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| Hometown | Kelowna, Canada |
| Genres | |
| Band Members | Leah West (vocals, guitar) ~ Marty Rifkin (Producer) ~ ... » more |
| Achievements |
|
| Upcoming Shows | None |
| Contact Information: | |
| Performing Rights Society: | BMI |
Since releasing her debut album "Beyond Words" just last year in July 2009, Leah has had quite the ride! In the Fall of 2009, she headed up a very successful tv, radio, media and concert tour across Canada and US. Then in March 2010, Leah learned that...
Since releasing her debut album "Beyond Words" just last year in July 2009, Leah has had quite the ride! In the Fall of 2009, she headed up a very successful tv, radio, media and concert tour across Canada and US. Then in March 2010, Leah learned that one of her songs was stolen by some phony producers in Slovakia and illegally entered into Eurovision, a huge contest in Europe. The scandal got lots of media attention both here in North America, as well as in Europe. Leah won the battle and also gained lots of new fans around the globe for her hit song "Spring". Leah's songs can be heard all over the world including major retail chains like Macy's, on the radio and in the many iPods of her growing fan base!
Leah West is a Canadian-American Singer-Songwriter who grew up in New Jersey, near NYC. In 2005, Leah moved to Kelowna, BC, Canada. Leah is a very prolific songwriter who writes all her own songs and is currently writing for her next album, as well as, several soundtracks. She has penned over 150 songs to date with songs in many genres. She is currently working with the very talented producer, Marty Rifkin, who has worked with Bruce Springsteen, Jewel, Tom Petty, Elton John, Shawn Mullins, Dwight Yoakam, Leanne Rimes, and Glen Campbell to name just a few.
Leah is also a trained dancer (Garden State Ballet), actor (Lee Strasberg NYC), and visual artist. She speaks English, Spanish and some French, and is able to legally work in the US, Canada, and Europe. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA), and NACA.org. Her debut CD "Beyond Words" is for sale on her web site, iTunes, or CD Baby.
Leah West is a Canadian-American Singer-Songwriter who grew up in New Jersey, near NYC. In 2005, Leah moved to Kelowna, BC, Canada. Leah is a very prolific songwriter who writes all her own songs and is currently writing for her next album, as well as, several soundtracks. She has penned over 150 songs to date with songs in many genres. She is currently working with the very talented producer, Marty Rifkin, who has worked with Bruce Springsteen, Jewel, Tom Petty, Elton John, Shawn Mullins, Dwight Yoakam, Leanne Rimes, and Glen Campbell to name just a few.
Leah is also a trained dancer (Garden State Ballet), actor (Lee Strasberg NYC), and visual artist. She speaks English, Spanish and some French, and is able to legally work in the US, Canada, and Europe. She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA), and NACA.org. Her debut CD "Beyond Words" is for sale on her web site, iTunes, or CD Baby.
Photos
Videos
Top 40 in Pop, May 2011
Top 40 in Pop, May 2011
Artist Lives a Full Life by Chris Stanford on the Front Cover of eVent Magazine
Not much fazes Leah West these days, and after losing a dear friend, she‘s meeting the challenges of life head on. Since moving to Kelowna in 2005, she has been working on her newest creative...
Not much fazes Leah West these days, and after losing a dear friend, she‘s meeting the challenges of life head on. Since moving to Kelowna in 2005, she has been working on her newest creative...
Artist Victim of Euro-Pirates by Chris Stanford of Kelowna.com
A Kelowna singer and songwriter who had one of her tunes pirated and entered into the huge Eurovision music contest overseas says she is getting over her outrage and looking to make something...
A Kelowna singer and songwriter who had one of her tunes pirated and entered into the huge Eurovision music contest overseas says she is getting over her outrage and looking to make something...
Artist Lives a Full Life by Chris Stanford on the Front Cover of eVent Magazine
Not much fazes Leah West these days, and after losing a dear friend, she‘s meeting the challenges of life head on. Since moving to Kelowna in 2005, she has been working on her newest creative career as a singer/songwriter and with the upcoming release of Beyond Words, her first CD, she‘s ready to take on the music world as well. “One of the last things my friend said before she died of breast cancer last year was ‘Life is short, so go out and live it‘,” she said. “I used to be afraid sometimes, but not anymore.” To celebrate the release of her independent debut effort, West will play the Bohemian Cafe on Bernard Avenue June 12, with Tom Stinson on guitar and Trevor Salloum on percussion. It‘s also the first night of the establishment’s new weekly live entertainment program through the summer. A trained ballet dancer, actor, visual artist and sometimes model, West was born in New Jersey, and lived there until the age of 17. After a two-year stint at the University of Delaware, where she studied the emerging discipline of neuroscience, she moved to New York City and immersed herself in the acting world, studying for a year at the famed Lee Strasberg school of acting. With a move to Los Angeles, she soon found herself auditioning for acting roles in Hollywood films, and eventually earned parts in movies starring the likes of Tom Cruise, Annette Benning and Gary Shandling. She stayed there for five years, in the process working on a three year-long documentary film project chronicling the lives of native tribe in Costa Rica and their medicine men. Spending two months a year there, West and a small crew lived with the tribe and ate the same food they ate. With her acting career on pause for the moment, West is putting her energy into music full-time. She recalled that she was singing songs since before she can remember. “My mom says when I was a baby I was always singing. I started writing songs when I was five . . . of course they were horrible.” Early songwriting attempts aside, West has always pursued the creative side of life, and applied herself to improving at the craft of penning words and music. “There’s the muse and then there’s the discipline,” she said of the process. “The muse gets the initial idea – sometimes it’s the guitar sound, sometimes it’s the words, but I always carry a tape recorder in my bag.” Beyond Words, going by the six-song advance sampler, is a carefully-crafted collection of pop songs showcasing West’s vocal abilities and her talents as a songwriter. Recorded and produced by California-based Marty Rifkin over the past year-and-a-half – he‘s worked with everybody from Bruce Springsteen to Jewel to Tom Petty – the 12 songs are a collaboration of two minds, according to West. While she writes all the lyrics and contributes musical ideas of her own, Rifkin is responsible for the finished arrangements and overall sound of the tunes. With influences from performers like Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan and Peter Gabriel, the music runs the gamut from the light-hearted jangly pop of Orange Bliss, written about a beautiful California day, to the slower harmony-laden Punch Drunk Lullaby and the universal sentiment of the title track, Beyond Words. The songs reveal a polished and confident performer, capable of translating sensitive lyrics to music, all wrapped with lush production. With her varied experiences, West has much to draw on for her songwriting and has already penned much of the material for a second CD. She will play a return engagement at the Bohemian Cafe in August. Tickets for both shows will be available at the door. She has also used her connections south of the border, and has lined up several shows in the United States, mostly playing to college crowds. With the pending release of her first CD though, she is clearly setting her sights on carving out her niche in the music business. In typical fashion, she is straightforward about what has drawn her to pursue her dreams. “I have goals, but I don‘t want to say I have big expectations. I’m going to continue to write and do my own thing and if people want to be part of it, that‘s great. But I‘d rather do nothing than be mediocre.”
