digital press kit 2013 - laura leif

MEAN
LEIF
lucky walker, spirit songs
BIO
LAURA “MEAN” LEIF is a lady of the badlands, and you can hear them there, tall
grasses sprouting from a golden voice box, rough mountains hovering behind.
Particularly interested in wildness and inner animals, Leifʼs songs and drawings are
insightful, raw and poetic, delivered with both genuine grit and an unrestrained whimsy.
A swig of whisky on a rocky hill.
Leif plays regularly as both a solo musician and as a collaborator. She is also an artist
and an organizer, and often includes dreamy handmade landscapes in her live
performances and releases. The projects sheʼs worked on range from a collaboration in
Iceland on its landscapes (Sonicwaves, 2013), an improvised jazz and noise
composition about outer space (High Performance Rodeo, 2011), and an album of
songs composed and performed for gloomy household objects (NoDS residency, 2010).
Leif recently toured across North America as part of a road-show put together by “The
Believer” magazine, where she shared the stage with indie legend Calvin Johnson
(2012).
Leif is also responsible for many marvelous and productive projects including Choose
Yer Own (a do-it-yourself, community directed festival now in its 6th year), The Local
Library (an all-ages music and arts venue), and Imaginary Ordinary (a temporary
community arts centre). She believes in magic, messes, and the goodness in all people,
including you.
Leif is pleased to announce the release of her first solo full length album, “Rough
Beasts”, which will be widely available in spring of 2013. “Rough Beasts” is an
exploration of the grit and gristle of North America, and of the beasts, both inner and
outer, who just keep on trudging, no matter how roughed up. It was recorded in the
wilds outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in a rickety garage and in the presence of
porcupines, crabapples, two smart small children (not her own), the ocean, an 8 track
reel to reel, and virtuoso noisemaker and recording artist Jay Crocker.
FACT SHEET
Laura Leif
laura.t.leif@gmail.com
(587) 707 1889
Hometown: Badlands and Foothills of Alberta
Genre: gritty folk wisp
Instruments: Voice, ukulele, guitar, elderly keyboards, drums, distortion pedals, and other noisemakers. Releases:
Mean Leif -­‐ Rough Beasts, forthcoming
Laura Leif / Mean Leif -­‐ Soothsayer, 2013
Laura Leif and APB -­‐ Love Songs For Lamps (in The Believer Magazine’s music issue), 2012
Laura Leif -­‐ Warm Weathers 7”, 2010
Laura Leif and Amber Phelps-­‐Bondaroff -­‐ The Objects of Our Desires, 2010
Laura Leif // Secret Brothers -­‐ part one, 2010
The Consonant C -­‐ Capes and Crowns, 2008
Laura Leif -­‐ Hand Over The Mountain, 2005
Notable Performances:
Recent Performances
01/31/13 -­‐ 02/02/13 -­‐ Sonic Waves: Festival Hall. Calgary, Alberta
01/30/13 -­‐ Faktory -­‐ Reykjavik, Iceland
08/25/12 -­‐ The Hammock Residency -­‐ Vancouver, BC
08/23/12 -­‐ The Vera Music Project. Seattle, Washington
08/22/12 -­‐ The Crystal Ballroom. Portland, Oregon
08/19/12 -­‐ Echoplex. Los Angeles, California
08/17/12 -­‐ Cafe du Nord. San Francisco, California
08/16/12 -­‐ The Observatory. Orange County, California
08/11/12 -­‐ Meeps. Washington, DC
08/10/12 -­‐ Muchmore’s. Brooklyn, New York
07/28/12 -­‐ Soybomb HQ. Toronto, Ontario
Past Performances
07/18/11 -­‐ What The Heck Fest. Anacortes, Washington
01/11/10 -­‐ High Performance Rodeo. Epcor Centre, Calgary
12/12/10 -­‐ Calgary Folk Fest Presents: Indie Rock Christmas. Arrata Opera Centre, Calgary
06/23/09 -­‐ Sled Island Music Festival. Cantos Music Foundation, Calgary
07/26/08 -­‐ The Calgary Folk Music Festival. Prince’s Island Park, Calgary
10/07/08 -­‐ POP Montreal. Montreal
04/05/08 -­‐ JunoFest. Marquee Room, Calgary
Collaborators
Jay Crocker, Tyler Los Jones, Woodpigeon, Extra Happy Ghost!!!, Clinton St. John, Brock Geiger, Lucky Sonne, The Summerlad, Morgan Greenwood (Azeda Booth), Chris Dadge and Bug Incision Records, Sandy Castles, Neal Moignard (Knots), Sara Froese, Eric Moscopedis, Jon McKiel and Amber Phelps-­‐Bondaroff.
Other Projects
Choose Yer Own Festival. Calgary, Alberta, 2008 -­‐ present
By Heart or By Hearsay: amateur film festival. Calgary, Alberta. 2012 -­‐ present
Culture Club: community engagement project. Toronto, Ontario. 2010 -­‐ 2012
The Local Library: all ages art space. Calgary, Alberta. 2009 -­‐ 2012
Homework Residency, Broken City Lab. Windsor, Ontario. 2011
Network of Domestic Spaces Residency. Montreal, Quebec. 2010
Imaginary / Ordinary: community centre re-­‐imagined. Calgary, Alberta. 2009
Awards and Honors:
CADA Event Stimulus Program Grant -­‐ Choose Yer Own Festival, 2011
Embridge Award for Emerging Artist – nominee, 2010
Award for Innovation in Community Outreach -­‐ The Local Library, 2010
PRESS
“Talk about the most underrated of songwriters in Canada. Pioneer Girl of all things
vibrant, Laura Leif delivers songs as a sort of throaty, prairie-born Joanna Newsom,
where the mean indifference of Toronto is unable to handle her openness, prompting
this squamish outflow of ukeleles, guitars and windy voices. The foggy gloom of Nova
Scotia, where it was recorded, seems to have infiltrated the tape; Rough Beasts sticks
like pinpoints across the Canadian map, like those very pinpricks of Leif’s slight vocal
delivery. Legendary curmudgeon Calvin Johnston knows the deal, ’bout time you did.”
- Kevin Stebner, Weird Canada. Jan 2013
“[Leif’s band “The Consonant C”] make their focus the pretty things, the gleaming
things, lulling lullabies and lovely love songs. And yet — thank goodness — ... [their
music] is still rightly haunted, filled with creaks, drones and the singer’s stray syllables.
A summer beach with an autumn wind.”
- Sean Michaels, The National Post. 2009
“This collection of talents have stolen the hearts of every Calgarian who has happened
upon their music... [The Consonant C] represent everything that is right with Calgary’s
every-growing music scene, and that is a friendly, talented community of kids who are
about to change the way you listen to music.”
- Jane McCullough, Calgary Folk Music Festival. 2008
“[Leif’s] performance was personal, sincere, and, most of all, beautiful. It couldn’t have
been more perfect.”
- Myke Atkinson, FFWD Magazine. 2007