about liza
Liza Oxnard is a vocalist, songwriter, guitarist, and half of the electro-jazz duo piKziL. She’s been making music since her teens—fronting an all-girls high-school band, playing in a few college rock groups, and later a Colorado cover band called Loaded Dice plus a stint in a duo with Vince Herman from Leftover Salmon, because… young people have energy, I guess!
After moving to Telluride, she played in a few different groups and then literally met Billy Nershi on the street. They formed Billy & Liza for a year, and had a highlight moment when they were asked by Craig Ferguson to play a tweener set before James Taylor at The Telluride Bluegrass Festival —before she went on to tour with Zuba and Billy eventually rolled into what became The String Cheese Incident.
Zuba launched Liza nationally, showcasing her fierce guitar work, smoky vocals, and uncanny talent for landing songs in wonderfully absurd films like Kingpin and There’s Something About Mary.
Then everything went sideways—band, boyfriend, housing… all in one weekend. (“Zero stars. Don’t recommend.”) She wrote her way through it, creating Liza & The Soul Stars with some of Colorado’s finest musicians, turning chaos into art and releasing Bird On A Wing, a beautiful collection of her own introspective singer songwriter songs.
Life got full—marriage, kids, pets, and beautifully controlled mayhem—but she kept singing: sitting in with the likes of String Cheese Incident, The Motet, JJ Grey & Mofro, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Jam Cruise, Billy & Liza, and more, and even co-writing and starring in a musical called Ciao Eden.
piKziL started in 2010 when a mall (yes, a mall) asked local artists to record a holiday tune. Liza brought her electro-jazz ideas to Kip, a grammy nominated musician and engineer, sparks flew, and the duo was born. The duo became a band. piKziL released Songs From My 3rd in 2016….slanky electro lounge goodness.
These days, Liza makes genre-bending music with piKziL, rocks out with Colorado’s The Maydays and is also rekindling her old band, just called Liza this time —because once a front woman, always a front woman. Check back for show announcements or better yet, sign up for her mailing list and keep in touch!