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I need your help!

Jessie Leov · May 30, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Hey all!

Been a while since I’ve been active on my website/facebook page! Many exciting things have been happening in my life. For one thing – I now study a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Music conjoint majoring in French and Music Composition respectively. It’s pretty full on but I love it. I’m nearly halfway through my third year of university now, and have two years to go after this one.

Buuuut the big news at the moment is…. I’m going to Las Vegas in October to attend and compete at the International Sweet Adelines Convention with the Greater Auckland Chorus! GAC are the 2014 NZ Women’s Barbershop Chorus Champions and we recently sung at the Aotea Centre in May in preparation for competing in America on the international stage. This is a huge deal for me – barbershop has been a big part of my life for a long time and I’m very excited to take it further and keep pursuing these new opportunities.DanChilds_1505020770

The trip to Las Vegas has been budgeted at $4000 minimum, and unfortunately I don’t have access to that amount of money, so some major fundraising activities are being put into action! I have applied for and received a $1000 grant from the University of Auckland from the Vice Chancellors Arts Support Fund so this is a fantastic contribution which I’m really thankful for!

The Nelson Bays Harmony Chorus – my ‘mother’ chorus who I was a part of from age 13 to 19 – are very kindly organising and hosting a fundraiser evening in Nelson on July 7th at The Boathouse called ‘Las Vegas Cafe’. I’ll be doing some solo performing there along with some other special guests. We’re hoping to get as many people there as possible – there’ll be dinner and dessert provided! A great evening for friends and family to catch up, have good food and be entertained. Here’s the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/360914837415387/.

Huge thank you to NBHC for all their support!

In addition to the evening event we have a fundraiser Give a Little page for people who would like to donate in this way: www.givealittle.co.nz/cause/jessieleovvegas2015. Every dollar is SO much appreciated and helps me on my journey to the international stage!

I hope you’re all doing well – thanks so much for sticking around and reading about what’s been happening in my life at the moment!

You’ll hear from me again soon I hope :)

Jessie x

 

On the radio TWICE in a week!

Jessie Leov · March 31, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Hey everyone!

First of all, if you haven’t heard my new song ‘Vows’ please head over and have a listen here!

It was super fun to make, very hard work and took about 3 or 4 ENTIRE days to finish. It’s the first song I’ve ever fully done on Ableton so it was a learning curve but hey gotta start somewhere.

So the first exciting radio-related event happened on the 25th March, when I got a txt from a friend saying that one of my songs was playing on KIWI FM! I was pretty stoked and managed to tune in and hear the end of it – it was my song Divine from the 2012 Play it Strange Songwriting Competition CD. So that was pretty awesome!

Then just last Friday (3 days later), I was woken up by a call at 7:30am saying I was on the shortlist for the ‘Sowing the Seeds of Success’ contest and I may or may not be rung by Mike Hosking within the hour. I had applied for this the week before, just coz you know you have to do these things just on the off chance, and written a huge page long, essentially like, biography of my life relating to music. And then I listed all the musical gear and equipment that I had bought to ‘support my career’, and I listed the few items I could think of at the time that I was really really wanting to get to help me record better music. These being fancy studio headphones, a midi controller keyboard, Logic Pro and Ableton Live Suite (recording/production softwares).

So long story short, Mike called me, we talked for a bit on air, he played some of my a-capella song See You Again (!!) And then I won all the gear I’d asked for! Needless to say it took me quite a few hours to calm down and become a normal person again after this happened. The adrenaline was pumping big time. So a huge thank you to Newstalk ZB and ASB Bank! I’m just waiting on a call from the bank and then I can hopefully head out and get my gear! I’M SO VERY EXCITED!

You can listen to the interview below:

I can’t believe we’re already up to the 5th week of the semester – only a couple of weeks to go before I head home for mid-semester break. I’m so happy to be back at it though, fully immersed in the music world and spending lots of time with my amazing and talented friends in Auckland!

