 | NZ Musician 2009 (Vol: 14, No: 9) |
By Richard Thorne
Leila Adu spent the last few summer months in New Zealand, returning to her current home in Rome shortly after a couple of performances at the Auckland Festival 2009.One was solo, the second with a high-quality and evidently familiar three-piece band of Chris O'Connor, Tom Callwood and Jeff Henderson. She might equally well have featured as part of Wellington's Jazz or Taranaki's WOMAD festival - or for that matter, anywhere else's fringe/avant-garde festival, such is her accomplished yet uncategorisable combination of voice and piano. Pictured here in a Joan of Arc-pose, which fits well with one of her live performance favourites, Leila blends 'Jean d'Arc' fortitude with artistic pragmatism and a surprising Kiwi realism.
Born in London, to a Kiwi mother and Ghanaian father, Leila Adu arrived in New Zealand with her mum aged four. Growing up in Linwood, Christchurch, she attended Richmond Primary, St Marks and then Christchurch Girls High. Her music training started at 10 with piano lessons, adding a "swathe of instruments" including clarinet, bassoon, and electric guitar during her teens, as well as classical singing tuition. Her first high school bands saw her performing with a flamingo pink Fender Stratocaster, she laughs now in admitting she was never very good on it.
"I'm not a great pianist, but I'm better than I am at guitar. Singing I have trained to quite a high level, but not piano, I use it as a tool. I was aware when I gave up all the other instruments that I was doing that so I could focus on chords - I only wanted to play chordal instruments - 'cos it's more helpful, not because I loved piano." She moved to Wellington to study composition and electro acoustic music at Victoria University, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree (First Class Honours), having majored in electronic music, and orchestration for theatre and film. After the first year at uni Leila decided she wasn't into studying classical music, and wanted instead to listen to anything else - like industrial music, or gamelan which she had also been studying, along with Javanese classical singing. She went to Bali to study a complex aspect of gamelan instrumentation for a month, spent four months in Ghana and also time in London. The Ghana experience still comes to her often, specifically the contrast from the easy life New Zealanders enjoy. She says her music still reflects an empathy with the hardships and suffering of many in "the global south". Despite liking London she says she really wanted to write for orchestra and knew that she needed to first complete a degree in order to reach that goal. Her subsequent honours project orchestrating a French and a Chinese poem was a winner in the NZSO-SOUNZ Readings Awards, which earned her the chance to have the two songs performed by the national orchestra. She sang them herself in Mandarin and French. Whilst at university she also recorded and released her first album 'Dig A Hole'. Her bandmates then including the illustrious likes of Francesca Mountford on cello, bassist Tom Callwood, guitarist Chris Palmer and drummer Chris O'Connor. Following uni she moved to Melbourne for a year, returning to Wellington to work with producer David Long on her second album, the 2005 release 'Cherry Pie'. The band for this album included Long on guitars, Tom Callwood's double bass, Jeff Henderson on baritone sax and Rikki Gooch on drums. "For 'Dig A Hole' we recorded with everything there, took some stuff out, a few overdubs and that was it. With 'Cherry Pie' I wanted time for post production to happen organically and knew Dave would be into that. I was really, really happy with it and what we did post production-wise." By 2006 she was back in Europe where she is now resident. "I was doing a lot of good music with great musicians in Wellington but I started to feel that the things I thought were interesting in NZ were being created by people I knew. It was time to play to a different audience and I found the local scene a bit closed at the time, I just got bored with it. In fact I really have seen a lot more good music in the underground scene in NZ than anywhere else, but I still am enjoying that thing of being in Europe where it is easy to get around." She has family in London and Paris beckoned, as did Berlin, but was practical enough to follow her partner of the time to Rome, where it has proven both easier to get established as an artist and to earn a non-music living. "Everything I do is for music, including working in a job, because it makes my life more stable. As a composer you need to look after yourself a bit, have a bit of routine and know that you can go play the piano at certain times and won't be disturbed. So I work as well." She doesn't yet sing in Italian but performs frequently in Rome's indie and avant-garde scene of clubs, theatres, even bookstores. She is part of an improvising band called Truth in the Abstract Blues, which includes internationally known British bluesman Mike Cooper. "I have been improvising for years and being around the Happy scene [in Wellington] I started improvising a lot more. Most of the music I go to see would be improvised, and I have been involved in that a lot." Solo performances of her own compositions remain Leila's principal passion however. "I did my first gig of my own songs at 15, so I've been playing them for a long time. It's the most important thing I do, sometimes I won't do the other musical things for a long period. Writing songs and singing songs is my main career, it's the thing I feel the most comfortable with - and I can't not do it. I