Saturday, January 29, 2011

Zee Avi

The story of the musician Zee Avi (born Izyan Alirahman) is a peek into the possibilities that the Internet offers new artists as a showcase for talent. The singer-songwriter, guitarist, and ukulele player was born in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia and  spent her first 12 years on Island of Borneo, in a small village called Miri on the South China Sea. Her father was  an energy consultant, She expected to follow a career path toward being a lawyer.

Her father was also a musician and multi-instrumentalist. Later her family moved to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lampur, where she still lives. In her teens she took up guitar, often spending hours locked in her room practicing. But she put music aside for four years during which she went to London to study fashion design. But back in Kuala Lumpur, she got back to her music, and starting writing songs and playing with a band. She began recording some of her songs on a computer webcam, and began posting them on YouTube. A British singer-songwriter named Kris Rowley, who had some following began posting some of her songs on his site, and Ms. Avi was soon getting lots of web hits.  http://goo.gl/wZtQA

After she received positive feedback, .she was inspired to put more videos on YouTube.

After being featured on the main page of YouTube, she was discovered by Patrick Keeler of The Raconteurs, who passed the link to Ian Montone, the manager of The White Stripes, The Shins, The Raconteurs, and others. Montone passed her music on to Emmett Malloy, who signed her to Brushfire Records, a record company which is partly owned by Jack Johnson.Her song "No Christmas For Me" is featured on Brushfire Records's 2008 Christmas album.

Her full self-titled debut album was released on May 19, 2009, co-produced by Brushfire Records and Ian Montone's Monotone Records.

So tell me what YOU think of this artist.

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