Running just as fast as we can….

I have been deliberating about doing a half marathon in toronto next weekend….it came up kind of suddenly, but i’ve been an on / off jogger (’on’ these days) since public school — it’s just i’m not sure about doing 21kms, that puts the jog out of the realm of ‘minutes’ and into the realm of ‘hours’. Maybe if I put enough motivational songs on my ipod I could manage, but really, how many times can a girl listen to ‘eye of the tiger’ before it loses it’s effect? Or perhaps if I bring out the Tiffany ‘I think we’re alone now’ that would have a similar effect. Hmm. Growing up in a small town meant lots of country side which is ideal for running - lots of cow fields (and patties!) to run through, our highschool course went through the cow field right beside my house. At the time I had lots of motivation to stick with it as my first crush was a guy I would always (and only) see at cross country meets and oooh was he a looker, brad savage was his name and he was lovely. Mind you I was in about grade 6, so really, who knows at this point. It’s amazing that we actually thought anyone looked good in those pacer shorts. Eww.

Jogging, like most things i’ve decided, is a lot about just gettinginto the rhythm and going with the flow. And it’s about breathing. I remember many times at practice my coach would have to run beside meand remind me to breathe steadily (maybe I was distracted and short of breath thinking about brad, hmmm). Same thing happened when I started doing pottery, I would get so caught up in it that I would hold my breath and my teacher would be guiding me through the steps and at the end would tack on ‘and now, it would be great it you would breathe’. Even when I do yoga I find myself holding my breath even though the whole point is to get the breathing right. But once you find it, once you get your flow and you’re in the moment, it’s fantastic. Rhythm. Thankfully it’s something that can be learned, and it’s a constant life lesson for me. My best shows so far have been the ones where i’ve remembered to breath and really experience the audience, the songs, the moments. When you can let go and just be in it, that’s when the magic happens. That’s when you can suddenly make it through a 21km course, right? We’ll see….!

Things are so busy right now as we get set to launch this album on October 21st. There have been years and years of work and ups and downs to get to this point, and I still feel like this is just the beginning. I’m excited!! We are doing a relatively ’soft’ launch, which means that we’re not taking anything from the album to radio until early next year and basically focusing on touring and lots of press, sticking with the kind of ‘grassroots’ approach i’ve always had and continuing to build bit by bit. We have talked about releasing a Christmas song to radio, and I wasn’t sure at first but I think this weekend I wrote something I’m happy with, so we’ll see what my producer says and go from there…it’s hard to write a Christmas song, I wanted it to have a simple but significant message without being too cheesy. I have no idea if i’ve accomplished that mission, we’ll see!

I just tried 6 times to upload a picture of the album cover and for some reason it just won’t let me. I’ll try again later.

Please please please go out to a store and buy a copy of the album the week of October 21….!!

LP. x.

Hello!

Here’s a short video blog from the road, with an update on what i’ve been up to the past few weeks.

Watch the Video Blog!

BLINK is coming out in stores across Canada on October 21 - less than one month!! I’ve been asking people at my shows if they stll buy records in stores, and the response has been positive, so i’m hoping that you will each go out and pick up a copy or two of the album -one for you, one for your mother, something like that! It has new artwork, a new mix of Dreaming Back To Life, and the sequencing is a bit different than the ‘advance (and now limited edition!)’ version that some of you may already have.

Lots more showdates will be posted over the next week or so. I’m all over the map in the USA with various showcases and then will be doing a run of dates in Ontario followed by a tour of Western Canada in November. Keep checking my myspace page or the website!

People have been asking for more ‘words of the week’, so i’ve been racking my brain to come up with another ‘made up’ funny word from my travels. (The previous word, Metaphoron, is a tough one to follow). Awhile ago I was traveling in Europe, and while in Barcelona I randomly ran into my friend Andrew on Las Ramblas (yes, it was crazy). Anyways, we were sitting on a bench and he was telling me all about his travels and at one point his super long run-on sentence involved the word ‘TOTALLY-IST’. He was so excited about whatever he was talking about, and at the end I said ‘did you just stay TOTALLY-IST? It was hilarious. So….totallyist is my word of the week. I have no idea what it means, but try it out in a sentence, it’s pretty funny! (Next time i’ll try to use a real word instead of re-writing the english language).