I will be keeping you updated with new songs, other exciting events that may occur, etc etc, throughout the year! We are off to a good start.

Oh yeah, SONG OF THE WEEK below. I am in love.

Allen Stone - Unaware (Live From His Mother's Living Room)

Peace and love,

Jessie x

 

2014 has arrived!

Jessie Leov · February 23, 2014 · Leave a Comment

Hey everyone!

2014 has arrived! Well it arrived 2 months ago… I haven’t posted in a while!

Street Gig in Jan.
Street Gig in Jan.

I have had the most fantastic summer in Nelson – spent heaps of time with my family, and earned a significant amount of money doing gigs around the place! Pretty stoked about that – I should be able to get through this year without going broke! Hurrah.

I haven’t posted any new songs on my soundcloud for ages, lazy much?! But I’ve written a few songs which have some potential over the last couple months so they should make it up there sometime. Uni starts in a fortnight so I’ll start having songs up pretty regularly like last year. EXCITEMENT.

I’m flying back up to Auckland in a few days and moving into my flat! So excited to start the 2nd year of my music degree and to see all my friends again. Last year was incredible but I’m hoping to make this one even better.

So look out for some new songs being rolled out and some updates as I settle back in to the big city.

Anyway, hope y’all are having a great summer!

Jessie x

 

 

 

 

Evolution of Coldplay

Jessie Leov · September 29, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Hey everyone,

My favourite band in the world is Coldplay.

Therefore, this post will be all about Coldplay.

The Spotify playlist above contains the listening material to accompany my ramblings below!

ColdplayColdplay have been active since the late 90’s.. so since I was about 4 years old. Their sound has been ever-evolving throughout their career, but most of my favourite music comes from the early days of their career in the late 90’s and early 00’s.

My Dad has always been a Coldplay fan so I’ve grown up listening to them and have developed a pretty intense obsession with their music. They’ve had a significant influence on the music that I write.

I thought I would introduce you to my Top 10 favourite ‘lesser-known’ Coldplay songs of all time. This is a hard task because there are so many and they are all astoundingly good… but I will do my best.

Safety EP (1998)

This was Coldplay’s first ever public release and has three songs on it, all of which really need to be on this list… So I’m cheating a little bit but I’ll keep it short.

  • Bigger Stronger
  • The chorus of this song is so anthemic. I adore it. I’ve been obsessed with this song for a while. The rhythm section is actually quite funky in this song, especially towards the end.

  • No More Keeping my Feet on The Ground
  • Another stunning track. It’s really interesting to me hearing the ‘sound’ they had way back when they first started and how it’s evolved since then.

  • Such a Rush
  • This song is incredibly tender but it surprises you at the end.  You’ll have to listen to the end to hear it ;) Something that really excites me in a song is a full-on crescendo, or buildup of instruments and intensity and then BOOM.

Only Superstition (B-Side, 1999)

 This song was the follow-up to their first EP. This is one of their more complex songs – structurally, harmonically and rhythmically. Let’s just take a moment to appreciate Chris Martin’s incredible vocals. His falsetto is so pure, yet he also belts it out when he needs to. His voice just draws you in with it’s ‘gravelliness’. Gotta love it.

Careful Where You Stand (B-Side, 2000)

You may have noticed that many Coldplay songs start with delicate acoustic guitar playing. Then the electric guitar comes in. DON’T JUDGE. I respect that they have their own signature stylistic things that they do to build up a song, and their layering of instruments is part of what makes their songs so captivating. I love these old Coldplay tracks because they sound so raw. This song in particular doesn’t even utilise drums or bass yet still hits you pretty hard in my opinion.

I Ran Away (B-Side, 2002)

This song is so brilliant. The chorus is huge! I’m not sure how they do it but pairing Chris’s gentle vocals with this really fat instrumental sound just WORKS! Such an atmospheric sound, which is in fact a word that could be used to describe a lot of Coldplay songs. Another random fact about Coldplay – they love their string sections, which is showcased toward the end of this song. I actually thought they could have done better with the string arrangement but hey it definitely fills out the sound effectively. Still rocks it.