Not much fazes Leah West these days, and after losing a dear friend, she‘s meeting the challenges of life head on. Since moving to Kelowna in 2005, she has been working on her newest creative career as a singer/songwriter and with the upcoming release of Beyond Words, her first CD, she‘s ready to take on the music world as well. “One of the last things my friend said before she died of breast cancer last year was ‘Life is short, so go out and live it‘,” she said. “I used to be afraid sometimes, but not anymore.” To celebrate the release of her independent debut effort, West will play the Bohemian Cafe on Bernard Avenue June 12, with Tom Stinson on guitar and Trevor Salloum on percussion. It‘s also the first night of the establishment’s new weekly live entertainment program through the summer. A trained ballet dancer, actor, visual artist and sometimes model, West was born in New Jersey, and lived there until the age of 17. After a two-year stint at the University of Delaware, where she studied the emerging discipline of neuroscience, she moved to New York City and immersed herself in the acting world, studying for a year at the famed Lee Strasberg school of acting. With a move to Los Angeles, she soon found herself auditioning for acting roles in Hollywood films, and eventually earned parts in movies starring the likes of Tom Cruise, Annette Benning and Gary Shandling. She stayed there for five years, in the process working on a three year-long documentary film project chronicling the lives of native tribe in Costa Rica and their medicine men. Spending two months a year there, West and a small crew lived with the tribe and ate the same food they ate. With her acting career on pause for the moment, West is putting her energy into music full-time. She recalled that she was singing songs since before she can remember. “My mom says when I was a baby I was always singing. I started writing songs when I was five . . . of course they were horrible.” Early songwriting attempts aside, West has always pursued the creative side of life, and applied herself to improving at the craft of penning words and music. “There’s the muse and then there’s the discipline,” she said of the process. “The muse gets the initial idea – sometimes it’s the guitar sound, sometimes it’s the words, but I always carry a tape recorder in my bag.” Beyond Words, going by the six-song advance sampler, is a carefully-crafted collection of pop songs showcasing West’s vocal abilities and her talents as a songwriter. Recorded and produced by California-based Marty Rifkin over the past year-and-a-half – he‘s worked with everybody from Bruce Springsteen to Jewel to Tom Petty – the 12 songs are a collaboration of two minds, according to West. While she writes all the lyrics and contributes musical ideas of her own, Rifkin is responsible for the finished arrangements and overall sound of the tunes. With influences from performers like Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan and Peter Gabriel, the music runs the gamut from the light-hearted jangly pop of Orange Bliss, written about a beautiful California day, to the slower harmony-laden Punch Drunk Lullaby and the universal sentiment of the title track, Beyond Words. The songs reveal a polished and confident performer, capable of translating sensitive lyrics to music, all wrapped with lush production. With her varied experiences, West has much to draw on for her songwriting and has already penned much of the material for a second CD. She will play a return engagement at the Bohemian Cafe in August. Tickets for both shows will be available at the door. She has also used her connections south of the border, and has lined up several shows in the United States, mostly playing to college crowds. With the pending release of her first CD though, she is clearly setting her sights on carving out her niche in the music business. In typical fashion, she is straightforward about what has drawn her to pursue her dreams. “I have goals, but I don‘t want to say I have big expectations. I’m going to continue to write and do my own thing and if people want to be part of it, that‘s great. But I‘d rather do nothing than be mediocre.”
Artist Victim of Euro-Pirates by Chris Stanford of Kelowna.com
A Kelowna singer and songwriter who had one of her tunes pirated and entered into the huge Eurovision music contest overseas says she is getting over her outrage and looking to make something positive out of the experience. “At first I felt violated and I was angry,” said Leah West from New Jersey, where she used to live and where she was visiting family last week. “The first 36 hours I didn’t sleep much . . . I was pretty upset.” According to West, she penned the song, entitled simply enough, Spring, by herself in January and February of 2008, and she recorded it in spring of that year in Los Angeles with noted producer Marty Rifkin – who has worked with Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and others – at the controls. It was released in 2009 on her CD Beyond Words and the song and video have been up on Youtube for some time. The pop tune, about falling in love and the advent of a new season, has a suitably upbeat feel and catchy melody and it caught he ears of some producers in Slovakia, who liked it so much they though they’d enter in the music contest. The only problem was, they neglected to credit West and in fact claimed they had written it themselves. “On Monday, March 8, I received a notice (via email) from someone in Slovakia asking if this was in fact my song,” said West. “I was little bit confused at first because it was a Youtube video and it was obvious someone else had mixed it , but was clearly my song Spring,” she added. “Everything was the same, the guitars and everything. “The person said they were confused when they went to my website (Leahwest.com) and they discovered that I was actually the author.” The Eurovision contest, which has been running since the late ’50s, is arguably the highest-profile song competition around, and helped launch the careers of ABBA and Celine Dion and Katrina and the Waves, among others. Needless to say, when West tracked down the video, which was the Slovakian singer’s entry into the preliminary phase of the competition, West was horrified – and initially outraged. As the owner of the copyright on the song, she alone can decide how it is used, let alone anyone recording it an passing it off as their work. “I’d never even heard of Eurovison and I’d obviously never heard of this singer,” said West. Apparently sung in the native Slovak language by Olesova, when comparing the two versions side-by-side, it’s glaringly obvious that it’s West’s handiwork. There is far too much about the two songs that is similar, if not exactly the same for it to be any sort of coincidence. At first West was irate and in her first contact through Facebook with Olesova and the producers who claimed Spring as theirs, and she let them know of her displeasure. But now that a little time has passed, West admits she sees things differently. “She’s young, she’s gorgeous and full of talent,” said West of Olesova. “And it’s obvious she’s going to be a big star.” “Actually I discovered that the singer had nothing go do with the origin of this whole thing,” said West, who has since corresponded with Olesova a half-dozen times. “I will probably never know where they found my song Spring but when you put yourself on the web and you’re instantly worldwide. “But this whole experience has definitely show me way more good than bad,” said West. The whole situation turned into something of a sensation in Slovakia, making the front pages of the papers said West, but since it hit the media, she has received nothing but support. “My fans have made me cry tears of joy over the past few days. They’re so devoted,” she said, noting that one fan overseas spent some eight hours going through video to find the footage of Olesova singing the song. According to West, Olesova’s version of the song was aired Jan. 22 on Slovakian television, and it showed little change from the original, other than the language differences. While it apparently didn’t make it past the preliminary stages of the contest, the attention generated by it’s inclusion may end up being a good thing. West is currently returning to her temporary base of Montreal, where she will spend the next few weeks brushing up on her French, before returning to Kelowna in April and she is hoping that despite the controversy involving her song, she can turn the publicity to the positive and move her career forward, which given her upbeat personality will likely be the result. And as it turns out, Olesova in fact liked West’s song so much that she asked if she could record Spring, legally this time, on an upcoming album and West says she be happy to let her do it – as long as he gets the credit she deserves this time around.
