Review Fix Exclusive: Lorena Leigh Talks ‘Water Theory’

Review Fix chats with singer/songwriter Lorena Leigh, who lets us know all about her new album and why the Dream Pop Genre matters.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Lorena Leigh: I took piano lessons as a kid and grew up doing musical theater but always identified myself as a dancer. My first year living in NYC, I was training at Alvin Ailey and had a slew of major injuries. During my time of recovery, a family friend gave me a ukulele and that’s where things really started rolling for me. I wrote songs constantly, sang covers and created mashups with my best friend that we would regularly upload to a youtube channel. I submitted one of those videos to a craigslist post by producer Rene Veron who looking for a female vocalist/topliner on a commercial project. When I went to meet Rene in person, we clicked and began working together. Rene encouraged me to pursue music and produced my first EP ‘Bella Vista’. 

Review Fix: What makes you unique?

Leigh: That I don’t have any tattoos? haha! I feel that’s uncommon for millennials. 

Review Fix: What are your goals in music?

Leigh: To have fun! To travel, meet new people, observe the world, broaden my horizons and share in the magic of life as best I can. 

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Leigh: It’s like pop but country but Americana but beach but theater but edm but indie rock. Essentially, it’s whatever a Cowgirl and a Mermaid would make if they were in the same band. 

Review Fix: Why does dream pop matter?

Leigh: I think it’s trendy right now to be super blatant in art. To just say how you feel, exactly as it is, all the time. Which is awesome and I love how empowered we’re collectively becoming, but at the same time it doesn’t leave much room for curiosity or interpretation. I believe open interpretation is the soul of art; for the audience to soak in as they wish, for the art to be open enough so it can reflect upon its audience or illuminate within what only they can figure out for themselves. 

Dream pop is a sacred space that’s still carving out the mysticism. A sub-genre full of many colors, curiosities and ways to critically think, digest and interpret the music. 

Review Fix: What makes the ukelele special?

Leigh: It’s happy. Even when you play a sad song, the ukulele is happy.  Tuned to Aminor7.  It’s light and pure. Readily available for all sizes of travel, persons, songs and experiences. 

Review Fix: How does being a dancer help in your music?

Leigh: Growing up a dancer, I was exposed to so many different types of music…from classical in ballet class to the kind of nasty rap that can only accompany krumping. I was trained to pick out each instrument and internalize it into my body to express its riff, accent or flow. I think all of that now also works in reverse. When I am writing a song and working out the instrumentation, it’s a full body experience for me and I need to feel it in my bones. I have to be inspired to move from the song or it isn’t quite right. 

Review Fix: What does it mean to be a mermaid cowgirl?

Leigh: Embracing all that is wild and all that is free. Wide open spaces of the frontier and flowing magical depths of the sea. 

Review Fix: Your debut album is called Water Theory. What’s the theory and how does it inform the music?

Leigh: ‘Water Theory’ is a theory of collective consciousness. Water is connected, we all are part of it, pulled by the moon like the tides and whether you jump into the ocean in Thailand or New York City, you’re jumping into the vast collection of molecules that cover our planet and connect us all. 

Many of these songs I wrote while I was falling in love with surfing. I think that greatly informs their lyrical theme. My producer Ernesto Valenzuela (https://www.instagram.com/erizound) and I used many water recordings and sensory aspects in building synths and affecting ukuleles to bring about that etherial & expansive vibe to the album. 

Review Fix: What makes this LP special?

Leigh: Well, it’s my first! So that feels pretty special for me…and it’s been a long time coming. I first hatched the idea of a water themed album back in 2013. I hadn’t played live yet or even recorded my EP. I had no clue what I was doing or where I was going or how I was going to get there but I always kept this little seed of a hope and dream with me… and now it’s done. It’s recorded. It’s mastered and I’ll get to see what kind of a flower this seed will bloom into with the world. My first full length flower after 6 years of gardening… that’s pretty special! 

Review Fix: What’s the standout track? How was it written?

Leigh: Lately, ‘Tired To The Bone’ has been the most popular on tour. Which is crazy because it’s not even been released yet! It doesn’t really have a structure, it is weird and on stage, I whip out my pink megaphone to sing before the final chorus so, I think that’s why it’s invigorating even as a debut. I wrote most of the song years ago, probably subconsciously as a lullaby to myself because I was in a really dark time. But the “bridge” (“Are you going crazy? Totally insane?”) I added later and actually wrote and recorded in a couple of hours at Ernesto’s apartment in Brooklyn shortly after we began working together. It was a few days after I (finally) gathered the courage to cut myself off from a toxic relationship and the night before the August 2017 eclipse. 

I’ll never forget that night. As Ernesto set up the mic I jotted down some ideas. We both thought it would be just a little brainstorm session. It was blazing hot in the room with the AC off in order to record. Ernesto was at his computer and I sang with my ukulele to one stand alone microphone. I played through the entire bridge and immediately the layers of vocal parts were spewing out of my body faster than we could record them. That was the first magical moment he and I had together – we flowed and were vibrating on the same wave length about every.single.thing. Ernesto even did the majority of mixing that section that night while we were together. 

The next day I went full hippy and danced to that bridge we’d created in Fort Tilden through-out the eclipse. It was an existentially life altering week for me and that bridge is all part of it. When we did the “real recordings” for the album on better equipment, I recorded multiple versions of the bridge but nothing came close to the imperfections we had from that night. So what you hear on the album is exactly as it was created. Super real, super raw; the Solar eclipse bridge. 

Review Fix: You’re from Keller, TX, but lived for a stretch in Queens. For summer fun, what are your Top 5 go-to spots at Rockaway Beach?

Leigh: 5. Clams for lunch or dinner at The Wharf

4. Rockaway Hot Yoga on 116th (my fav yoga studio of all time) 

3. Connolley’s Bar – It may be cliché buuuut for good reason!!!! go get yourself a frozen!

2. Fort Tilden (hike through to see the bunkers and definitely check out the Art Gallery)

and for the big NUMBER ONE….

1. THE BEACH!!! You really can’t beat it. Surf, Swim, Frolick in the waves. Grab a coconut from By The Beach Cocos at Riis Park and post up for the day….or rent a bike from Boarders at 97th street boardwalk to best adventure the entire stretch of magic that exists among that peninsula. 

Review Fix: What’s next?

Leigh: Next up is an Ireland/UK extravaganza! Heading over to stay with my boyfriend in Donegal for a couple of months. Will be hopping over to England to play some shows while I’m there. I’ll work on a ‘making of the album’ series for my youtube, will book out winter tour dates, edit a couple of music videos and most importantly…. soak up all the amazing live music, surfing, Guinness and craic Ireland has to offer!