We Never Change (Parachutes, 2002) 

Beautiful ballad. That’s about all there is to it. The lyrics are simple yet meaningful, and Chris’ falsetto (which I adore) is outrageously good. The outro of the song could possibly be one of my favourite outro’s ever. Have a listen and you’ll see what I mean.

Twisted Logic (X&Y, 2005)

The B section of this song has a riff that I cannot get out of my head!!!! (The structure of this song is AABAABB) I’m reluctant to call the B section a chorus because it feels more like a bridge.. I keep accidentally writing a song using this same chord progression and then having to rewrite it! Chris often writes songs about political or world issues and this song talks about our mistreatment of the planet: “Created then drilled and invaded/ If somebody made it someone will mess it up/ And you are not wrong to ask who does his belong to/ It belongs to all of us.” You have to respect that songwriting. Profound.

The Hardest Part (LeftRightLeftRight, 2009)

This live performance kicks it up a notch from their album version (X&Y, 2005) which to me always sounded a little clunky. It strips the song down to it’s barest form, piano and vocals performed by Chris. His piano playing is so full and rich with those colourful chords that are what make me love Coldplay so much! Something I love about Chris’ voice is the raw emotion that just flows out when he sings. So so so beautiful. I may or may not cry every time I hear it.

Major Minus (Mylo Xyloto, 2011)

This song is a real cracker! There’s something about it which immediately draws me in, the guitar part is almost percussive and really rhythmically engaging. The song showcases Jonny Buckland’s brilliant guitar solos, catchy as always. Another thing about this song that I love is the pulsating bass-line which just drives the song home. Dayum.

U.F.O (Mylo Xyloto, 2011)

This song demonstrates something Coldplay does best: short transitional acoustic numbers as a bridge between songs on an album. This one has just acoustic guitar and strings to accompany the lead vocals, a really beautiful arrangement. Chris’ vocals are so stunning and the melody weaves its way around the guitars so so nicely. I LOVE IT. It’s one of those songs I’ll listen to over and over again.

Atlas (Catching Fire soundtrack, 2013)

Their latest release! This is an an epic track which to me brings back the best of the ‘Coldplay sound’. It starts with a haunting piano intro and blossoms into a huge sweeping arrangement which just rocks it to be honest. I love the constant buildup throughout this song. What’s cool is that the vocal line is relatively simple and sparse and the song is carried by the huge accompaniment. You can hear how their sound has evolved so much since they first started out yet it still retains the essence that is ‘Coldplay’.

Cheers for reading guys, hopefully you got some inspiration from these songs and perhaps I’ve even converted you into a Coldplay fan if you weren’t one already. I feel like a music reviewer or something. Haha. Maybe next time I’ll do Top 10 Radiohead songs ;)

Jessie x

 

 

Inspiration.

Jessie Leov · September 14, 2013 · Leave a Comment

My Dad and I have been listening to Coldplay’s new song ‘Atlas’ on repeat over the last few days, which was written for the film Catching Fire (the second instalment of the Hunger Games). There is something incredibly magical about this song but I’ll admit it is probably one of many Coldplay songs that I have listened to obsessively… I hope to be able to create masterpieces such as this song one day.

Coldplay - Atlas (Hunger Games: Catching Fire)(Official Lyric Video)

Life has been spinning by and I’ve spent the last two weeks in my hometown of Nelson, doing nothing but reading dozens of books and, of course, immersing myself in music as per usual. Tomorrow I’m heading back up to Auckland for what will be a very intense but rewarding final 9 weeks of my music degree. I’m actually really excited for the rest of this semester, so much awesome stuff going on! I’ll be posting pics/vids/audio up on my facebook page as much as possible so look out for that: www.facebook.com/jessieleov.

I’m gonna try post a bit more often, I promise.

Jessie x

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