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Zee Avi

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Swell Window
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Swell Window
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Released: Aug 23, 2011
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General Info

  • Genre: Acoustic

    Location MY

    Profile Views: 940355

    Last Login: 7/24/2012

    Member Since 10/17/2008

    Website zeeavi.com

    Record Label Brushfire Records

    Type of Label Indie

  • Bio

    .. .. .......... ..CATCH ZEE AVI ON TOUR -- TOUR DATES BELOW BIO...... Zee Avi is just 23 but she’s an old soul. A huge talent in a petite frame bringing a universal message from the unlikely birthplace of Borneo, an ancient island east of Malaysia which remains an untouched, natural paradise, an apt description of her songs. .... How Avi came to record her debut album in L.A., the first joint release from Ian Montone’s Monotone Label and Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records, is a true 21st century tale of the way the Internet has transformed the music business and shrunk the globe in the process. .... Born in the tiny town of Miri in Sarawak on the island of Borneo, Zee grew up near the South China Sea in a liberal, encouraging household where her father owned an energy consultancy. “I was bred to be a lawyer,” she says, but music was in her blood. Her father’s father sang and played double-bass, accordion, violin and guitar in bands. .... At age 12, Zee moved from Borneo to Kuala Lumpur where she has been based since. At 17, Zee started locking herself in a room for hours on end to learn to play guitar. Guitar took a back seat for 4 years while she was studying fashion design in London. When she returned to Kuala Lumpur, she picked the instrument back up and began writing songs and performing with a band. .... Zee began recording her songs on a webcam and posting them on YouTube for a friend to hear. “I remember getting so excited when there was one new comment from some random person I didn’t know… One read ‘I’m lost for words - I shall favorite it and ponder if that’s OK,’ ” which was written by Kris Rowley, a U.K. singer-songwriter with a YouTube following under the name Zzzzzzzzap. He began posting her videos on his site, which began a viral snowball effect. .... The day before her 22nd birthday, Zee posted what she intended to be “my last video,” a holiday song, “No Christmas for Me.” By the time she checked her e-mail Avi had almost 3,000 messages including a slew of label offers. One email came from Ian Montone, who had been shown the YouTube clip by Raconteurs’ drummer, Patrick Keeler, prompting Montone to get in touch and offer to release her music on the Monotone Label. .... Before she knew it Zee was on a plane to L.A. to record her debut with producer Robert Carranza at Brushfire’s Solar Powered Plastic Plant. “No Christmas for Me” was then featured on the holiday charity album, This Warm December, A Brushfire Holiday, Vol. 1. .... With an eclectic pool of influences that range from such eccentrics as Cat Power, Regina Spektor, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Jolie Holland, Daniel Johnston and Chris Garneau, to jazz greats Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, to classics like Velvet Underground and Led Zeppelin, this self-described “rock lover at heart” captures the dark, bittersweet qualities of romance with a crack left open for hope and optimism. .... From the sensuous scat singing on “Honey Bee” to the sultry break-up song, “Is This the End,” recalling the existential longing of Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is,” Zee is hopeful of finding love, but equally aware of lurking heartache. .... The songs on Zee Avi’s debut are about an outsider’s desire to belong and the tentative hope of moving on, filled with regret and loss, but boasting an impish, worldly wise sensibility. “I tend to be a loner,” she nods. ” ‘Honey Bee’ is about a romance between two nonconformists who are different from the rest of the hive, and are trying to avoid the pressure to be like everybody else.” .... “Just You and Me,” the first song she wrote on ukulele, has a ‘20s New Orleans swing jazz vibe. .... “I get my melodic feel from the simplicity of classic jazz, people singing what they felt with straightforward lyrics and not too many harmonies,” Zee says. “Just a lot of honesty. I’m a girl of simple pleasures. .... The elemental acoustic guitar of “Story of…” is enhanced with an Eno-like ambience that add to its shimmering quality, while “Poppy” is autobiographical “with a little bit of poetic license” that looks back at the demise of a relationship. .... “My stuff is pretty dark,” Zee admits. “Most of my songs are about the reality side of romance, outlets to vent my emotions.” .... While her live experience amounts to playing gigs in Kuala Lumpur, Zee appeared this January on From the Basement, the U.K. TV webcast/broadcast that has featured Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Damien Rice, the White Stripes and the Shins. From the Basement will also air on the U.S.‘s IFC Channel. .... From Malaysia to Los Angeles to New York, Zee Avi is enjoying the ride and ready to take on passengers. “I’m still pinching myself” she gushes. “My parents always told me it’s important to keep yourself grounded. I’m thankful, but at the same time, I just want to jump through the roof. It’s been a pretty amazing journey, getting to work with some really wonderful people, a blessing, really.” .... Zee Avi’s Monotone/Brushfire Records debut returns that blessing…and then some. .... Monotone Records is owned by Ian Montone, whose Monotone, Inc. manages the White Stripes, M.I.A., The Shins, Vampire Weekend, the Raconteurs, Against Me!, Cold War Kids, Crookers, among others. .... Brushfire Records is owned by Jack Johnson and his manager Emmett Malloy and is home to artists like Rogue Wave, Matt Costa, Neil Halstead, Money Mark, G. Love, Mason Jennings, ALO and Zach Gill.....

