Why I am Delaying My Album Release

Hello all,

Today I bring you good and bad news. I have decided, with help of Dan Berry (lovely producer/engineer/guitar player on my album) to delay my album release by a month.

To be completely honest, it broke my heart to do it. But I need to do what's right for this album.

Musicians face scary deadlines all the time, and constantly face the possibility of not finishing their albums on time. More often than not, they have to settle for what their albums sound like, rather than allowing more time for the music to really come into its own.

The beauty of not being on a label is that I get to decide when my album comes out. As excited as I was for my August 31 release date (come on, how perfect does that sound), it did not give me enough time to make each song on the album really shine. I realized that I still had so many ideas, and the album might not live its full potential if I did not investigate these ideas. Needless to say, I refused to let my album not live up to its full potential.

I will write again with the new official release date, though I already pretty much know what that is. You guys will know when I'm 100% positive. I promise. ;)

I'm sorry, guys. But I am looking at this positively. I want to give you an album that we can all be proud of.

With love,
Leila

Opening for Allen Stone Tomorrow!!!

 Tomorrow is a big day for me! At 9pm tomorrow night, my band and I will be opening for Allen Stone, an awesome up and coming artist from Washington who has been creating a lot of buzz in the soul music scene. The show is at the legendary S.O.B.'s, a famous Brazilian restaurant/nightclub/venue that has produced many successful artists. Some of their past acts include Celia Cruz, John Legend, Erykah Badu, Tito Puente, and Marc Anthony, just to name a few. As you can see, this is kind of a big deal!

Needless to say, I would greatly appreciate your support. It would be wonderful to see all of you there, and I'm really looking forward to this gig. S.O.B.'s is a great venue and I'm so thankful that I was given the opportunity to play there.

This is going to be a load of fun, and I hope you guys will join me. Check out the  Facebook Event  for more details, or go to the  S.O.B.'s website  for more information about the venue.

I'll leave you with a video of Allen Stone, who I am truly looking forward to seeing tomorrow night.

                     Impressed? Come out to the show tomorrow night and show your support!!


See you there ;)
Leila

BIG SHOW TOMORROW!!

So I have a confession to make...

I'm a twin. I don't talk about it often, especially where music is concerned - but here's why I decided to bring it up now.

Tomorrow, we will both be headlining at the Bitter End, in NYC. Yes, she's a singer-songwriter too. Click here to check out Omnia's blog, and see what she's all about.

If you come to our show tomorrow, you will see that although we are both musicians, our music is completely different. Sure, our voices may share some similar qualities, but the songwriting styles are like day and night. I also must admit that in an attempt to separate myself musically from my sister, I was very reluctant to play the same show with her. Although we've played a few local shows together in the past,  I decided after my EP was released that it was time to separate myself from Omnia as an artist. When two musicians look as much alike as we do, it is very easy for people to get a little confused. Some may also ask why we're not in a band together, and the answer is that our music is too different. As my sister has referenced in her own blog post about the show, we are two different people with varying opinions, experiences, and things to say.

We hope to see you there!
 Leila


Check out the Facebook event for more details.

Great Singers vs. Mediocre Singers

I must admit, I'm pretty picky when it comes to accepting new artists. Although, I wasn't even alive at the time when motown was popular, I have a total fascination with it. My favorite kind of music, with the exception of Norah Jones and a few others probably doesn't get more recent than the 70s. So why is it that lately I've been listening to a whole lot of Adele?

Because she's freaking fabulous, that's why! Not only is she absolutely adorable as a person (which you can easily see if you read/watch her interviews on TV or in magazines) but damn, does she have talent. She has a mind-blowing voice, not to mention a refreshingly honest songwriting style. Perhaps the reason I like her so much is the old-school tinge to her voice - so soulful and strong, yet beautifully vulnerable at all the right moments. It's nice to see that someone with real talent can still make it in the mainstream music industry, especially as a singer. Take a look at the majority of artists today: most of them are singer/songwriters, with very little focus on the "singer" part of the title. If you read my first blog post, you know that this is something I've set out to change. But it's wonderful artists like Adele who give me a little more faith that it's actually possible.

