article on "Leaf" Family Band
Oct 30, 2006 10:56:32 GMT 10
Post by irishscorpio on Oct 30, 2006 10:56:32 GMT 10
In my search for all things wonderful aka Mr. Damien Leith, I stumbled across an article from 6years ago on the family band. Thought it would provide some enjoyment on this *blah yuk dreads at the sheer thought of the word* Monday. Sorry I ended up copying as it seemed the easiest thing at the time..
Friday, February 25, 2000
Taking a leaf out of the Corr’s book
Local News
WHILE Pat Kenny and fans of the Late Late Show were looking at the tall beautiful people walking down a catwalk in the Point Depot last Friday night, there was another and possibly more entertaining show on a different channel that had a real Kildare interest.
Gerry Kelly of UTV may not exactly be everyone’s cup of tea but he certainly knows how to pick the musicians for his show.
‘Leaf’ are a family band from Milltown comprising brothers Paul, Damien and Darren Leith and sister Áine. Over the last few months the band, along with their manager and long time friend, Alan Bell, have been arranging gigs and sending their demo CD to every one they could think of. Indeed, with a copy of the four track disc having winged its way to the Late Late studios, it would appear that Pat Kenny has had his chance.
He will not be able to say that “you saw them here first folks” like Gay Byrne did (ad nauseum) with Boyzone.
Paul Leith (26) is the eldest in the family and in many ways the leader of the band and he says that although the comparison to that other Irish family band, the Corrs, is inevitable, that was never the intention of the band.
“We are not copying anyone. As a family we have always been very involved in music and we thought it would be fun to start taking it a bit further,” Paul told Newsbridge.
So in 1998, Leaf was born and since then, it has developed in to a mature and gifted group. In September of 1998, they produced their first demo album, ‘In the Morning’. The album contained 12 of their original songs but unfortunately because of a low budget, the album was not of a high enough sound quality to send to record companies and so they decided to cut another four track demo in October 1999.
This demo EP was recorded in Sun Studios of Temple Bar in Dublin and contains four brand new original songs. The band was lucky enough to get Pat Donne to produce it. Donne recently produced Paddy Casey’s highly successful album which did so well in the charts.
Since then they sent it to every record company, radio and TV station they could think of and within a couple of days of sending it in to Gerry Kelly, one of his researchers rang back looking to book them.
“They said it was exactly what they were looking for and asked us could we go in an do it live. We were thrilled,” said Paul.
In the mean time the band carry on with their ordinary lives in between interviews with music magazines, radio stations and photoshoots. They appear to be a very scientifically minded family with Paul employed as a consultant engineer having qualified from TCD. Meanwhile, Damien (24) is doing a chemistry PhD on leukaemia, Áine (23) is an occupational therapist in Naas General Hospital and Darren (19) is a genetics undergraduate at Trinity. Brains, musical talent, good looks, does this family have it all? Surely, with interest coming from America, they will soon be lured away and forget all about their roots in County Kildare.
“Not at all. Where we are from is very important to us and at the moment we are concentrating on the Kildare scene for our gigs, especially Kildare town, Naas and Newbridge. We won’t forget where we are from,” he said.
The music they play is said to be “Crowded House meets the Verve, with a bit of the Corrs’ melody thrown in for good measure”.
Leaf will be playing in Rose Early’s pub in Newbridge on Sunday next, February 27 and if past gigs are anything to go by, it should be quite a night. Anyway, whatever happens, you may have seen them first on UTV but you read about them first right here in Newsbridge.
Friday, February 25, 2000
Taking a leaf out of the Corr’s book
Local News
WHILE Pat Kenny and fans of the Late Late Show were looking at the tall beautiful people walking down a catwalk in the Point Depot last Friday night, there was another and possibly more entertaining show on a different channel that had a real Kildare interest.
Gerry Kelly of UTV may not exactly be everyone’s cup of tea but he certainly knows how to pick the musicians for his show.
‘Leaf’ are a family band from Milltown comprising brothers Paul, Damien and Darren Leith and sister Áine. Over the last few months the band, along with their manager and long time friend, Alan Bell, have been arranging gigs and sending their demo CD to every one they could think of. Indeed, with a copy of the four track disc having winged its way to the Late Late studios, it would appear that Pat Kenny has had his chance.
He will not be able to say that “you saw them here first folks” like Gay Byrne did (ad nauseum) with Boyzone.
Paul Leith (26) is the eldest in the family and in many ways the leader of the band and he says that although the comparison to that other Irish family band, the Corrs, is inevitable, that was never the intention of the band.
“We are not copying anyone. As a family we have always been very involved in music and we thought it would be fun to start taking it a bit further,” Paul told Newsbridge.
So in 1998, Leaf was born and since then, it has developed in to a mature and gifted group. In September of 1998, they produced their first demo album, ‘In the Morning’. The album contained 12 of their original songs but unfortunately because of a low budget, the album was not of a high enough sound quality to send to record companies and so they decided to cut another four track demo in October 1999.
This demo EP was recorded in Sun Studios of Temple Bar in Dublin and contains four brand new original songs. The band was lucky enough to get Pat Donne to produce it. Donne recently produced Paddy Casey’s highly successful album which did so well in the charts.
Since then they sent it to every record company, radio and TV station they could think of and within a couple of days of sending it in to Gerry Kelly, one of his researchers rang back looking to book them.
“They said it was exactly what they were looking for and asked us could we go in an do it live. We were thrilled,” said Paul.
In the mean time the band carry on with their ordinary lives in between interviews with music magazines, radio stations and photoshoots. They appear to be a very scientifically minded family with Paul employed as a consultant engineer having qualified from TCD. Meanwhile, Damien (24) is doing a chemistry PhD on leukaemia, Áine (23) is an occupational therapist in Naas General Hospital and Darren (19) is a genetics undergraduate at Trinity. Brains, musical talent, good looks, does this family have it all? Surely, with interest coming from America, they will soon be lured away and forget all about their roots in County Kildare.
“Not at all. Where we are from is very important to us and at the moment we are concentrating on the Kildare scene for our gigs, especially Kildare town, Naas and Newbridge. We won’t forget where we are from,” he said.
The music they play is said to be “Crowded House meets the Verve, with a bit of the Corrs’ melody thrown in for good measure”.
Leaf will be playing in Rose Early’s pub in Newbridge on Sunday next, February 27 and if past gigs are anything to go by, it should be quite a night. Anyway, whatever happens, you may have seen them first on UTV but you read about them first right here in Newsbridge.
