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Debrief Daily – Opinion: Women in Music

By Interview

Today, women in music are selling their souls. Thanks to Wendy Squires for seeking my thoughts and including in her opinion piece on Women in Music Videos: EXCERPT: “Leanne Kingwell agrees that the focus on the music video has taken the spotlight off the music, and women are the big losers in the shift. A talented singer/songwriter/performer, she’s feeling the pressure to conform to promote her latest album, the brilliant ‘Choking on Halos’ (check it out at leannekingwell.com), but is fighting it with all her might. “Writing it and singing does something for my soul,” she says. “Making videos does nothing for my soul. I want to focus on music. I don’t want to spend energy even think about the video. I don’t want to be seen. I want to be heard. It horrifies me that in some circumstances the video is considered just as or more important than the music.” So, what to do if you are a talented female artist who would prefer to have her music noticed without adding bouncing bums and breasts? In Leanne’s case, she self-produced her album as a means to sidestep the industry pressure and bull she encountered with albums past. And, as a woman, not a girl, she knows how easily her music could be overlooked should she not fit the nubile bustier and stockings stereotypes dominating Saturday morning music shows.” “Too many mainstream clips help reinforce a subliminal perception that only young sexy women are welcome in the music biz,” she rightfully complains. “There are stubborn indies who persevere through this. But we’ll never know how many women stopped trying to make music because the couldn’t ignore the subconscious message screaming that they should stop because they were old to crack it now.” “Engineers, scientists, lawyers and CEOs are allowed to grow older wiser, more experienced and respected,” Leanne Kingwell points out. “Music videos that pull focus on and exploit youth and sex do the opposite, especially for women. Age only improves my ability to write, record and sing better songs. But I’m constantly battling my own subconscious hang-ups on whether or not an audience will find me acceptable. “If I was a novel writer it would be like the book cover being more important than the pages between. And on top of that also having to spend considerable energy and acquire the skills to conceive and illustrate a front cover. But all a novel writer really should have to do is write an amazing novel.” If only it was that simple. After all, music is made for the ears, not the eyes. But as long as the music clip lives, I fear the song will remain the same and sex will sell singles and taut tail will tag along with talent. At least for women, that is.” FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://www.debriefdaily.com/news-and-opinion/women-in-music/  

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My Best Friend rocks the USA

By Animal Rescue, Cats, Feral Cats, Interview

Thanks to ‘Best Friends’ Magazine (USA) for featuring the story of how my rescued feral cat, Tiger, and I found each other and true love in their January/February 2015 edition: EXCERPT: “Tiger sent me a telepathic message to find him. I drove an hour out of town to a complete stranger’s house. The father of the girl who had rescued a litter of feral kittens answered the door with: “Leanne! What are you doing here?” PDF of the magazine here (go to pg. 69): http://cdn.coverstand.com/12453/237843/56beb3bfce15332ada2b5766cd8766f485450adc.2.pdf   Or read the full unedited version on my blog here:  https://yellingatthetv.wordpress.com/2015/02/13/my-valentine-is-a-telepathic-tiger/  

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Best of 2014 honours

By #rockStarDiary, Airplay, Best of 2104, Interview, Music, News, Radio

Thank you 2014 Rara’s Farm’s Rock Music Blog, Florida’s Almanac of Rock Music, placed ‘Choking On Halos’ in esteemed company in their official 2014 Rock Albums of the Year –> Full List HERE From Rara’s Rock Farm: Choking On Halos – Leanne Kingwell – This paragraph from my review sums the album up perfectly: “Kingwell is an Aussie chanteuse just dripping with potential. Her self-released new album is a breath of fresh air on the music landscape and boasts a handful of songs worthy of significant radio play on an album that offers non-stop diverse creative rock tracks.” If you like catchy pop rock, you need to check this out. (Our full review)   Rara’s Farm’s Rock Music Blog, also gave me the opportunity to honour my own 2014 Favourites in their 2014’s Best Album’s According to 2014’s Best feature, which you can read –> HERE Hard Rock Lounge at Valley FM 95.9, QLD Australia, placed our January 2014 interview in their “Best Of Interviews” list for 2014 and kindly celebrated the occasion with some Choking On Halos airplay.   WEBSITE:  https://leannekingwell.com/ iTUNES: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id898805049 AMAZON: http://tinyurl.com/nlhb3yu

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Jonathan L presents Leanne Kingwell on F-F-F-Fashion

