Leanne Kingwell hails from Australia’s live music capital, Melbourne…
She bought her first guitar in high school and formed her first band while earning a degree in Graphic Arts at University. Thus began a decade-long odyssey of constant live gigs that honed her performance and song-writing skills and took Leanne from small Underground venues with Happy Gas Stare, to a major record deal with Sugarlips, a solo career and Centre Stage Stadium shows.
She has been billed on major stages and national TV alongside the cream of the Australian music industry. After a powerhouse performance fronting legendary Australian Rock band The Angels in front of 30,000 fans at the Fremantle Stadium in Perth WA, the trendsetting street music press dubbed her, “the queen of Aussie Rock”.
Not one to be pigeon–holed, Leanne made the decision to cease playing live shows and take time out to write and record new songs.
After a lengthy hiatus, she re-emerged with her self-financed, predominantly self-penned, audacious debut solo album, “Show Ya What” to great reviews. Chuck Eddy, then the Senior Editor of Billboard Magazine, nominated it in his “Top Ten Albums of the Year” list. As did music writers from The Village Voice and other respected sources.
Resisting the opportunities for promotional tours in the USA and elsewhere, Leanne played live shows in Australia before once again hunkering down to write and demo her follow up album.
Always her own harshest critic, Leanne wanted to evolve her personal sensibilities, songwriting and musical style. She spent the next few years writing, demo-ing, recording, rejecting, re-imagining and re-arranging before her new songs were ready to record.
To help realize her vision, Leanne teamed with LA based Music Producer David J Holman, who had recorded multi platinum acts No Doubt and Bush amongst others. Her new album would be produced at his Cactus Studios in the Hollywood Hills.
Leanne’s decision to self-fund the entire project and so retain her creative autonomy, coupled with US visa restrictions, necessitated a long term recording schedule that required her to alternate three month residencies between Australia and the USA, working several time zones to keep her freelance Graphic Art work on track to finance the project.
It was a gruelling, resolve-testing schedule that would go on for over two years before manifesting Leanne’s musical vision into her second solo album, “Choking On Halos”.
EARLY ALBUM REVIEWS SOON TOUTED:
“Every song is memorable…”
“Leanne is trailblazer, a true artist.”
“A modern masterpiece!”
More than that:
Augured by lyrics loaded in cinematic metaphor and emotionally intelligent musical layers, “Choking On Halos” is an expertly crafted, easy-to-visualize 45 minute sonic mind-movie.
It is a brave and original musical journey which celebrates true individuality, perseverance, loss, fragility, anger, redemption and joy.
But, first and foremost, “Choking On Halos” is testament to Leanne’s indefatigable passion for music and creative independence.
