Lea's leaving home

Rip It Up, Issue 14, 1 August 1978, Page 8

Lea's leaving home

Jewel Sanyo

Lea Maalfrid, New Zealand’s most notable female singer-composer, has left Auckland to market her talents in Australia. Her sleek cabaret style has gained her the Silver Scroll award for her composition "Lavender Mountain” and prestigious support acts to overseas artists Joe Cocker, Manhattan Transfer, Lou Reed, Leo Kottke and Ry Cooder. Lea flew to Sydney on June 20 to work and produce demonstration tapes which she intends to take to Los Angeles. "You can work your guts out here you may as well go somewhere else and work your guts out to more people,” Lea says. "I think in some ways this is quite a good place to get established there are so few hassles it’s easy to live here. If you’re sufficiently motivated it's easy to go places.” She wants to change the format of her act, to get a backing band while she's in Australia. Lea says she’s limited by the piano, physically, and because her vocal ability exceeds her piano playing skill. She believes a backing band could make the difference between being the opening act or the headliner. "I’ve got to bring more out of myself, create more pictures on stage ... I want the band as a whole act . . . and what I want is what I gets . . .” Lea aspires to a glossy co-ordination at the height of sophistication she’s a long way from the female vocalist of Ragnarok that she once was. "I didn't really like performing until I could do my own songs it wasn’t honest. When you write your own material you can work on projecting yourself. I don’t believe in handing the audience anything morbid or ugly everybody wants to feel good. I actually believe entertainment is very important for spreading positivity.” Lea’s determination and professionalism have given her wide exposure here surprisingly, since her nightclub presentation is not a commercially popular formula. A lot of people like what Lea does because she does it so distinctively, and that’s a ticket. It could be a ticket to the United States or anywhere.