Iris Leu
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Iris Leu

Band Pop Singer/Songwriter

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"nice note from Bill Wisener"

"Iris Leu's talent and music are especially wonderful."
-- Bill Wisener (Bill's Records) - Bill Wisener


"permanent transient review - 03-23-07"

Iris Leu also has a lovely voice. It reminds me of Tara MacLean at times.

This is some really beautiful piano music. The ivory tickling is really intricate and lovely. The melodies are unique though “Blumenthol” sort of gives me a Sarah McLachlan vibe. Sort of ethereal and dreamy. This is good, indeed.

These songs have a theme and that theme seems to be loss of love, sadness and despair.

With lyrics like “Now it’s impossible to feel good/ I am through believing love can save the day” (from “Ambitions”) it’s probably not your shiny happy record of he year. But it’s done well.

Again on “Ambitions” she sings: “Never thought that I could ever feel this low. / When will my sorrow end?” But the music is upbeat, it’s an interesting disparity.

It’s a short record with only 5 songs, but they’re good so I hope to hear more from Iris Leu in the future.
- Amy Lotsberg, Producer of Collected Sounds


"Loquat and Leu - 01-07-09"

These two songs and the voices of two lovely ladies prove that pop does not have to be wimpy or bland.

Kylee Swenson provides the stunning vocals of San Francisco’s Loquat on their second full-length Secrets of the Sea. The haunting, echoey “Harder Hit” the standout track.

Iris Leu is a Dallas singer-songwriter whose training as a classical pianist is brilliantly evident and is overshadowed only by her equally classic vocals. Those characteristics along with her strong song-writing skills tell you why her debut EP Permanent Transient sold out in its first year. Her first full-length CD, titled hushaboo, is scheduled for release on January 20.
- speed of dark (music blog)


"it's already a contender... 03-22-09"

Her CD Hushaboo has spent a lot of time in my CD player, and I know it's only March, but it's already a contender for one of the ten best local CD's this year.

http://ghostofblindlemon.blogspot.com/2009/03/myspace-playlist-32209.html - The Ghost of Blind Lemon


"Listen Up - 02-25-09"

Iris Leu
Hushaboo (Self-released)
By Ken Shimamoto

Dallas-based singer-songwriter Iris Leu waited until after college to start her musical career, but she’s making up for lost time. Hitting the boards in 2005, she garnered early praise from the Dallas Songwriters Association, Unisong, and International Music Awards song contests. She followed up her debut EP, 2007’s permanent transient, with a couple of months touring colleges and festivals across the South and Northeast. Inspired by her road experiences, she returned home and wrote 40 songs. Culling the herd to just 10, she recorded Hushaboo over eight months at Bass Propulsion Laboratories.

Leu’s crystalline voice and economical piano accompaniment tenderly traverse the contours of her gracefully arcing melodies. As a writer, she finds resonance in the nuances of everyday relationships and situations. This kind of confessional songwriting can be difficult to translate to disc –– what sounds intimate in live performance often seems precious in a recorded medium, without the singer’s presence to help put it across. Producers Todd Pipes and Nolan Thies have crafted a lush, modern sound for the tracks, while ex-Jackopierce and current Maren Morris musos provided complementary settings that added depth and color (skirting Radiohead territory on “Manifesto”) without overshadowing Leu’s songcraft.

The tracks are a varied lot, from the stately elegance of “Hush” to the bustling forward motion of “Twentyone,” with Thies’ ghostly guitar lending a Daniel Lanois-like ambience to the relatively rockin’ “The Red Bird.” A clicking dance beat propels “Ipso Facto,” overlaid with a soupçon of string synth — the track might have had more impact if the producers had gone totally retro and layered in some icy ‘80s-synth sounds. Leu’s at her best, though, on the big, dramatic swooners like “Hollowville” and the closer, “After All Is Done.” Both display the singer’s emotion at its most unadorned.
- FWWeekly.com - Ken Shimamoto


"...one of the best local discs of the year, period. - 03-02-09"

