Jessie Leov Music

auckland

On the radio TWICE in a week!

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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!

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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

 

 

 

 

Life in Auckland has begun!

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The majestic castle in which I have my music lectures.... 15 min walk from where I live :)
The majestic castle in which I have my music lectures…. 15 min walk from where I live :)

 

So I’ve now been up here in Auckland for nearly five weeks now! Four weeks into the course and it’s going awesomely. There’s 20 of us I think in the class and I have to say, they’re a great bunch! Everyone’s super nice and hugely talented. It’s been full on from the word go though, with assignments and performances due all over the place already, so let’s just say I’m keeping busy :P I’m learning so much new stuff about music, being challenged with my songwriting, as well as performance, arrangement, group work, improv, pretty much everything to do with music theory and performance! I get individual piano lessons each week as part of one of my papers which is so good too.

Life in University Hall is pretty great. I’m on 7th floor and what can I say, it’s the best floor :D I’ve made so many new friends and experienced all sorts of crazy things so far. The first morning at the hall we were woken at 5:30am and sent to the gym…. Good times.

I’m back in Nelson over the Easter break. Yay! Very exciting to go home. Never really experienced real homesickness until moving up here. So I cannot wait to see my family and my home again!  It took a few weeks in Auckland before I remembered to spend some time relaxing and taking a breather. Uni life is hectic.

So anyway I’m posting a new song on soundcloud and it is! It was part of the first module of MUS 180, our songwriting class. One had to be a narrative song in AAA form (only verses, no chorus). It was quite challenging! The other had to be about someone we admire (and had other specific criteria like time signature, tempo, etc). So yeah!

Hope you like it!

Jess x

Auckland in a week!

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Hey everyone!

In a week I will be in Auckland, living at University Hall (home to over 400 students) and orientation week will be in full swing! I’ve been gradually sorting and packing my things up but the final packup will take place this Friday and Saturday! We’re taking two suitcases plus my keyboard and my guitar. Yikes.

Over the last wee while I’ve had a couple of great gigs – one in town for the Summer Street Beat series run by the council and just last week I played at the restaurant Hangar 58 on Valentines Day! I got a lil photo in the paper for the Street Beat gig which you may have seen. Now my PA system is all packed away in my wardrobe and it probably won’t come out until next summer as I’ll be busy studying up in Auckland! In case anyone’s interested I’ll list the papers I’ll be doing.

Semester 1:

Mus 119: Introduction to Music Technology

Mus 180: Creative Practice in Pop Music 1

Mus 182: Pop Music Performance Skills 1

Mus 184: Pop Music Theory and Aural 1

Semester 2:

Theology 101G: The Bible in Popular Culture (We have to choose two general education papers over the course of the degree, and this one fitted into my timetable and I was interested in it!)

Mus 181: Creative Practice in Pop Music 2

Mus 183: Pop Music Performance Skills 2

Mus 185: Pop Music Theory and Aural 2

So yeah exciting times ahead. :D Will probably do another post after classes have started in early March!

Jess x

 

 

Beehive concert!

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I was recently invited to perform 2 original songs at the annual Play it Strange concert at the Beehive, along with 5 other young songwriters, after being placed in the top for their songwriting and cover competitions this year. Mum and I flew over and, despite the turbulent flights, we had a great time! There were some technical difficulties leading up to the concert but it all ended up going smoothly and I was really happy with my performance. Hoping to get a copy of the audio recording that was done of the show. Everyone who performed was so talented and amazing! Met some really cool people. Such a privilege to be able to perform there.

Got two private functions left to play at, a piano recital on Sunday and then a bit of a holiday from gigs for a while. I’m getting my new guitar soon though and hoping to do lots of busking! Also I’m playing in the Street Beat series in town outside ANZ on 24th January from 12:30-1:30pm so that will be great.

Mum booked our tickets to fly up to Auckland on 24th February to move me into my hall of residence. So crazy. We’re taking 4 checked ‘bags’ which will probably be two huge suitcases and my keyboard and my guitar. That should definitely be enough stuff to last me 5 weeks until I come down for Easter break, then I can bring some more stuff up. SO looking forward to studying music full time!

Anyway, hope you all have a marvellous Christmas and New Years! I will post again next year :D

Jess xx