Leena Voxx

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Leena Voxx

Interview conducted November 17, 2020

Leena Voxx -Singer-Songwriter and producer from London. I perform electronic and acoustic music.

How did you discover music?

I was brought up around music, both classical and pop, and I was forever dancing and singing along to whatever music I was listening to. I had a karaoke machine and I loved singing along to pop music from a young age. I joined the school choir around the age of 14, but it wasn’t until when I was 16 that I picked up a guitar and I was really introduced to a new dimension of music. I learned the basics quickly and wrote my first song within weeks.

How did you imitate vocalists such as Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Britney Spears and Whitney Houston?

When I was really young, I did try to imitate the emotion, sound, highs, and lows of strong female singers. I was really pushing my voice using my head voice and the throat, thinking that this is the way to get the power out. I had a terrible sore throat most of the time, I have since taken singing lessons and learned the right techniques i.e. how to use different colour palettes for your voice, breathing techniques and how to control your voice as you move through registers. Nowadays, I don’t imitate anyone. When I do popular covers, I always add my own signature to them and I may change the tempo or the key of the song.

What makes a good songwriter?

As a songwriter, you need to be aware of and experiment with different styles and be prepared to go out of your comfort zone. In order to be relevant, you need to reflect the sound of your generation and develop the signature sound that you can call your own.

What was the title of your first original song?

Stranded. It was never published, but It has a strong melody and I played it in public years ago. I may bring it out one day but I would definitely redo the lyrics.

Why did you take a 2-year break?

I was trying to do too much and got quite exhausted with songwriting and performing. I decided to take a short break from performing, but that short break was eventually stretched to two years. I was working on my songwriting and redefining my style, which took a few turns but I eventually got there and I came up with the sound I am really happy with. I am also now working with a producer that really understands my sound and we work well together.

How has your video making changed since the making of your video “Why” till “Never Goes Away”?

I had someone work on the storyboard for the “Why” video and she put her own artistic vision to it, which I was happy with. Unlike “Why”, “Never Goes Away” was based on my own experience and I wrote the storyboard for it. I also wrote the storyboard for the video for “My Hair”, which is coming out shortly. I am narrating the story the way I now see my time at school when I was a teenager.

How different is your music since you have rebranded yourself?

With rebranding, I also introduced my sound. I think my sound is now more mature, more emotional and I place my vocals more at the top than before. I make more use of my vocals as well (Voxx is a reference to that). I also use more layers of harmony and I incorporate more current sounds in production through instrumentation.

Tell me about your latest song “My Hair”?

This song is about bullying I experienced during my teenage years at school. This all happened more than 10 years ago and at the time I did not really think of it as bullying. I found it hard to form relationships at school and just felt ‘different’ in more ways than one. It didn’t help that in my early teens I was already tall, about a head taller than pupils my age, including the boys. I became an easy target to poke fun of and I always wondered why it is that people don’t like me. What’s so wrong with me? I was constantly excluded from things and it felt hard. It used to upset me all the time and I went through emotions such as insecurity, anger, frustration, and I used to cry about it. I called the song ‘My Hair’ because girls at school used to pick on me about my hair all the time. I had long hair and I used to wear it quite thick, whereas other girls mostly used hair straighteners to make their hair-thin. ‘Bad Hair day?’, ‘Who does she think she is?’, ‘Is it a wig?’ are some of the comments I had to put up with. As you grow up and get through the teenage years, you can see things more clearly and analyses the situations better. It was only later that I realized that this is a form of bullying that goes on a lot at schools. There are the cheerleaders and then there are the followers that are part of that group out of fear of being the rabbit in the headlights. The song is about me narrating the story as I see it now. I go through different emotions and I am directly addressing the bullies. There are no winners in bullying. Bullying hurts people that are exposed to it, but also those who are the agitators putting up a tough front often land with the wrong crowd and may put themselves in a vulnerable position. These are after all life-defining years.

Digital vs. vinyl?

I have heard arguments for vinyl and some stories of the old times when vinyl ruled. I also know that it is making a comeback, but I am afraid of vinyl predates my generation. I only remember CDs and never really experienced the sound of vinyl.

What song from the past is in your mind right now?

Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you? Christina Aguilera – Beautiful. I sang this song in front of my school when I was 14. It has a very strong message about the importance of accepting that people are different. When I performed the song, I didn’t really grasp the full meaning of it at the time.

How do you feel the Covid-19 virus is going to affect the music business in the future?

I think it already has. We have seen the move to online gigs, which I have done a few as well. The technology is there although I did struggle with the latency when trying to get the best sound and video out. I wanted to come out this year and perform live, but who knows when the venues are opening up. I believe that it will become more expensive for artists to perform, there will be less audience and the rates will go down. I think the number of performances by less known artists will be reduced.

How can bands keep their fans if they cannot play live in front of the fans and sell merch to them at the show?

Social media has become even more important for musicians to promote themselves now and there are more companies / websites now offering opportunities for musicians to organize “intimate” gigs at a higher price with a selected number of fans. Online gigs are nothing like live music, but fans are accepting that this is the way it is now. Merch sales have gone online long ago, but they have increased with the pandemic.

If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?