This does not mean that I think every artist has to be a great singer. Bob Dylan is a perfect example of a singer/songwriter who is such a great storyteller that his voice became secondary. However, I do find that the singer/songwriters who can really sing can sometimes tell an even greater story. First, let's define a great singer: This is not someone who merely sounds "pretty." There are many people in the world with good voices, but being a great singer is a lot more than that. The thing that separates a mediocre singer and a great singer is not just the ability to sound beautiful, but the ability to tell a story with the voice. Considering that the voice is the medium that delivers the lyrics of a song, it really can tell just as much of a story as the lyrics do. When these two things work in harmony, you get a mind-blowing vocal performance.

Adele has a strong voice, but she's also extremely sensitive. She's never sings loudly for the sake of being loud, or even softly for the sake of being soft. While she's a skilled singer, she doesn't constantly need to remind you that she can do all of these things with her voice. The most important point is that she's always genuine when she sings. She doesn't sing the way she does just to impress you, or make you think "look how pretty she sounds!" Forgive me if I sound like a know-it-all, but I really have no interest in singers who simply admire themselves when they sing. If a singer sounds pretty but isn't genuine (as in, they're thinking about how to impress the audience with their next riff, rather than what they're saying), I pretty much stop caring.

This is why Adele is fabulous. She's soulful, she's sensitive, and most importantly, she's real. The video I'm about to leave you with is "Make You Feel My Love," which was written by Bob Dylan and covered by Adele. Even though this is not one of Adele's songs, it's a great example of everything I've been talking about. With lyrics written by Bob Dylan, and heart-wrenching vocals by Adele, there is definitely a story being told here.

Enjoy!

The Next Alicia Keys?

So when you're a girl who happens to play piano and sing at the same time, there are a few questions that people often ask.

"Is it hard to concentrate on playing and singing at the same time?"

"How old were you when you started playing piano?"

All reasonable questions. Here's the one I have the greatest love/hate relationship with:

"Are you the next Alicia Keys?"

Let me get one thing straight. There were many people who sang and played piano long before Alicia Keys came around. Did everyone forget Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Billy Joel, Elton John, and at least 100 other people?

Don't get me wrong, I adore Alicia, and actually went to see her live during her "Diary" tour at Radio City She is a fantastic woman - she's beautiful, talented, and compassionate, (Click here to read Alicia's Blog and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about). There's no doubt that she's been a huge influence in my music, and that she's one of the best talents in the mainstream music industry right now. Aside from being a classically-trained pianist, Alicia Keys has an undeniable raw talent and keen sense of style that sets her apart from a lot of other artists. The reason why I am grateful to her, however, is that she made playing piano look like the coolest thing someone can do. When Alicia Keys hit the charts, everyone admired her for her talent. If a beautiful girl from Harlem could be a classically-trained pianist and still be hip at the same time, then who could say that all pianists are stuffy nerds with wire-framed glasses? I'm not sure how old I was at the time when Alicia Keys hit it big, but I do remember that all of sudden I was proud to say that I played piano. And I wished I had practiced a little more Beethoven...

Sometimes the biggest challenge for me as an artist is trying to be distinguishable from other artists in my genre, while still trying to associate myself with these artists so that people have a clue as to what I sound like. Chances are, if you like Alicia Keys I'm probably girl. Even though my style is not as blatantly R&B, there are a lot of musical qualities that we share. I could say the same for Norah Jones. I've been listening to so much Norah Jones over the past three years, that I'd be lying if I tried to tell you that she didn't impact my music. So maybe that's it: maybe my sound is a happy medium between the classic/urban R&B sound of Alicia Keys and the more mellow, soft jazz/pop quality of Norah Jones. I am perfectly fine with this description. But you know what? Maybe it doesn't matter so much.

I am not the next Alicia Keys. Or the next Norah Jones. And although being known by any one of these titles would probably make me feel flattered, I would still have to say that neither one is accurate. I am the next me - the only me, and my music consists of three things: my thoughts, my voice, and my experiences. And from the bottom of my heart, I thank all of you for listening.

Yours truly,
Leila

Reach for the Sky: Is any topic too ridiculous for a song?

So here's my predicament for this week: I have to write a song about Buzz Lightyear for my next master class. Think I'm kidding? Well, I am absolutely, positively, 100% serious.

I guess I should give you guys a little background. Aside from being a singer/songwriter and trying to actually make it in the music industry, I also study songwriting at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College. SUNY Purchase is a wonderfully artsy place full of inspiration and people who are not afraid to express themselves. Sometimes people's sense of expression can be a little alarming, but hey, whatever floats your boat. 