A Kelowna singer and songwriter who had one of her tunes pirated and entered into the huge Eurovision music contest overseas says she is getting over her outrage and looking to make something positive out of the experience. “At first I felt violated and I was angry,” said Leah West from New Jersey, where she used to live and where she was visiting family last week. “The first 36 hours I didn’t sleep much . . . I was pretty upset.” According to West, she penned the song, entitled simply enough, Spring, by herself in January and February of 2008, and she recorded it in spring of that year in Los Angeles with noted producer Marty Rifkin – who has worked with Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and others – at the controls. It was released in 2009 on her CD Beyond Words and the song and video have been up on Youtube for some time. The pop tune, about falling in love and the advent of a new season, has a suitably upbeat feel and catchy melody and it caught he ears of some producers in Slovakia, who liked it so much they though they’d enter in the music contest. The only problem was, they neglected to credit West and in fact claimed they had written it themselves. “On Monday, March 8, I received a notice (via email) from someone in Slovakia asking if this was in fact my song,” said West. “I was little bit confused at first because it was a Youtube video and it was obvious someone else had mixed it , but was clearly my song Spring,” she added. “Everything was the same, the guitars and everything. “The person said they were confused when they went to my website (Leahwest.com) and they discovered that I was actually the author.” The Eurovision contest, which has been running since the late ’50s, is arguably the highest-profile song competition around, and helped launch the careers of ABBA and Celine Dion and Katrina and the Waves, among others. Needless to say, when West tracked down the video, which was the Slovakian singer’s entry into the preliminary phase of the competition, West was horrified – and initially outraged. As the owner of the copyright on the song, she alone can decide how it is used, let alone anyone recording it an passing it off as their work. “I’d never even heard of Eurovison and I’d obviously never heard of this singer,” said West. Apparently sung in the native Slovak language by Olesova, when comparing the two versions side-by-side, it’s glaringly obvious that it’s West’s handiwork. There is far too much about the two songs that is similar, if not exactly the same for it to be any sort of coincidence. At first West was irate and in her first contact through Facebook with Olesova and the producers who claimed Spring as theirs, and she let them know of her displeasure. But now that a little time has passed, West admits she sees things differently. “She’s young, she’s gorgeous and full of talent,” said West of Olesova. “And it’s obvious she’s going to be a big star.” “Actually I discovered that the singer had nothing go do with the origin of this whole thing,” said West, who has since corresponded with Olesova a half-dozen times. “I will probably never know where they found my song Spring but when you put yourself on the web and you’re instantly worldwide. “But this whole experience has definitely show me way more good than bad,” said West. The whole situation turned into something of a sensation in Slovakia, making the front pages of the papers said West, but since it hit the media, she has received nothing but support. “My fans have made me cry tears of joy over the past few days. They’re so devoted,” she said, noting that one fan overseas spent some eight hours going through video to find the footage of Olesova singing the song. According to West, Olesova’s version of the song was aired Jan. 22 on Slovakian television, and it showed little change from the original, other than the language differences. While it apparently didn’t make it past the preliminary stages of the contest, the attention generated by it’s inclusion may end up being a good thing. West is currently returning to her temporary base of Montreal, where she will spend the next few weeks brushing up on her French, before returning to Kelowna in April and she is hoping that despite the controversy involving her song, she can turn the publicity to the positive and move her career forward, which given her upbeat personality will likely be the result. And as it turns out, Olesova in fact liked West’s song so much that she asked if she could record Spring, legally this time, on an upcoming album and West says she be happy to let her do it – as long as he gets the credit she deserves this time around.
One2One With Leah West by Angie Courtine
While most Canadian musicians end up moving to the United States, Leah West went the other way. This American Singer/Songwriter/ Actress moved to Canada to put herself in our “Vibrant Canadian Music Scene” Although on Leah’s myspace account it’s classified as Rock / Indie/ Pop, I’m really hesitant to place her in a categorized box. West is definitely a surprising listen with an acoustic sound that only adds to her music. She has a unique talent for writing songs with different kinds of melodies, and, each song seems to captivate her audience with seemingly personal experiences. Her seductive high energy vocals can lend credence to the "pop" sound of her music but her melodic vocals lead to a different venue. What a lovely contradiction which remains haunting the listener for days to follow. Currently working with producer, Marty Rifkin (Bruce Springsteen, Jewel, Tom Petty, Elton John, Dwight Yoakam, Leanne Rimes, and Glen Campbell) Leah West is quickly rising to the top and One2One had the opportunity to interview this artist. O2O: Do you find there's a limitation to being a female singer in Canada? L.W.: No I don't think that it's a limitation being a woman at all. Women have a beautiful perspective of the world, totally different from men. We need to embrace both perspectives in order to acheive balance in our society. Also, I think if you are going to be a female artist, Canada is a great place to be. It's a very supportive environment here for all types of music, and all types of artists. I also try to see the opportunities in any given situation. I usually try to look at limitations as simply challenges from which to grow and to try to find the answers to. O2O: Where do you find your inspiration? L.W.: Everywhere, literally. Nature, love, relationships, our spirituality, things of beauty, as well as times of tragedy. A song is just another way to convey a message or tell a story. There are lots of stories to tell in this world. O2O: Which song that you've recorded is your favorite? Why? L.W.: "Beyond Words" because I knew it wasn't going to be a radio single and I had free reign to make it true to my original spiritual idea without compromising the length or the authenticity. When I wrote it, I knew it was a magical song. And when my producer, Marty Rifkin and I started to lay down the first track of the acoustic guitar, I got chills. O2O: Who are your influences? L.W.:Wow, this would be a long, long list, so I'll try to refrain from going overboard. Sarah McLachlan, Peter Gabriel, Sheryl Crow, Sting, Cat Stevens, Eva Cassidy, U2, Radiohead, Ella Fitzgerald, Simon & Garfunkle, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, Loreena McKennitt, Jann Arden, Alanis Morissette, Ennio Morricone, Otis Redding, Damien Rice, Eddie Vedder, and Paula Cole. I grew up playing piano, so a lot of the great classical composers really shaped me, too. I've only recently started playing and writing on guitar, instead of piano. Some amazing new musical discoveries for me are Tom Stinson, Ryan Donn, and Kevin Parent. O2O: How do you define success? L.W.: When you find peace in your heart, in your soul, and in your life. O2O: When did you know that you wanted to become a singer? L.W.: There's a difference between wanting to sing and becoming a singer. I've always been singing. According to my parents, when I was a baby I sang more than talked! I always knew I loved the arts and I've explored a lot of different avenues creatively. It was when I started to have this giant pile of songs I wrote and realized that I needed to get them out of me. Once I started recording, it was an old question that I finally felt like there was an answer to. I realized how much I needed, not wanted, to sing. It was a necessary step that I just knew I needed to make. I think it's when you can't live without something, it just becomes a part of you. Living without music, for me, is failing to live my life as I was destined to. That's when I became a singer. O2O: Celine Dion doesn't talk for the day when she is performing... do you have any rituals before a show? L.W.: No, I actually talk the day of a show! I used to be a total perfectionist and to a large degree, I still am. But with time and experience, I've learned that there is always a "better", always a "to-do list" and we will die someday with things still left undone. I'm hear to enjoy life, help others and learn. If I get too crazy with perfection, I miss the point. I've learned that most people want something real and passionate, not something sterile and perfect. In general, I try to rest before a show, but sometimes you have to perform on no sleep and let adrenaline and the energy from the crowd carry you. I try to stay hydrated throughout the day and during a performance. I can usually sing for a good 3-4 hours, but after that, I have to really work hard to maintain pitch and energy. I guess I'm pretty laid-back about my regime. Sometimes I drink hot tea and honey, other times I have a glass of wine. O2O: What do you do for fun? L.W.: Walk with my dog, hang with friends and family, I like boating, skiing, kayaking, biking. I love being in nature and traveling. I also paint with oils and I love to dance! O2O: Where do you see yourself in 5 years? L.W.: I want to put out a few albums. I've written over 150 songs, so I have a lot of albums to record! I would think that I've done a few more tours, and have made a bit of a name for myself in music. I want to earn the respect of my peers. I'd also like to start a family in a few years. No matter what, I hope to always make music for the rest of my life. O2O: What are the projects that you are working on right now? L.W.: My next album due out sometime summer 2010. Planning another tour for 2010 as well. I learned a lot from my first tour in autumn 2009. I hope to keep learning, expanding my horizons, meeting new and interesting people and making music.