Hope you all had a great summer!

x,

Lesley

Well here I sit in Vancouver, trying to get this ‘Mondays’ blog finished and delivered to your mailbox while it’s still Monday: I have a few minutes since i’m on the west coast

There have been lots of great moments on tour this summer. Lots and lots of laughs. We’ve had shows where we’ve laughed so hard we were crying on stage and could barely sing.

The other day I had one of the best (and most unexepected) moments ever - - here it is:

And wait, make some room for me, too…..

Five crazy boys who not only bought pike on a bike shirts on a boat cruise in the pacific ocean but sported them from the moment of purchase.  I used to think it was kind of lame when people bought shirts at a concert and then wore them at the actual concert. I’ve changed my mind.  It’s awesome!! Really, what more could a girl ask for?  A pike on a bike sandwich!!

Things are rolling along getting set for this release of Blink in October.  We are labouring over artwork now, so much time and thought goes into putting all of this stuff together, it’s tedious! I have looked at so many proofs i’m worried i’m starting to lose my objectivity.  I still look at the photos and can’t believe that stunning little butterfly graced me with his presence for the entire photoshoot, what an amazing day that was!  I’ll post the finished cover soon….

x,
Lesley

Hi Everyone, 

Short and sweet for today, i’m getting packed up and ready to head out for dates on the west coast.  

I’ll be performing 2 songs on BCTV, Global TV’s morning show this Thursday, August 21, so please tune in!  I think i’m on sometime around 7:30 PST.  Gotta love singing in the wee hours of the morning!

We had an amazing photoshoot which was nothing short of magical last week - - I will talk more about the story as we start to promote the record and once I post the photos, but legendary music photographer Ron Boudreau (www.ronboudreau.com) took the photos and they are stunning, i’ve attached one of the shots as a sneak peek.   And yes, that is a real butterfly sitting on my ear, and you’ll see a lot more of that butterfly in the future, including on my new album cover.   Butterflies have always been symbolic to me (I almost called my album Butterflies, but thought it sounded a bit too ‘mariah carey’), so the fact that one showed up at my photoshoot in the Bluffs and decided to stick around for the next 6 hours and appear in about 600 photos blew me away.    You will see the photos and think we photoshopped that beautiful creature in, but in fact she was real and sitting on me for the entire shoot.   Crazy!

Blink is scheduled for release across Canada on October 7, and I’m so excited!   We have been working on this album for a long time and i’m glad it’s finally going to get out there.   I struggled for several weeks trying to decide whether or not it should be in stores because so few people buy albums in stores anymore, but once I saw the photos it was easy to make the decision - - I want it out there where people can see it, and i’m hoping that you will all go out to a store and pick up a copy!! 

Random trivia:  did you know that Butterflies only live an average of 4-11 days?  

Hope you’re all well…

x,

Lesley

The Mondays - Green Gables and other Fables
Current mood: busy

Hi Everyone,

I only have a moment, so this one will be brief.

I’ve posted a little video of the adventures of Katie Rox and yours truly at Green Gables in the video section….you can imagine how delighted the random stranger was to film us skipping up lover’s lane! Aah, we had a lot of fun out east.

Check it out in the video section or on my you tube channel.

Lots of exciting things to report on my end, ‘Blink’ has been picked up by a little label and will be coming out ‘properly’ in October - more details on that coming soon. This has resulted in a very hectic schedule, and I’m off to a photoshoot in about 2 minutes so we can do full artwork for the album. The tour picks up again next week on the west coast, and i’ll be doing some TV stuff while i’m out there so check my website or myspace page for more details.

Much more coming soon, for now i’ve gotta run!

Thanks as always for the love & support!

x,

Lesley