have to do it!" she says laughing. With her own in-built cultural diversity and such a widely varied musical education it is no surprise that Leila Adu is a quirky and eclectic performer and typically leaves commentators stumped for comparisons and similes ('… sounding like hot treacle on broken glass' is one example). Reviewers worldwide have proferred all sorts of comparisons including Bjork, Ute Lempe, PJ Harvey, Stereolab, Patti Smith and Fiona Apple - even Tim Buckley - which ironically is more valid than some of the others. "I can never liken myself to anything, so that's why I think it's just come from having so many influences. I don't have a catch phrase for my own music - people do really want a brand and I don't know what to tell them. I think reviewers should come up with them if they are worth their salt - and no one's done that well. "Rhythm is really strong for me and I feel really free to draw on lots of different influences - that's partly just from being from NZ, we are so far from everything that we are not so bound by history. That's how I am a NZ musician, I think. You can allow yourself to be influenced by anything and it's not really judged in the same way it is in Europe. People there like eclectic music, but they feel it should be on the timeline of history, and you [the artists] should really know about those things. Here we are so far away from everything that you just pick and choose." Recording with US indie rock legend Steve Albini is a goal many would hanker for and last year Leila got to tick that one off as well. An enthusiastic London friend, who had himself recorded with Albini, wanted to get her signed to the label his own band were on. Knowing she was heading to America he sent a demo to Albini on her behalf. The result was seven tracks recorded in one day, enough for a release that she is currently shopping around. "It's really different from my other CDs because it's solo and also not tailored much. Every time I would finish a song he would be really positive, so we would just move onto the next track. He did it all analogue, so it's a really nice sound. The piano wasn't great but the other instruments are quite good and his mics are really great. Then he mixed it live to tape. I can't hide anything, there's no Pro Tools and if it was a studio album I would have left stuff out, but I like it being really raw like that. I think it's good every so often to let your guard down." After trying to organise a self-release, as she has previously done here, Leila started sending it to labels and has an offer of release from a London label, plus another from Italy's national radio label to do a full length solo album. She likes albums as a snapshot of time. "I'm a perfectionist in my own way, but I know enough about myself to allow it to finish - just do something and put it out. Every couple of years is good I think to do an album." Her controlled performances at Auckland Festival made it apparent she is a perfectionist, so it's a surprise to learn she has some major gaps in her own musical knowledge - like about chords and her own voice (which for convenience we will tag as mezzo soprano). "The acapella song I opened my shows with is in B flat or A flat, so maybe that is my natural voice, I don't know. I think my range is from about E flat below middle C to the C above, the C above, middle C. And all of them work, they are very different but they all function properly!" She admits to being lazy with her voice, but says it has improved and matured lately, giving her greater confidence. "I've always been confident that I can express my emotion completely and that people will be able to hear that. That gives me confidence (in performance) and it's one reason why I like to compose and sing my own music so I can bring the emotion I want to the piece. Some people love being on stage, and you could tell from a kid I wasn't like that. I do it because I love the music and want to express something about the human condition." To date she has just located notes by ear but is currently getting lessons from a jazz pianist so she can communicate better with musicians. "I have studied music to a high level but I really don't think in keys or chords, I don't usually know what chord I am playing. I can analyse anything, but I don't have it in my hands and that's the trap of learning in a classical way. Learning classical you are not supposed to go and become a jazz player, or play crazy music like I do. You don't need to know what chord you are playing, you just read the music. If you're a jazz player it is coming from you and you need to know. I never found it easy so I just didn't learn it." For Leila music has always involved a lot of work. "It has never been an easy path, but my theory is that it's not easy for anyone, who I know, that's doing well. There are already thousands of pop musicians, even in NZ, who really care about it and are really good at it, so there's no point in trying to compete in that one field. It's best to just do what you do - at least then you are the only person doing it. For me to try and be passionate about performing jazz standards or to be more pop commercial would be stupid, it doesn't make sense to compete with all those people. So I just do what I do. It's better just to slog along doing your own thing I think." "I've done exactly what I want to do and achieved the things I would like to achieve. I was able to write a piece and sing with the NZSO, putting out albums and receiving great reviews for them. I've played around the world. Lately I have had a few record deals offered but it has only come from working really hard." |