While most Canadian musicians end up moving to the United States, Leah West went the other way. This American Singer/Songwriter/ Actress moved to Canada to put herself in our “Vibrant Canadian Music Scene” Although on Leah’s myspace account it’s classified as Rock / Indie/ Pop, I’m really hesitant to place her in a categorized box. West is definitely a surprising listen with an acoustic sound that only adds to her music. She has a unique talent for writing songs with different kinds of melodies, and, each song seems to captivate her audience with seemingly personal experiences. Her seductive high energy vocals can lend credence to the "pop" sound of her music but her melodic vocals lead to a different venue. What a lovely contradiction which remains haunting the listener for days to follow. Currently working with producer, Marty Rifkin (Bruce Springsteen, Jewel, Tom Petty, Elton John, Dwight Yoakam, Leanne Rimes, and Glen Campbell) Leah West is quickly rising to the top and One2One had the opportunity to interview this artist. O2O: Do you find there's a limitation to being a female singer in Canada? L.W.: No I don't think that it's a limitation being a woman at all. Women have a beautiful perspective of the world, totally different from men. We need to embrace both perspectives in order to acheive balance in our society. Also, I think if you are going to be a female artist, Canada is a great place to be. It's a very supportive environment here for all types of music, and all types of artists. I also try to see the opportunities in any given situation. I usually try to look at limitations as simply challenges from which to grow and to try to find the answers to. O2O: Where do you find your inspiration? L.W.: Everywhere, literally. Nature, love, relationships, our spirituality, things of beauty, as well as times of tragedy. A song is just another way to convey a message or tell a story. There are lots of stories to tell in this world. O2O: Which song that you've recorded is your favorite? Why? L.W.: "Beyond Words" because I knew it wasn't going to be a radio single and I had free reign to make it true to my original spiritual idea without compromising the length or the authenticity. When I wrote it, I knew it was a magical song. And when my producer, Marty Rifkin and I started to lay down the first track of the acoustic guitar, I got chills. O2O: Who are your influences? L.W.:Wow, this would be a long, long list, so I'll try to refrain from going overboard. Sarah McLachlan, Peter Gabriel, Sheryl Crow, Sting, Cat Stevens, Eva Cassidy, U2, Radiohead, Ella Fitzgerald, Simon & Garfunkle, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, Loreena McKennitt, Jann Arden, Alanis Morissette, Ennio Morricone, Otis Redding, Damien Rice, Eddie Vedder, and Paula Cole. I grew up playing piano, so a lot of the great classical composers really shaped me, too. I've only recently started playing and writing on guitar, instead of piano. Some amazing new musical discoveries for me are Tom Stinson, Ryan Donn, and Kevin Parent. O2O: How do you define success? L.W.: When you find peace in your heart, in your soul, and in your life. O2O: When did you know that you wanted to become a singer? L.W.: There's a difference between wanting to sing and becoming a singer. I've always been singing. According to my parents, when I was a baby I sang more than talked! I always knew I loved the arts and I've explored a lot of different avenues creatively. It was when I started to have this giant pile of songs I wrote and realized that I needed to get them out of me. Once I started recording, it was an old question that I finally felt like there was an answer to. I realized how much I needed, not wanted, to sing. It was a necessary step that I just knew I needed to make. I think it's when you can't live without something, it just becomes a part of you. Living without music, for me, is failing to live my life as I was destined to. That's when I became a singer. O2O: Celine Dion doesn't talk for the day when she is performing... do you have any rituals before a show? L.W.: No, I actually talk the day of a show! I used to be a total perfectionist and to a large degree, I still am. But with time and experience, I've learned that there is always a "better", always a "to-do list" and we will die someday with things still left undone. I'm hear to enjoy life, help others and learn. If I get too crazy with perfection, I miss the point. I've learned that most people want something real and passionate, not something sterile and perfect. In general, I try to rest before a show, but sometimes you have to perform on no sleep and let adrenaline and the energy from the crowd carry you. I try to stay hydrated throughout the day and during a performance. I can usually sing for a good 3-4 hours, but after that, I have to really work hard to maintain pitch and energy. I guess I'm pretty laid-back about my regime. Sometimes I drink hot tea and honey, other times I have a glass of wine. O2O: What do you do for fun? L.W.: Walk with my dog, hang with friends and family, I like boating, skiing, kayaking, biking. I love being in nature and traveling. I also paint with oils and I love to dance! O2O: Where do you see yourself in 5 years? L.W.: I want to put out a few albums. I've written over 150 songs, so I have a lot of albums to record! I would think that I've done a few more tours, and have made a bit of a name for myself in music. I want to earn the respect of my peers. I'd also like to start a family in a few years. No matter what, I hope to always make music for the rest of my life. O2O: What are the projects that you are working on right now? L.W.: My next album due out sometime summer 2010. Planning another tour for 2010 as well. I learned a lot from my first tour in autumn 2009. I hope to keep learning, expanding my horizons, meeting new and interesting people and making music.