Anyway, I take a master class in composition and my professor likes to give assignments. My particular weakness in songwriting is writing to a topic, so naturally my assignment for the week would be to write to a topic. That's all fine and dandy. I don't mind a challenge, even if I complain about how unfair it is the entire time. However, only at Purchase College would I be forced to write about something so quirky and utterly ridiculous: Buzz freaking Lightyear. 

Don't get me wrong - I adore Buzz. This all started because a girl in my class was carrying something (though I can't remember what) with Buzz Lightyear on it, and I just so happened to express how much I love Buzz. Little did I know that I was digging my own grave, because suddenly my professor's face lit up with excitement and he said "Yes! That's your assignment for next week. You're going to write a song about Buzz Lightyear!"

So here I am, completely clueless about how I'm supposed to start this song. I guess I'll just have to do a little Toy Story research (i.e. watch the movies a few million times) before I figure out how I'm going to do this. By Thursday. Wish me luck - I'll need it!

Reach for the Sky!

Leila

Introduction: Inspiration, Ideas, and Experiences

I think the question of the day is, why would someone who writes songs also need to have a blog? Considering that I'm always working on a song of some kind, you'd think that I wouldn't need to express myself any further.

Let's think about this. In life, do we ever really get to say everything that we want to say? Usually not. There's always just a little more to say than what has already been said. What I'm starting to understand more than ever is that a song is only a 3-minute representation of the actual life events that surround it. So from an outside point of view, I'm forced to leave out a lot of details. This seems unfortunate in a lot of ways, but I'll tell you why it's not. It is often these unsaid details that make a song beautiful. Just because you didn't hear me mention what I ate for breakfast that day, or that annoying thing my ex used to do, doesn't mean that I didn't express these things in some way. Context is everything, and this makes writing very subliminal. So does performance. If you wonder why I pound my fingers down on the keyboard during that chorus, or why I always look like I'm dreaming when I sing that verse, it's because of the context. You might not know why I'm singing the words that I'm singing, but I do. And if you asked me to, I could look back and describe to you in detail all of the 7 million things that were going on in my life at the time when I wrote that song. 

I suppose now would be the time to introduce myself. My name is Leila, and Eric Clapton spelled my name wrong. I guess he's awesome for writing a song with my name in it to begin with - I mean, L-A-Y-L-A would be the most obvious spelling. But hey, I like to think my way is better.

Like Sir Eric, I write music. I think it's safe to assume that you've realized this by now, but there's no harm in stating the obvious. I've been writing music since I was eleven. Technically I used to make up songs in the shower when I was in elementary school, but I suppose those don't count since I never actually wrote them down. All of those little songs were about ridiculous things like Elmer's glue and Crayola crayons - I guess as a child I would either be considered weird or cute, depending on your standards. 

Despite all the songwriting speeches I've been giving you, I really started out as a singer. Singing was probably my first love, and I still love it more than anything. A lot of singer/songwriters don't put a lot of stock in the "singing" part of their title, but this is one of the most important parts of my music. I take the singing part just as seriously as the writing part, because as I briefly mentioned before, performance has a lot to do with the way a song is perceived. That being said, I write my songs to suit my voice. This could  be a slight problem if I ever have to write for another artist, but I'm not sure I would ever want to do that.  If context is everything, I probably couldn't handle giving my song to another singer that didn't live through the specific experiences that I did while I was writing the song. This may seem amateur, but I suppose there's a little bit of childish pride in all of us. At this point in my life, I'm just not ready to let go.

The piano was my second love. Don't get me wrong - I didn't treat it very well, and I neglected it pretty often in many ways. I rarely ever practiced in the traditional sense of practicing, and this is probably why I don't sight-read or do any of those things that crazy pianists do. As soon as I figured out that I could use the piano to accompany my singing, I began to write songs. And that was pretty much it for me. Of course I was still playing piano all the time, but let's just say that scales and Bach inventions unfortunately took a backseat after that.

For now, that's all you really need to know about me. I'll try not to pour my heart out too quickly, and I'll try even harder not to give away all the background of every song I write. My only hope is that you can reflect on your own experiences as you listen. 

With love from a humble singer/songwriter,

Leila