Photo of Lex Land

Lex Land

Lex Land Radio

Music

FEATURED SONG
Could've Had Me
  1. Play
  2. Play Next
  3. Add to queue
Could've Had Me
Released: Mar 25, 2008
Label: Intelligent Noise

Shows & Events

No upcoming shows/events
Much to the exasperation of the conversation’s counterpart, Lex Land’s initial gut-reaction first spoken response to any comment is, more often than not, “Pardon?” The cause of this is still undiagnosed: is it her selective, short attention-span (this seems to be the explanation preferred by family members and old friends); is it the partial “deafness” caused by the teenage years of punk rock shows, or trip-hop blaring through the subs of her best high-school friend’s Navigator, or the ringing in her ears from her macabre, solitary quiet; or perhaps is she dreaming, caught up in some wild fantasy from which she might never break free; or perhaps is she merely trying to remember the thing which she was about to say, but now, in the moment, it has slipped her mind?

Likewise, one wonders, without exception of herself, what precisely Land is pondering. On the 23-year-old’s debut album from Intelligent Noise Records, Orange Days on Lemon Street, she throws a myriad of genres at the wall and, oddly enough, a lot of them stick. The record is a collection of songs (“a fantastic mix of honey-sweet folk and dense, beat-driven folk-rock” {Womenfolk.net}) written by Land between the ages of 17 and 20, all the way up to the day before she and producer, Shannon Edgar, went into the studio to cut the record in early 2007. In the week following its 2008 release, Orange Days could be found topping the iTunes (then-)Folk Chart at number 1. Within the span of only a few years, Lex went from floundering as an Orange County college drop-out to up-and-coming as a Los Angeles songstress.

She was born and raised around and about Southern California not all that long ago, and was dragged and pushed around that area until she was able to rest comfortably between Huntington Beach and Newport Coast, where she spent her teen years with other surfers, acoustic-pop guitar players, and preps. But music was an obsession that could not be extinguished. That drive carried her toward studying classical voice seriously in her pre-adolescence, and she continued to do so (even if, in the end, a bit half-heartedly) through those painful high school years before it became her emphasis at university. The latter stint was not long.

The study, but even moreso, the passion, shows through. Throughout the many raving or not-as-raving reviews of the young lady’s debut, there is a common thread: Land’s voice stands out.

Lex’s feverous songwriting eventually took first place in her ambitions, and presided over singing Faure’s art songs or ever playing Bizet’s “Carmen.” In October of her third and final semester as a voice student in Orange, CA her true musical aspirations started to become reality. Within a year’s time, only a few months after leaving her apartment on Lemon Street, her debut record was finished.

Since then she's toured with fellow singer-songwriter Joshua James and Justin Townes Earle, and has shared bills with artists such as Paolo Nutini and Meiko; her songs have been featured on the soundtracks of many television shows including “Private Practice,” “Brothers & Sisters,” and “One Tree Hill;” and in 2009, the ODOLS track "Play in Reverse" was made KCRW's "Today's Top Tune" not too long before she was given the opportunity to perform a live set on the tastemaking/artistbreaking KCRW program, "Morning Becomes Eclectic." The session was released as an iTunes exclusive and could be found topping the singer-songwriter charts there after its release.

With the next album, "Were My Sweetheart To Go," nearly wrapped, Land is about to embark on a small West Coast tour to spread the new record's good word. Then...?

Though in her songs Land’s voice is often wailing out of regret, or wishing forgiveness, or simply sobbing for wonder of what could have been, the voice itself seems to beg no pardon.

Login

Forgot password?

Need an account? Sign up