A bilingual singer and songwriter with a theatrical style imbued with playful French pop and a seductive, noir-ish flair, Marianne Dissard released her first official solo album, L'Entredeux, in 2008. She continued to issue her own material while collaborating with rootsy American indie rock bands like Calexico and Giant Sand until relocating from the U.S. to the U.K. in 2013. The collection Cibola Gold: Best of 2008-2015 followed in 2016, and in 2019, Dissard published the memoir Not Me. Touching on experiences with trauma, eating disorders, touring life, and recovery, she also adapted it for the stage. Born Tarbes, France, Marianne Dissard was raised in the countryside near Toulouse before moving with her family to Mesa, Arizona, at the age of 16. She eventually attended film school at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she met musician Howe Gelb, who was briefly a roommate. She also became active in the local indie film scene, and in 1994, she traveled to Tucson to direct Drunken Bees, a documentary about Gelb's band Giant Sand. She remained based in Tucson for nearly two decades. After the music duo of Naïm Amor and Thomas Belhom provided the soundtrack to her French TV documentary Low y Cool in 1995, Dissard returned the favor by contributing lyrics for their albums Amor Belhom Duo and Wavelab in the early 2000s. While in Tucson, she also wrote, recorded, and toured with members of Giant Sand and Calexico as well as alternative mambo and cumbia outfits Orkesta Mendoza and Xixa. Meanwhile, she worked on her own material as well, issuing a set of demos called Dedicated to Your Walls, May They Keep Blooming in 2005. Dissard released her first proper studio album, L'Entredeux, on German label Le Pop Musik in 2008. She followed it with Paris One Takes -- the first in her City Series -- in 2010. Her third full-length, L'Abandon, arrived a year later on Le Pop Musik in Europe and Dissard's own Trop Exprès Music in the U.S. Another City Series album, Berlin Two Takes, saw release in 2012. A year later, she delivered her fifth long-player, The Cat. Not Me. During the span of her first several albums, Dissard continued to work in film, including multimedia exhibitions with Arte TV and Zurich's Rote Fabrik cultural center, and her poetry appeared in literary publications such as Tucson-based Spork Magazine. While taking a break from performing to focus on her both her mental and physical health, Dissard relocated from Tucson to a sailboat in coastal Ramsgate, England, in 2013. In 2014, Dissard returned with the EP-length Cologne Vier Takes (City Series number three). The collection Cibola Gold: Best of 2008-2015 appeared in 2016. Taking some time away from recording to work on a memoir about her life and lessons learned in recovery, the resulting Not Me was published in 2019 and concurrently adapted for the stage. Returning to music, she issued a series of covers in 2020, including songs by Steely Dan and Janis Ian. ~ Marcy Donelson