A RENAISSANCE WOMAN by Alexander Hutt
When Leah West answers the phone, I already know that she is going to be one of the most charming singers that I have interviewed. Born in New Jersey but transported to Kelowna, BC, Canada in 2005, the singer-songwriter has a pleasing voice that is synonymous with her sensational imagery from her new CD Beyond Words. West is also a trained ballet dancer, actor, visual artist and model, but at the moment she is concentrating mostly on her music. “Life unfolds in different ways. I haven’t done any modelling for a while. Acting is something on the backburner for now, as all my energy is on my music and touring.” West has appeared in a number of smaller roles in movies. “Music is much closer to my hear, where I can express what is going on in my heart. It’s expressing the emotional creativity that I have inside.” That doesn’t mean that West cannot combine the two disciplines, as she also writes songs that appear on soundtracks for television and movies. Right now, she is diligently working on the completion of a three year long documentary film about the medicine men in the native tribes of Costa Rica, where West spent six months (over 3 years) in a native village. “I have had some of the best experiences of my life when it was actually really bad. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like things to get bad, but I actually got really sick. There’s lots of bugs and parasites in the jungle and not being used to a jungle atmosphere, or not being isolated from the bacteria. The documentary was not just about the tribe, but also some of the medicinal properties of the jungle. One of the tribesmen has his own little medicinal garden. He realized that some of tribes people were leaving the village and not discovering the medicine of the tribe. I learned about all this when I got really sick, but the people of the village were so good to me. These people really have nothing, but they are just so generous and pure. In their eyes there is that innocence of a child that you just don’t get in our culture. To spread her music, West has a MySpace page, as well as a Facebook page and a personal website (www.leahwest.com). “MySpace is an interesting phenomenon, and Facebook as well. MySpace is a place for musicians because there is some sort of interaction. People can leave comments, write emails and there is more of an interaction going on as human beings. We are social beings, and the future is already here. MySpace is going to continue to evolve even though some say it’s second best to Facebook. I don’t know how many millions of people are on Facebook, but you don’t have to worry about them disappearing soon.” On September 16th, West is going to be doing a live show at Simon Fraser University, which is not the most common site for a show. “I’m actually doing two shows and one is during the day. It’s the last show of the Summer Concert series being held at SFU, it’s an outdoor event and is free, from 11-2. I’m also doing another show on the 16th at Café Deux Soleils.” There is plenty to look forward to from Leah, as she is appearing on Urban Rush on September 15th, then will depart on a seven week tour after the Summer Concert series. Being a visual artist, West has included her work in the album artwork: her piece “Solace” is on the back cover. “They are both outlets for my creativity, they are both a part of me. They just express themselves in different ways. I am a visual person and a musical person. It’s like sometimes you want to cook and sometimes you want to eat out. Sometimes we are joyous, sometimes we are angry.” “The tie into the whole visual aspect to me in Beyond Words is that I can lay all this poetry and these lyrics out and we can chat while there is so much behind what we are saying. It’s like one of those experiences where you could be talking about someone and they just call you, even after two, three years.” “Pets know when we are sad and they are pretty amazing that way. They don’t have the layers of garbage that we do. They are more intuitive than we are. It’s about having this energy with someone and not having to speak it; that can be expressed through song or a painting. It’s also about how different people see it.” On her personal website, West maintains a blog with a wide range of topics. “My blog is kind of all over the place, but then again so am I, so it’s just me being me. For a long time, especially when I was living in Hollywood, I was trying to be something else. I’m not saying that’s the way it has to be, I just feel more comfortable in my own skin. Sometimes [the topic] is just info or something random that happens to me.” “I just want to share my thoughts with people. Some people are engineers that are able to make beautiful buildings. One of the things I can contribute to the big giant pie is the ability to express feelings that some people might not be able to express themselves or don’t know how to, opening them up to a new world.”
When Leah West answers the phone, I already know that she is going to be one of the most charming singers that I have interviewed. Born in New Jersey but transported to Kelowna, BC, Canada in 2005, the singer-songwriter has a pleasing voice that is synonymous with her sensational imagery from her new CD Beyond Words. West is also a trained ballet dancer, actor, visual artist and model, but at the moment she is concentrating mostly on her music. “Life unfolds in different ways. I haven’t done any modelling for a while. Acting is something on the backburner for now, as all my energy is on my music and touring.” West has appeared in a number of smaller roles in movies. “Music is much closer to my hear, where I can express what is going on in my heart. It’s expressing the emotional creativity that I have inside.” That doesn’t mean that West cannot combine the two disciplines, as she also writes songs that appear on soundtracks for television and movies. Right now, she is diligently working on the completion of a three year long documentary film about the medicine men in the native tribes of Costa Rica, where West spent six months (over 3 years) in a native village. “I have had some of the best experiences of my life when it was actually really bad. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like things to get bad, but I actually got really sick. There’s lots of bugs and parasites in the jungle and not being used to a jungle atmosphere, or not being isolated from the bacteria. The documentary was not just about the tribe, but also some of the medicinal properties of the jungle. One of the tribesmen has his own little medicinal garden. He realized that some of tribes people were leaving the village and not discovering the medicine of the tribe. I learned about all this when I got really sick, but the people of the village were so good to me. These people really have nothing, but they are just so generous and pure. In their eyes there is that innocence of a child that you just don’t get in our culture. To spread her music, West has a MySpace page, as well as a Facebook page and a personal website (www.leahwest.com). “MySpace is an interesting phenomenon, and Facebook as well. MySpace is a place for musicians because there is some sort of interaction. People can leave comments, write emails and there is more of an interaction going on as human beings. We are social beings, and the future is already here. MySpace is going to continue to evolve even though some say it’s second best to Facebook. I don’t know how many millions of people are on Facebook, but you don’t have to worry about them disappearing soon.” On September 16th, West is going to be doing a live show at Simon Fraser University, which is not the most common site for a show. “I’m actually doing two shows and one is during the day. It’s the last show of the Summer Concert series being held at SFU, it’s an outdoor event and is free, from 11-2. I’m also doing another show on the 16th at Café Deux Soleils.” There is plenty to look forward to from Leah, as she is appearing on Urban Rush on September 15th, then will depart on a seven week tour after the Summer Concert series. Being a visual artist, West has included her work in the album artwork: her piece “Solace” is on the back cover. “They are both outlets for my creativity, they are both a part of me. They just express themselves in different ways. I am a visual person and a musical person. It’s like sometimes you want to cook and sometimes you want to eat out. Sometimes we are joyous, sometimes we are angry.” “The tie into the whole visual aspect to me in Beyond Words is that I can lay all this poetry and these lyrics out and we can chat while there is so much behind what we are saying. It’s like one of those experiences where you could be talking about someone and they just call you, even after two, three years.” “Pets know when we are sad and they are pretty amazing that way. They don’t have the layers of garbage that we do. They are more intuitive than we are. It’s about having this energy with someone and not having to speak it; that can be expressed through song or a painting. It’s also about how different people see it.” On her personal website, West maintains a blog with a wide range of topics. “My blog is kind of all over the place, but then again so am I, so it’s just me being me. For a long time, especially when I was living in Hollywood, I was trying to be something else. I’m not saying that’s the way it has to be, I just feel more comfortable in my own skin. Sometimes [the topic] is just info or something random that happens to me.” “I just want to share my thoughts with people. Some people are engineers that are able to make beautiful buildings. One of the things I can contribute to the big giant pie is the ability to express feelings that some people might not be able to express themselves or don’t know how to, opening them up to a new world.”