By #rockStarDiary, Airplay, Interview, Music, News, Radio, Style

La La La La… Jonathan L is an esteemed American DJ, who produces his radio show “Lopsided World of L” out of Berlin, currently broadcasting his weekly show to the world via 10 stations in to 8 countries spanning 3 continents. Recently Jonathan asked me to kick off a new “Jonathan L presents International people on Beauty & Fashion” monthly series with my thoughts on personal style. You can read my thoughts by clicking HERE and scrolling down to my December 2014 “F-F-F-Fashion – Black Doesn’t Need Approval” contribution. Or see Jpeg of the article below. Meanwhile, Jonathan L is in the running to win “International Radio Personality” at the upcoming Worldwide Radio Summit in 
Los Angeles. Anyone can vote, so please do. Voting ends Friday February 27
. Sign up for free –> then 
Log in and go to ‘Awards Voting’  in the ‘International
’ section below ‘Domestic’. Go to ‘International Radio 
Personality’ –> VOTE Jonathan L –> scroll down below-
click on ‘Submit’. Jonathan L’s “Lopsided World of L” is blasted from Berlin, Germany, around the globe to: – Los Angeles, CA on Indie 103.1 – Phoenix, AZ on 93.9fm KWSS – Berlin, Germany on King FM – Athens, Greece on RockXS Radio – Merseyside, Liverpool, England on Mersey Radio – Sydney, Australia on 107.5 andHow.FM – New Zealand on ANDHOW RADIO – Tucson, AZ on Rock 102 KFMA – Gothenburg, Sweden on Radio Andra and; – Brasov, Romania on Romanian Rock Radio. Stations days & times here: ‪http://www.jlradio.com (With plenty of repeat plays of each episode.) WEBSITE:  https://leannekingwell.com/ iTUNES: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id898805049 AMAZON: http://tinyurl.com/nlhb3yu

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Leanne Kingwell talks to Guitar Girl Magazine

By Interview, Music, News

Me… on the fascinating subject of Me. Guitar Girl Magazine : –>> “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” Leanne Kingwell : –>> “Umm… wow… I’ll be 107 years old by then and even more opinionated than I am now!” Read the full interview >>> HERE http://www.guitargirlmag.com/interviews/interview-with-leanne-kingwell-on-her-new-music-writing-and-her-passion-for-animal-rescue   WEBSITE:  https://leannekingwell.com/ iTUNES: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id898805049 AMAZON: http://tinyurl.com/nlhb3yu

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Radio… Reviews… Interviews…

By Airplay, Interview, Music, News, Radio, Reviews

It’s been a busy few weeks. Listening to me…. reading about me… talking about me… Let me catch you up with some highlights from Radio, Reviews & Interviews!! RADIO… Houndstooth Radio – ‘Slingshot’ spinning on rotation since mid-September on one of the coolest playlists around; Houndstooth Radio. Handpicked by tastemaker DJ and programmer Kurt St. Thomas. Last time we checked (early November) ‘Slingshot’ had moved up to high rotation, getting a spin every 4 hours surrounded by the best of the best Alt and Indie Rock heroes. Lopsided World of L – ‘Sunshine’, ‘Kickin’ Doors’, ‘Slingshot’ and ‘Choking On Halos’ playlisted to air across FIVE WEEKS worth of Lopsided World of L, by radio legend Jonathon L, whose bonafide place in the history, (possibly invention of !?) Alternative Radio in the USA is verified by Wikipedia. Lopsided World of L is broadcast round the globe to 8 countries from 8 stations, with multiple repeat airings. Go Deep with Bruce Rave – Repeat plays for ‘Sunshine’ on ex Capitol Records A&R exec Bruce Rave’s syndicated weekly “Go Deep” radio show. Appearing on same playlist as David Bowie’s new single was a definite career highlight.  Just Another Menace Sunday – ‘This High’, ‘Sunshine’, ‘Saviour’ and ‘Diamond’ have all enjoyed spins plus I had the pleasure of an interview with discerning San Francisco radio icon, Dennis The Menace on his syndicated weekly show Just Another Menace Sunday. LISTEN to our INTERVIEW followed by the “Musical Sandwich” I had the privilege to program for the remainder of the hour. Selecting these songs was a joyful, unexpected adventure in time travel to the centre of my psyche, where I rummaged round to find and retrieve the very building blocks that made me. REVIEWS… Rara’s Rock Farm Magazine. (FL, USA) – ‘Choking On Halos’ won a cracking album review from Rara’s Farm Rock Magazine including such generous phrases as: “Kingwell is an Aussie chanteuse just dripping with potential…”, “… worthy of significant radio play“, “… consistently strong, powerful and attention-grabbing.”, “… quite captivating…” and ” … a damn good offering in a day where solid albums from start to finish are increasingly difficult to discover.” READ the FULL REVIEW here. INTERVIEWS… All 4 The Music – “Leanne Kingwell…an Australian musical treasure!” READ the full INTERVIEW here. TPPC.tv – The Pet Podcast Channel – Had a lovely chat to Robbin and Joseph Everett of TPPC.tv – ‘The Pets Teach Us So Much Blog’ in Jersey about using my music to help animals. READ their BLOG POST and LISTEN to our AUDIO INTERVIEW here (chat begins @ 21:35). WEBSITE:  https://leannekingwell.com/ iTUNES: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id898805049 AMAZON: http://tinyurl.com/nlhb3yu

