(Kim Leaman ~ Strange Venus album cover)
Kim Leaman
Singer * Songwriter * Musician
With a haunting, wistful voice and songs that unfold like wounds opening, the music of Kim Leaman has drawn comparisons to the late Jeff Buckley. In 1997, after his tragic drawing Buckley became a mythic musical figure. Kim Leaman's band formed in the same year which was called, "The Parting Gift."
Kim has always been into music. The singer/songwriter can recall running around her New Jersey neighborhood as a very small child in a red slip singing to anyone who would listen. Kim's father started her on the guitar at age 10. Kim's dad played in a Beatles-esque band called The Mourning Glories for several years, she speaks of him with an air of awe, "Without my father I wouldn't even be doing what I love the most. He taught me everything I know and he is my favorite musician ever."
Kim also took classical piano lessons until age 15, sometimes against her will. She remembers and laughs, "I had to practice an hour or more a day and I would bang my head on the piano because I wanted to be outside playing with my friends!"
By age 14 Kim was playing in coffee houses and by playing weekly, she immediately grew a large fan base on the East Coast. She has graced many a stage at NYC venues such as Baby Jupiter, Dillon's, Acme Underground, and The Gallery at CBGB's - which she packed the place "by telling everyone about it." In 2000 Kim started gaining international attention from being played on radio stations in Scotland, Italy, France, England and Russia.
With a haunting, wistful voice and songs that unfold like wounds opening, the music of Kim Leaman has drawn comparisons to the late Jeff Buckley. In 1997, after his tragic drowning Buckley became a mythic musical figure. The same year, Kim Leaman's band formed in the which is called, "The Parting Gift."
Kim's song "Beads of Water" has a very Buckley-esque sound, doleful and dissident, with lots of reverb (it sounds like she's in a canyon). The lyrics "I can see your face/Riddles of your grace/They think we're quite insane/they think we're quite the same/but a spirit becomes you, my love" are "deep" and really cryptic" according to Leaman's music admirer's.
She prefers to write that way, "so you have to make up your own mind about their meaning. Music is art, it's like looking at a painting and everyone sees something different. With lyrics, you get to do the same thing. It makes each song a personal experience. I don't want to tell people what I wrote them about. That's MY experience.I have thought something about a song from one of my favorite artist's to find out it was completely different than what I thought it was. If I had known before hand what the songwriter meant, I would have never been able to interpret the song the way I was meant to."
The decided fan favorite "Wealth of Words" goes "all of this betrayal in my past/I seem to just forgive it/As I walk into the arms/ Of his wisdom, of his Christmas voice/This is all I've ever asked for."
'What, exactly, is a Christmas voice," you want to know? Leaman's lips are sealed.
The cute, petite chanteuse with a penchant for vintage clothing has long been referred to as "The female Jeff Buckley." When asked what she thought of this she says, "It's an honor to be compared to someone of that stature since I always aspire to be good as Jeff Buckley and all my favorite artists. A lot of the songs I've written were inspired by him." says Leaman "We have a similarity in our lyrics, talking a lot about spiritual things, death, reincarnation. Plus, it's how we communicate and that's why this is my passion. I love to communicate through music, it's why I choose this as my life's work."
(Excerpts of Kim Leaman's bio was taken from interviews by Britta Brundage of The Fairfield County Weekly and Laurel Touhey of the The News Times )
Contact info for Kim Leaman
www.reverbnation.com/kimleaman
Email: kim_leaman@yahoo.com
