop boys)
reveille (zachary richard)
rockin' in the free world (neil young)
sister janet (tori amos)
stand by me (ben e. king)
the land of new brunswick (donald a. macleod)
this time (smashing pumpkins)
today (smashing pumpkins)
true colours (cindy lauper)
trumpet voluntary (jeremiah clarke)
voices carry ('til tuesday)
weighty ghost (wintersleep)
yellow (coldplay)
your cloud (tori amos)


ORIGINALS:
...and 3 are 1
azure empyrean (instrumental)
bluffs of by and by (instrumental)
brattahlid
collage in clods (instrumental)
from nome to nain
happonen (in finnish)
here comes the earth
hitchhikin' nurse
jeddie
lucky to be an alien
my archaeopteryx (instrumental)
new brunswick
on this here fundy flat
on to archenland (instrumental)
package up my soul
peckish
permeate your world
poppy corpses
red-feathered sunshine
relish the ragamuffin
sanctified in hellcrest
stratus, slaughtered still (instrumental)
sunny brae babe
test the spirits
the snake child
to stand, kneel
unwavering (we're done)
virus carriers

Basic Requirements

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