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Dennis The Menace & philanthropcat VELVET, call SOS For Feral Cat Friends.

By Cats, Feral Cats, Interview, Music, News, Radio

Radio show “Just Another Menace Sunday”, shines a light on Feral Cat Care in the Alameda and Contra Costa Counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. You know you’re sharing the planet with some good humans, when an esteemed icon of radio, with an impressive career spanning four or so decades, including: a noteable debut at 13, as “New York’s Youngest D.J.” with his own “Top 25” show on the first U.S. cable radio station, frequent interviews with worlds biggest rock stars for likes of the “Rolling Stone Continuous History of Rock and Roll” and his own syndicated radio shows, plus a busy role as Founder / Creative Director of DTM Radio Networks and PopCult Radio… … that guy… when he offers to deviate from an established broadcast format and recording protocols, in the name of Helping Homeless Feral Cats in his local area, that is one seriously likeable fellow passenger on Spaceship Earth. That radio icon is Dennis The Menace, and the female behind the legend, is one gorgeous fluffy black philanthropcat, who answers to the name of “Velvet”. The plight of homeless cats is a cause is close to both hearts, having found each other in a shelter, where a patient Velvet had waited 8 long months for her human soul mates to walk through the door. But it was well worth the wait when Dennis and daughter Kate, swept her off her paws and into their home for a life of love and luxury. Her history prior to shelter life remains unknown however, and likely includes some difficult time on the streets. Not the kind of cats to take the past, nor subsequent good fortune for granted, Dennis and Velvet, kindly offered their airtime to help save feral friends. For the first time ever, deviating from the preferred intimacy and sound quality of an in person interview, for an Aussie to USA Skype call to chat about my “Sunshine” IndieGoGo Fundraiser set up to help the Feral Cat Foundation care for homeless cats in their area. In another historic first, Dennis completely rearranged his “Just Another Menace Sunday” syndication setup, to create a “hybrid” version, broadcasting our interview specially to local stations, with a regular version of the show beaming to other Countries and U.S. States. To hear our chat and find out how you can help Feral Cats, TUNE IN to…..  KEGR RADIO 97.7, Concord CA. www.kegr.org at 10pm PDT, Friday October 10th, and;  BFF.fm- Best Frequencies Forever in San Francisco http://bff.fm/ at 8am PDT, Sunday October 12th. Following our chat, I was awarded the honour of programming music for the remainder of the hour. Yippee ki-yay, motherfuckers! Don’t touch that dial, ’cause we’ll be serving up an incredible musical sandwich. Which happens to double as a public dissection of my deepest psyche, DNA code and possible alien celluar structure. Quite frankly I was blown away when told I was to be entrusted, without limitation, to drive the airwaves belonging to this respected, rare breed of DJ, who’s highly anticipated playlists are built the way they should be, (but so often aren’t these days) on pure heart and the discerning, solid gut instinct of a native New Yorker. I spent a delightful and invigorating afternoon trawling my record collection to find 14 tracks for you. On completion, I felt as though I’d spent the day visiting the most valuable, life changing friends I’ll ever know. I’m not going to tell you which 14 songs I selected. I want you to tune in and take the ride. But back to the cats for a minute… Having adopted a feral born kitten, self-appointed “Feral Cat Ambassador” TIGER KINGWELL, I am fully qualified to enthusiastically recommend these special, sensitive, beautiful…

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“Never Lend Your Axe to a Dick-head…”

By Interview, Music, News, Q&A, Video

And other pearls from the rock n’ roll road… Had fun this week re-living past musical lives answering First/Last questions for  HughShows Redux! For pearls of wisdom such as “never lend your axe to a dick-head” and more… Read the full Q&A HERE –>> http://hughshowsredux.blogspot.com/2014/09/firstlast-leanne-kingwell.html Do I still sound angry…? WEBSITE:  https://leannekingwell.com/ iTUNES: http://itunes.apple.com/album/id898805049 AMAZON: http://tinyurl.com/nlhb3yu

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