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10 of 2568More
ZEE AVI -- GHOSTBIRD

zeeavi

For 25-year-old Malaysian singer/songwriter Zee Avi, "Swell Window" is the gorgeous track that started the journey and also the opening track of her second album, Ghostbird. "It's a song about seizing the moment," she says, "and for me, a new direction and a new voice came and stayed."

In the two years since her self-titled debut was joint-released on Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records and Ian Montone's Monotone Label, Avi's very free spirit has wandered from major music festivals (SXSW, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo) to huge tours (Lilith Fair) back to her homeland of Sarawak, Borneo Island, where she recently picked up an International Youth Icon Award. For a little perspective, just four years ago, Avi was a former art student in Kuala Lumpur who posted a song on YouTube to catch up with a friend and was quite surprised to find herself the toast of the Internet when thousands of strangers discovered her effortlessly stunning voice. Literal overnight success can easily poison young minds, but Avi is no ordinary mind — while critics were comparing her chilled-out, jazzy, ukulele-based songs to Billie Holiday and Cat Power she was continuing to make visual art and remaining her buoyant, whimsical self. "I'm 25 going on 12 and a half on a good day," she laughs, flipping through a notebook filled with colorful drawings and lengthy notes.

Avi started writing Ghostbird in her Brooklyn kitchen last summer, but followed the wind to the balmy waters of the Florida Everglades where she found endless musings, “with absolute silence and calmness.” In March, she took her fresh batch of tunes to Johnson's Solar Powered Plastic Plant studios and got down to business with producer Mario Caldato, Jr., best known for his work with the Beastie Boys and beloved Brazilian artists like Bebel Gilberto. It only took two weeks for them to lay down the 11 tracks on Ghostbird (it means “Burung Hantu” which means owl in Avi's native language), including the closing number on the album, “Stay In The Clouds,” a new addition that was written on the last day of recording.

This album lead Avi to new ideas. "Siboh Kitak Nangis" which translates to “Don’t You Cry,” is the first song in Avi's dialect on an international album and the poppy groove of "The Book of Morris Johnson" is the first time she has written new music to accompany someone else’s words. "Morris Johnson" was inspired by a Floridian folk artist whose paintings of animals and accompanying text about their instinctual lives "capture naiveté and innocence and enthusiasm," Avi says. After buying a few of his pieces at an art show, Avi called him up and said, "Morris, I'm ready to be your disciple, I'm ready to turn your words into a song." (Morris was thrilled — his daughter's a huge fan.)

The track “Anchor" is one of the handful of songs that made the album from Avi's New York writing sessions and also what Zee refers to as a “premonition track,” and another NYC track, "Concrete Wall," is a striking a cappella that features contributions from beloved turntable god Cut Chemist. And yes, she is well aware June has 30 days rather than 31 (the song "31 Days" was inspired by a couch-surfing friend who lamented, " 'I was homeless for 31 days in June.' ") Every song has a different mood, every song is a different voice, every song is a different story," Avi explains. But the idea of the Ghostbird unites the album, and Avi has tucked an owl call into a few tracks on the disc, "So it's a little scavenger hunt when you listen to it.”

After the album arrives on August 30th, 2011 Avi is itching to get back on tour and show off her live skills. "I want people to feel like they're being hugged," she says of the soothingly beautiful Ghostbird. "I think this is my swell window right now."

Press contact:
Fresh and Clean Media
Brittany Pearce, Brittany@freshcleanmedia.com
310.313.7200

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