Sex Soul Rock n Roll by John Drake
“Oh, new female pop singer.” “Hey, it’s out of Canada.” “Quirky lyrics and guitars.” Tuned out yet? After hearing any of these to describe a musician or a body of work I will usually dismiss it as garbage. Move on and listen to music that I know I’ll enjoy. Well, forget presuppositions. This girl can actually sing. And while I think the genre of female pop/acoustic-alternative is f#$%d dry at this point, Leah West opens it back up for me. Her music is optimistic without being obnoxious and she’s got a remarkable talent for making her voice sound fresh in every song, even though she’s got a blue million of them. She’s apparently making a lot of people very happy with her music and there’s plenty of it to listen to for free on her website. http://www.leahwest.com Leah West receives an extra 25 cool points for not having a myspace page as her only website. Leah West loses 5 of those points for mentioning her myspace within the first ten sentences of her main page, but she makes up for it with a well designed site full of pictures and tracks and things that you’ll actually enjoy - not self-promotional horse shit that most artists think you want to know about them. For this I’ll award a modest 31 points (same as the number of free songs she provides), bringing her total to 51. Congratulations -John Drake i caught her music on radio dentata
“Oh, new female pop singer.” “Hey, it’s out of Canada.” “Quirky lyrics and guitars.” Tuned out yet? After hearing any of these to describe a musician or a body of work I will usually dismiss it as garbage. Move on and listen to music that I know I’ll enjoy. Well, forget presuppositions. This girl can actually sing. And while I think the genre of female pop/acoustic-alternative is f#$%d dry at this point, Leah West opens it back up for me. Her music is optimistic without being obnoxious and she’s got a remarkable talent for making her voice sound fresh in every song, even though she’s got a blue million of them. She’s apparently making a lot of people very happy with her music and there’s plenty of it to listen to for free on her website. http://www.leahwest.com Leah West receives an extra 25 cool points for not having a myspace page as her only website. Leah West loses 5 of those points for mentioning her myspace within the first ten sentences of her main page, but she makes up for it with a well designed site full of pictures and tracks and things that you’ll actually enjoy - not self-promotional horse shit that most artists think you want to know about them. For this I’ll award a modest 31 points (same as the number of free songs she provides), bringing her total to 51. Congratulations -John Drake i caught her music on radio dentata
Kelowna Woman Claims Stolen Song by Jennifer Smith of Kelowna Capital News
It launched the careers of big name artists like ABBA and Céline Dion, yet when Leah West discovered her tune was en route to the world’s biggest song writing competition, she was anything but happy. Released just last summer, West’s song “Spring” is featured in a YouTube recording of Slovak star Lucia Olesová’s Eurovison audition where her producers claim to have penned the song themselves. West was not even aware the competition existed, let alone that someone was passing her work off as their own, until she saw a video clip sent to her anonymously. “I was horrified,” she said. “…Even where I sing ‘spring, spring, spring’ she sings something like ‘spin, spin, spin’ in the same place.” From her guitar licks to the song’s timing, the music is virtually a verbatim copy of the tune West released in July 2009, she says. The clip itself has since been removed from the Internet. West made sure her version was copyrighted and registered with the performance rights organization Broadcast Music Inc. in the United States before she released her album last summer. She immediately contacted her lawyers. The person who tipped West off, told her he or she must remain anonymous due to the stature of Olesová’s family, who are said to be both wealthy and influential in Slovakia. West chose to respect the request, but took the whole sordid tale went straight to her blog as she tried to fight for her rights in a country where she does not speak the language or know anyone. West’s fans were quick to respond to the post and soon new supporters started helping overseas. One man sifted through eight hours of video footage and Internet clips to find when and where the song originally aired, while people in Slovakia started connected with West, helping to navigate that country’s media. The story broke in Slovakian newspapers Tuesday, after West inundated reporters with complaints the Slovak starlet had ripped her off. Olesová, who is already a star in her home country, is claiming innocence. In a Facebook conversation with West, she told the Kelowna woman she was completely unaware of the gaff her producers committed. “I cannot understand why they did this,” she said. West is currently in Montreal brushing up on her French, but plans to return to Kelowna to secure a serving job and continue playing. It took two years for her to raise the money to record the album Spring is featured on; now she’s hoping her lawyers can help her sort out the mess that’s become of her dream. In the YouTube clip she watched that has since been removed from the web, the producers she claims lifted her song appear to describe how they came up with their inspiration to write—though the clip is not in a language West understands. “You can tell they’re going over the creative process and it’s just such a bunch of bullshit. I just wanted to say: You are a bunch of liars and you stole from an innocent person,” said West.
It launched the careers of big name artists like ABBA and Céline Dion, yet when Leah West discovered her tune was en route to the world’s biggest song writing competition, she was anything but happy. Released just last summer, West’s song “Spring” is featured in a YouTube recording of Slovak star Lucia Olesová’s Eurovison audition where her producers claim to have penned the song themselves. West was not even aware the competition existed, let alone that someone was passing her work off as their own, until she saw a video clip sent to her anonymously. “I was horrified,” she said. “…Even where I sing ‘spring, spring, spring’ she sings something like ‘spin, spin, spin’ in the same place.” From her guitar licks to the song’s timing, the music is virtually a verbatim copy of the tune West released in July 2009, she says. The clip itself has since been removed from the Internet. West made sure her version was copyrighted and registered with the performance rights organization Broadcast Music Inc. in the United States before she released her album last summer. She immediately contacted her lawyers. The person who tipped West off, told her he or she must remain anonymous due to the stature of Olesová’s family, who are said to be both wealthy and influential in Slovakia. West chose to respect the request, but took the whole sordid tale went straight to her blog as she tried to fight for her rights in a country where she does not speak the language or know anyone. West’s fans were quick to respond to the post and soon new supporters started helping overseas. One man sifted through eight hours of video footage and Internet clips to find when and where the song originally aired, while people in Slovakia started connected with West, helping to navigate that country’s media. The story broke in Slovakian newspapers Tuesday, after West inundated reporters with complaints the Slovak starlet had ripped her off. Olesová, who is already a star in her home country, is claiming innocence. In a Facebook conversation with West, she told the Kelowna woman she was completely unaware of the gaff her producers committed. “I cannot understand why they did this,” she said. West is currently in Montreal brushing up on her French, but plans to return to Kelowna to secure a serving job and continue playing. It took two years for her to raise the money to record the album Spring is featured on; now she’s hoping her lawyers can help her sort out the mess that’s become of her dream. In the YouTube clip she watched that has since been removed from the web, the producers she claims lifted her song appear to describe how they came up with their inspiration to write—though the clip is not in a language West understands. “You can tell they’re going over the creative process and it’s just such a bunch of bullshit. I just wanted to say: You are a bunch of liars and you stole from an innocent person,” said West.
Smart Move for West by Dean Gordon-Smith of Vernon Morning Star
A confident and surprising sound is unveiled on the first album from singer/songwriter Leah West. West, who calls Kelowna home, is originally from New Jersey, and her new album Beyond Words is a chilled-out work of semi-laid back indie-rock with elements of folk and pop sounds moving around the edges. The soft-edged production of multi-instrumentalist Marty Rifkin (Bruce Springsteen, Jewel) adds a mellow shimmer to West’s understated voice. A few of West’s songs are on the borderline of a country-pop vibe, but go beyond into more atmospheric areas. Orange Bliss and Simple Love are easy-flowing ethereal pop songs with jazz-like vocal inflections. This textural approach contains effective strength in the ballad-driven material (Anything For You, Destiny’s Calling) where moody elements brought out in West’s vocals are matched by the simple arrangements. Minor-key themes abound throughout Beyond Word, and are especially evident on the chilly Forbidden Fruit, where the mood is nearly skewered by tricky production. The unadorned character of West’s voice has a beguiling quality that shines through the material that moves away from pop elements. The title track is strong evidence of this haunting sound at the fringes of the song: part Loreena McKennit and Natalie Merchant. Middle of the road tracks like Caught in Your Web and Gravity sound ordinary by comparison and out of place here; a forced fit of standard songs and ideas. Magic moments happen on I’m Not Invisible, where the honesty in West’s vocal and lyrics bring on an inspired performance.
A confident and surprising sound is unveiled on the first album from singer/songwriter Leah West. West, who calls Kelowna home, is originally from New Jersey, and her new album Beyond Words is a chilled-out work of semi-laid back indie-rock with elements of folk and pop sounds moving around the edges. The soft-edged production of multi-instrumentalist Marty Rifkin (Bruce Springsteen, Jewel) adds a mellow shimmer to West’s understated voice. A few of West’s songs are on the borderline of a country-pop vibe, but go beyond into more atmospheric areas. Orange Bliss and Simple Love are easy-flowing ethereal pop songs with jazz-like vocal inflections. This textural approach contains effective strength in the ballad-driven material (Anything For You, Destiny’s Calling) where moody elements brought out in West’s vocals are matched by the simple arrangements. Minor-key themes abound throughout Beyond Word, and are especially evident on the chilly Forbidden Fruit, where the mood is nearly skewered by tricky production. The unadorned character of West’s voice has a beguiling quality that shines through the material that moves away from pop elements. The title track is strong evidence of this haunting sound at the fringes of the song: part Loreena McKennit and Natalie Merchant. Middle of the road tracks like Caught in Your Web and Gravity sound ordinary by comparison and out of place here; a forced fit of standard songs and ideas. Magic moments happen on I’m Not Invisible, where the honesty in West’s vocal and lyrics bring on an inspired performance.