Hushaboo is one of the best local discs of the year, period. This songstress has a beautiful voice (ie: Natalie Merchant, Charlotte Gainsbourg) complemented perfectly by her patient and confident piano arrangements. The mellow tunes are what you’d expect from a singer/songwriter, quiet, emotional and lyric driven. But Ms. Leu doesn’t hang her career on that nail – she expands her sound to create well crafted songs with pop sensibilities, adding several percussion instruments, electric guitar and even the dreaded xylophone. It is this change in tempo and style throughout the CD that keeps it fresh and not sounding like the same-old-same-old. Highlights “Twentyone,” “Hollowville” and “The Red Bird” are all exceptional tracks that can be sampled at myspace.com/irisleu or iTunes with her previous work. You’ll want this disc in its entirety. (MB) - LIT Monthly - Mark Beneventi


"Save a prayer for me - 11-25-08"

Iris Leu makes music that's halfway between the electronic waves of Loquat and the gentle piano-pop of Vienna Teng. But far more danceable than either.

It's not the sort of music you use to burnish your indie credentials, but it's precisely the sort of thing you listen to on a dreary Tuesday, when it's becoming clear that your crazy plan of somehow finding moderately affordable last-minute tickets to fly you across the country for Thanksgiving with your girlfriend is not going to pan out. In short, it's something to cheer you up, but which will also avoid insulting your feelings with an artificial cheeriness.

"Ipso Facto" is from her upcoming record Hushaboo, which is due out in early 2009. In the meantime you can pick up her debut EP here.
- Heartache with Hard Work (music blog)


"'ipso facto' review - 12-16-08"


Finally, out of Dallas, we have singer-songwriter Iris Leu. She sings a really great pop blend, backed up by a piano and some light percussion. But the main focus here is her voice: she's got such a pure approach to it, totally free of unnecessary vocal ornamentation.

[listen] Iris Leu: Ipso Facto

You can hear more of Iris on her official site, too.

-Tim Hamilton - Friday Afternoon in the Universe


Discography

hushaboo (full-length) - February 24, 2009
permanent transient (EP) - January 2007

songs from "pt" have received airplay in the Texas, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts college markets.

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Bio

"(sounds like)...a mockingbird in heat." - Marvin C.

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Pop music is in its most glorious hour: studio splicing and the quick production of catchy tunes, one-click downloading towards a maxed-out iphone, diva tantrums on the TV during the dinner hour.

Ok, maybe not. In its evolution towards convenient electronic turnaround, something’s gone missing. Simply, it’s the 2am tune during a lonely highway coasting, the get-up song after a rough day. And what’s been lost is what listeners crave most: that human connection. This still matters, right?

Back to basics: listeners need a song crafted by a songwriter who can speak to their intelligence and a performer who sings to break a heart, loosen a tear. And if you can find one who can fill both roles, you'll want to lean in closely.

Iris Leu brings listeners back to the heart of the craft, skillfully merging significance and attention in 4-minute song intervals. Though a fairly newcomer to the music scene, there has already been recognition from the International Songwriting Contest, Unisong, and Dallas Songwriters Association, and invitations to perform at numerous college campuses and festivals throughout the South and the Northeast.

Her introductory EP permanent transient (2007) sold-out its initial run in the year of release after an extensive 2-months, 5,000 miles cross-country tour. The conversations on the road with pastors, prostitutes, and those morally in-between provided the backbone to the writing sessions in early winter 2008 which produced 40 songs. After months of effort and collaboration in the studio, 10 stand-out tracks absorbed into hushaboo.

On February 24, 2009, hushaboo will be released to fans across the country who can expect to fall in love once again with the beauty of a resonating melody and the voice of a familiar reminder that the joy of music is found in a priceless place- that of the human stories common between us.

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update: 10-15-08
i just restrung the violin, i'm going back to my purist roots and writing for those instruments that take a lot of coaxing to shake your hand back. if you ask me, my fave is still the cello. mom put me on piano at age 4 b/c all the neighborhood kids were picking it up, and when everyone stopped at 18 to pursue academics, i’d become quite fond of the piano and didn't know how to drop it. i don't know how to play the guitar.

update: 09-07-08
recording's almost finished! we've been at it since the cold month of february. 10 songs've been powdered and bow-tied with producer todd pipes (deep blue something, calhoun), and we're looking at a jan 2009 release. it's titled "hushaboo" and it comes from stephen king's "the dark tower" series.

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what else would you like to know? just ask. ok.