Alice Lee

Alice Lee was born in Boston, MA, and trained early on in classical music by her pianist mother. Periods of sporadic nomadism landed her in Los Angeles and Orange County, CA for the bulk of her childhood and to San Francisco, New York, and Melbourne, Australia for her nascent adulthood. After quitting music to pursue a dance career, she eventually returned to music - this time, on her own terms. She soon picked up the guitar and took the initiative in learning. The voice was the last element to fall in place. Plagued by shyness, she started to sing in cemeteries to bolster her confidence. "Two words why: no hecklers. I figured if I wanted to find out whether I could sing to wake the dead, might as well start in a logical place." Finally landing in Washington, DC, she began playing open mics in the area and gathering mutual inspiration from other musicians. She found herself busking in Paris and Amsterdam and performing in Edinburgh and Ghent. A demo EP followed. Through the help of a couple of friends, the tracks were finished in Virginia and Europe in a couple of days of recording. After moving to Brooklyn and playing solo gigs in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, she found like-minds in bassist Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu, They Might Be Giants) and studio whiz Joel Hamilton (Shiner, Sparklehorse). Her second release, The Quicksand EP featuring Matt Brubeck (Sheryl Crow, Tom Waits) and Maimone, skirts along the boundaries of what could loosely be called rock, encompassing bossa nova, bhangra funk, and electronic drum and bass. Her new EP, The Art of Forgetting, takes her signature sound in a new direction, applying her intimate songs onto a canvas of electronic sounds coupled with live instrumentation. Recorded at Studio G Brooklyn, featuring Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu, They Might Be Giants) and Yuval Gabay (Soul Coughing, Roni Size), these tracks comprise her first collaboration with studio whiz Joel Hamilton (Shiner, Sparklehorse). It has been picked up by Carrot Top Distribution and has been selected for use in MTV's The Real World. Her distinctive vocal style and songwriting have seen increasing recognition and airplay internationally. She continues to sporadically tour and play with her band. She has been featured in Jane Magazine's compilation CD and was a Semi-Finalist in "The American Music Awards® Presents The Coca-Cola New Music Award" 2002/2003 Competition. She is currently working on a full-length CD slated for release next year. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.