Kelowna Singer Beyond Words by Don Plant of Kelowna Daily Courier
A Kelowna songwriter claims two European producers have reached across the Atlantic and stolen her song. Leah West penned a tune called Spring and released it on her CD, Beyond Words, last year. A source in Europe contacted her this week and directed her to a YouTube video that showed a famous Slovakian performer singing the melody of Spring with Slovakian lyrics. “All these people dancing on stage to your song is like, is this a nightmare?” she said Thursday. “It had the same changes, from verses to chorus, the same guitar lick, the same intro and outro.” The producers professed the song was theirs. They submitted it to a high-profile music contest called Eurovision, which helped launch ABBA‘s career in the 1970s. Although the song failed to get past the audition process, West said she‘s outraged by the apparent theft. “This is a huge offence for me,” she said Thursday. “It probably goes on all the time, but to rip off artwork from halfway across the world without me knowing about it needs to be talked about.” West, who grew up in New Jersey before moving to Kelowna, posted her complaint on Eurovision‘s Facebook site and wrote media outlets in Slovakia. With help from supporters there, the story hit the front page of at least one newspaper on Wednesday and received TV and radio coverage there, West said. She tracked down the singer and one of the producers on Facebook, and gave them an earful. Some of her fans made comments on the YouTube site, which prompted the corporation to pull the video from circulation. The singer, Lucia Olesova, contacted West and acknowledged the song was hers. Olesova claimed she was unaware of the similarities and asked West if she can record the song on her debut album. “She‘s suing her producers. She‘s embarrassed,” West said. “She‘s all over the media. She‘s being slammed by radio and TV. They‘re attacking her as a singer.” West had already copyrighted the song and performance rights. She has contacted lawyers in the U.S. and Canada and hopes she can make a deal so Olesova can record the song. “I hope some good flowers come from these bad seeds,” she said. “I‘ve heard composers burn out and resort to things like this. I can‘t imagine their reputation will ever be the same.” West is studying French in Montreal and plans to return to Kelowna in early April. She‘ll continue performing Spring and other songs at the Habitat and other Okanagan venues. “I remember how it evolved in the studio,” she said. “It is a sacred part of you that only you can truly know. I know where that song came from.” West has no record label to finance her and takes care of her own business dealings. She pays for her recordings, books her own gigs and has worked as a server and bookkeeper to make ends meet. “Today‘s indie artists have to be smart and organized,” she said. To compare the songs, visit: www.cas.sk/clanok/155415/audio-kanadska-spevacka-olesova-mi-okopirovala-piesen.html.
A Kelowna songwriter claims two European producers have reached across the Atlantic and stolen her song. Leah West penned a tune called Spring and released it on her CD, Beyond Words, last year. A source in Europe contacted her this week and directed her to a YouTube video that showed a famous Slovakian performer singing the melody of Spring with Slovakian lyrics. “All these people dancing on stage to your song is like, is this a nightmare?” she said Thursday. “It had the same changes, from verses to chorus, the same guitar lick, the same intro and outro.” The producers professed the song was theirs. They submitted it to a high-profile music contest called Eurovision, which helped launch ABBA‘s career in the 1970s. Although the song failed to get past the audition process, West said she‘s outraged by the apparent theft. “This is a huge offence for me,” she said Thursday. “It probably goes on all the time, but to rip off artwork from halfway across the world without me knowing about it needs to be talked about.” West, who grew up in New Jersey before moving to Kelowna, posted her complaint on Eurovision‘s Facebook site and wrote media outlets in Slovakia. With help from supporters there, the story hit the front page of at least one newspaper on Wednesday and received TV and radio coverage there, West said. She tracked down the singer and one of the producers on Facebook, and gave them an earful. Some of her fans made comments on the YouTube site, which prompted the corporation to pull the video from circulation. The singer, Lucia Olesova, contacted West and acknowledged the song was hers. Olesova claimed she was unaware of the similarities and asked West if she can record the song on her debut album. “She‘s suing her producers. She‘s embarrassed,” West said. “She‘s all over the media. She‘s being slammed by radio and TV. They‘re attacking her as a singer.” West had already copyrighted the song and performance rights. She has contacted lawyers in the U.S. and Canada and hopes she can make a deal so Olesova can record the song. “I hope some good flowers come from these bad seeds,” she said. “I‘ve heard composers burn out and resort to things like this. I can‘t imagine their reputation will ever be the same.” West is studying French in Montreal and plans to return to Kelowna in early April. She‘ll continue performing Spring and other songs at the Habitat and other Okanagan venues. “I remember how it evolved in the studio,” she said. “It is a sacred part of you that only you can truly know. I know where that song came from.” West has no record label to finance her and takes care of her own business dealings. She pays for her recordings, books her own gigs and has worked as a server and bookkeeper to make ends meet. “Today‘s indie artists have to be smart and organized,” she said. To compare the songs, visit: www.cas.sk/clanok/155415/audio-kanadska-spevacka-olesova-mi-okopirovala-piesen.html.
Review from Digital Citizen by Digital Citizen
I am not active on MySpace, checking into my MySpace profile just once in a few months, probably. It’s not my main point of contact, but rather a venue to share the one song I have written and recorded thus far… which will change this summer. I usually check in just to see if anything happened I should know about, that’s about it. Tonight, I saw a Friend Request from one Leah West (MySpace), a musician (and model, actress, painter, photographer, etc.) formerly of New Jersey and now of Kelowna, BC. I had never heard of her but am long past that sort of thing to be surprised by it. I know it’s about social networking, not necessarily people who know each other. On the same principle, if people send a Friend Request of me, I won’t turn them down unless they seem really scary… more in a social sense than physical sense. I just accept, be flattered at face value they sent me a Friend Request, a little more if they typed something like Leah did, and have a listen to their music. I often enjoy it, but that might be that. However, every once in a while, I find something that’s delightful and tonight, it was Leah West’s music! First thing to notice was her beautiful voice. The music moves and is moving. There is breadth to it, from simple and fun songs to deep and personal songs loaded with intelligent, thoughtful, meaningful lyrics. All of them are tied together by a genuine sense of honesty that it all came from within Leah, that this is the person she is. Someone who has decided to give us the privilege to look into her soul, just the way it is, through the sounds of her music. There are six great songs on Leah West’s MySpace profile, but her ReverbNation profile has 54 songs. I’m half way through the list now and have not found a bad track yet. So many good songs I’m starting to believe there isn’t a bad one! They are all of the pop / alternative / indie styles she classifies herself as, though, so if you have a quota on that for how much you can listen to at one time, 54 might be a bit much. Mind you, 54 of anything, even the Beatles, can be a bit much for most. Still, I believe there is a lot more to this young lady than p/a/i. With a voice and, more importantly, a spirit like hers, I think she can do and succeed in a lot of other genres. She just has to determine which of them are within her, when the time is right for her. But absolutely, I very much highly recommend you have a listen to her music at the link above. Both profiles contain a lot of other interesting information about Leah, including artists she’s worked with, appearances and so on, but Leah’s website has even more, including her photos from modeling, acting, her blog and so on! Rocking! She’s also on YouTube as the video above shows, though it only had 280 views at time of this posting. Contrast that to the well over 1 million views her MySpace profile has had since June 24 2008 (i.e. just 10 months from this posting!). Anyway, social networking is quite a lot like the lottery. A lot of times, there isn’t much to be gained, if not something lost like time. You have to have that mentality to play it and survive. However, every once in a while, you feel like you won something. Discovering Leah West’s music tonight has definitely been worth my while. As for her, I see she’s got close to 12,000 “friends” on MySpace, but she won over one geniune fan tonight in me! Clay Shirky (photo from TED.com) Clay Shirky (photo from TED.com) Btw, did you know the mean number of Friends a user on MySpace has is 55? That’s just if you averaged out the number of friends every user had, though this should probably be 54 since everybody has Tom, the default friend on MySpace. Compare that to Facebook users who have an average of 125. However, and this is a BIG however, the median number of MySpace friends a user has is just 2! That is, if you ordered each user in a list from most friends at one end and least friends at the other, and you walked halfway down that line, the person there would have 2 MySpace friends! (Source: Clay Shirky in Here Comes Everybody) Wow! Talk about saying something about the nature and interactions of its users given people like Leah has almost 12,000! What social networking if half the users literally have 2 or fewer friends, with 1 by default to start??? This fact is true despite MySpace still being ranked #9 on Alexa.com’s web traffic rankings at time of posting! Lots of traffic but not of the true interactive kind, obviously. At least not anywhere near where it could be. ReverbNation sits at 7,347 at time of posting, if you’re curious.
I am not active on MySpace, checking into my MySpace profile just once in a few months, probably. It’s not my main point of contact, but rather a venue to share the one song I have written and recorded thus far… which will change this summer. I usually check in just to see if anything happened I should know about, that’s about it. Tonight, I saw a Friend Request from one Leah West (MySpace), a musician (and model, actress, painter, photographer, etc.) formerly of New Jersey and now of Kelowna, BC. I had never heard of her but am long past that sort of thing to be surprised by it. I know it’s about social networking, not necessarily people who know each other. On the same principle, if people send a Friend Request of me, I won’t turn them down unless they seem really scary… more in a social sense than physical sense. I just accept, be flattered at face value they sent me a Friend Request, a little more if they typed something like Leah did, and have a listen to their music. I often enjoy it, but that might be that. However, every once in a while, I find something that’s delightful and tonight, it was Leah West’s music! First thing to notice was her beautiful voice. The music moves and is moving. There is breadth to it, from simple and fun songs to deep and personal songs loaded with intelligent, thoughtful, meaningful lyrics. All of them are tied together by a genuine sense of honesty that it all came from within Leah, that this is the person she is. Someone who has decided to give us the privilege to look into her soul, just the way it is, through the sounds of her music. There are six great songs on Leah West’s MySpace profile, but her ReverbNation profile has 54 songs. I’m half way through the list now and have not found a bad track yet. So many good songs I’m starting to believe there isn’t a bad one! They are all of the pop / alternative / indie styles she classifies herself as, though, so if you have a quota on that for how much you can listen to at one time, 54 might be a bit much. Mind you, 54 of anything, even the Beatles, can be a bit much for most. Still, I believe there is a lot more to this young lady than p/a/i. With a voice and, more importantly, a spirit like hers, I think she can do and succeed in a lot of other genres. She just has to determine which of them are within her, when the time is right for her. But absolutely, I very much highly recommend you have a listen to her music at the link above. Both profiles contain a lot of other interesting information about Leah, including artists she’s worked with, appearances and so on, but Leah’s website has even more, including her photos from modeling, acting, her blog and so on! Rocking! She’s also on YouTube as the video above shows, though it only had 280 views at time of this posting. Contrast that to the well over 1 million views her MySpace profile has had since June 24 2008 (i.e. just 10 months from this posting!). Anyway, social networking is quite a lot like the lottery. A lot of times, there isn’t much to be gained, if not something lost like time. You have to have that mentality to play it and survive. However, every once in a while, you feel like you won something. Discovering Leah West’s music tonight has definitely been worth my while. As for her, I see she’s got close to 12,000 “friends” on MySpace, but she won over one geniune fan tonight in me! Clay Shirky (photo from TED.com) Clay Shirky (photo from TED.com) Btw, did you know the mean number of Friends a user on MySpace has is 55? That’s just if you averaged out the number of friends every user had, though this should probably be 54 since everybody has Tom, the default friend on MySpace. Compare that to Facebook users who have an average of 125. However, and this is a BIG however, the median number of MySpace friends a user has is just 2! That is, if you ordered each user in a list from most friends at one end and least friends at the other, and you walked halfway down that line, the person there would have 2 MySpace friends! (Source: Clay Shirky in Here Comes Everybody) Wow! Talk about saying something about the nature and interactions of its users given people like Leah has almost 12,000! What social networking if half the users literally have 2 or fewer friends, with 1 by default to start??? This fact is true despite MySpace still being ranked #9 on Alexa.com’s web traffic rankings at time of posting! Lots of traffic but not of the true interactive kind, obviously. At least not anywhere near where it could be. ReverbNation sits at 7,347 at time of posting, if you’re curious.
Rights of Spring up in the Air by Tom Harrison, The Province (Vancouver)
Leah West is the victim but she might become the victor. West claims she had her song, "Spring," stolen by two Slovakian composers, who rewrote the lyrics as "Rok a Pol," had it sung by Lucia Olesova and entered it in the annual Eurovision song contest. Eurovision is hopelessly tacky but it's seen on TV by millions of Europeans and winning the event has launched careers, most notably ABBA's. Nobody knew ABBA before "Waterloo. Accusing anyone of stealing a song is tricky, but the Kelowna songwriter is convinced she is right and the feedback from YouTube, where "Spring" was posted, MySpace and countless emails, shows many Slovakians and Olesova back her up. Olesova has gone so far as to want to record "Spring" for her debut LP with the proper credits. West might yet benefit from this. In the meantime, she is advising aspiring songwriters to copyright their material. Otherwise, unprotected songs on You-Tube or elsewhere are easily lifted.
Leah West is the victim but she might become the victor. West claims she had her song, "Spring," stolen by two Slovakian composers, who rewrote the lyrics as "Rok a Pol," had it sung by Lucia Olesova and entered it in the annual Eurovision song contest. Eurovision is hopelessly tacky but it's seen on TV by millions of Europeans and winning the event has launched careers, most notably ABBA's. Nobody knew ABBA before "Waterloo. Accusing anyone of stealing a song is tricky, but the Kelowna songwriter is convinced she is right and the feedback from YouTube, where "Spring" was posted, MySpace and countless emails, shows many Slovakians and Olesova back her up. Olesova has gone so far as to want to record "Spring" for her debut LP with the proper credits. West might yet benefit from this. In the meantime, she is advising aspiring songwriters to copyright their material. Otherwise, unprotected songs on You-Tube or elsewhere are easily lifted.
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