Countdown to Spinning & Shining: Naked On Roller Skates' Leesa Coyne

Who needs wordless Monday when you've got friends to write the words for you?!

All this week on the blog I'll be featuring the frontwomen from the supersweet line-up I (humbly) put together for our EP RELEASE SHOW AT MIDDLE EAST UPSTAIRS THIS SATURDAY, AUGUST 7TH!!!!

Before I turn the blog over, I just want to make a quick request to you for support.  This Blue Heaven's tune "Generous Soul" (track 3 on Spinning and Shining) is in this week's 100.7 WZLX Boston Emissions New Fave Song Poll, so we've made the song STREAMABLE on Reverbnation and Facebook!!!  If you dig what you hear, please CLICK HERE to vote for our song this week!!!  Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!

Okay!  Without further ado, I'm gonna start this thing off with a bang and let the sparkling frontwoman for our band-soulmates Naked On Roller Skates take the stage!  I sent my interview questions to all the ladies of the week, asking them to select 3 or more to answer... but Leesa answered a whole bunch (all of 'em?) so this should provide you with some fun Monday reading!  Enjoy!

***UPDATE, Wednesday 8/4:  See...this is why I do photos on Mondays.  I'm just not, like, in writing-gear yet.  As a result, I'm afraid, I have been much more expressive with my specific adoration of the later-in-the-week babes than with Leesa, which creates an absolutely FALSE impression that I have nothing to say about her.  So let me just fix that retroactively right now.

Leesa is one of the women from this line-up that I've gotten to spend some real time with.  In fact, I don't mind telling you that after our first real encounter with Leesa & Travis (the GP of NORS and Leesa's lucky beau) at karaoke night at Razzys, Stu & I made a conscious decision to stalk pursue friendship with the pair.  I can't speak for Stu, but I can tell you what drew me to Leesa: NO BULLSHIT. And let's face it, this is a culture in which bullshit thrives (and vice versa). Philosophers have written on it. It feels and is inescapable. But every once in awhile you meet someone who seems utterly incapable of it. They say what they're thinking, they mean what they say, and they do so in no uncertain terms. And yes, of course it's intense, but it's also completely freeing. Because their humanity is on full display and as a result, you feel you can be what you, in fact, are... which is human, too.

I decided recently that the true "it factor" that makes a rock star a rock star is the ability to exude strength while expressing honest vulnerability. In other words?  No bullshit.  Yeah, Leesa's got it.  And you gotta love her for it 'cause she leaves you no other choice.***


LEESA COYNE, NAKED ON ROLLER SKATES

What kind of "shows" did you put on as a kid?  Any favorites?

I used to put on routines with my cousins (who were about the same age) where we would dress up and sing into hairbrushes. We were called “the fashion girls.” I was like 10ish at the time.

Who/what are some NON-musical influences on your music?

My neighbor Laura who taught me how to play guitar and that you are never too old to try something new. Other neighbor Tom who supported me when I first started playing music, his wife Jane who still supports me. My grandmothers, one who played guitar and another who has been way ahead of her time.

If you had to choose another genre of music to learn/perform, what would it be?

Bluegrass or electronic music (like Danger Mouse or Faithless). Bluegrass cause it is so simple and honest. Electronic cause it leaves so much room for experimentation.

What about a career path you haven't pursued, but might later or would if you had time or even another lifetime?

I would really love to be a landscaper or a garden designer. Me and a couple of my lady friends joke around about starting an all female landscaping business called Bitches with Hoes. It would be cool to start a business for Boston’s first roof top organic farm, too. Anything outside that is working with the earth.

Do you ever have pre-show moments when you wish you didn't have to perform?  What would you rather be doing on those occasions?  

I love to perform, which comes with being a Leo. The only time I would not want to be on stage is when I am missing something important going on with someone I care about or when I am super sleepy. At which point I would rather be sleeping.

Describe your band dynamic, in three words.

One Hot Mess

What is the strangest thing you've found yourself doing since being in a band?

Other than excel spreadsheets. Parading around in the freezing cold with nothing but a pink sparkly dress and roller skates for my recent photo shoot for the record with Kelly [Davidson]. Pretty sure there are other more strange things I am just not thinking of at the moment.

If you could open for anyone (let's say in all of history, 'cause that's more fun), who would it be?

Led Zeppelin  - Just cause it's mother f*ckin Zeppelin!!!

 

Describe the perfect scene of solitude for you.

I am a pretty high strung person until you put me on a beach somewhere, I can basically sit there for hours content listening to the ocean, watching the waves roll and seeing the gulls fly.

Where would you like to travel?

Machu Picchu in Peru and to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatina in Spain!

You may or may not know that I've recently become obsessed with Doctor Who, not that it really matters except to provide context for this question:  If you had access to a time machine (and a superhero time lord, if need be) and could go anywhere in the universe at any time in its history, what/where/when would it be?

Female Queen in Egypt around the time the pyramids were built so I could see if humans really made them or if it was just some sort of aliens that did. Only as a Queen though cause women’s rights really suck for the peasant folks pretty much any time before the 1950’s and I just can’t deal with some man telling me what to do.

What do you believe in?

Karma

What do you know for sure?

1+1=2

What's one thing you don't know but wish you did?

Are we really just someone’s dream.

What're you reading or watching, lately?

The Omnivores Dilemma and Californication

What is your favorite moment in the course of a show?  (general or specific)

I got to spike a microphone at this battle of the bands I played in like 5 years ago it was one of the first shows I played with a band instead of solo acoustic, I felt so f*cking rock n’ roll!!!

When do you find yourself aware of yourself *as a woman* in the band context?

Sometimes when people are looking at me funny cause I am putting makeup on in the ladies room before a show or the time I needed to have the waitress at the Plough N’ Stars help zip up the back of my dress. Or when Kelly and I talk about “girl things” at rehearsal and the boys get weird’d out.  Never in a bad way though its all been good fun.

  

(Enjoy these three killer tunes from Naked On Roller Skates - they'll have an EP coming out soon, I'm told - and be sure to catch them at 8:00pm SHARP this Saturday at Middle East Upstairs!!!)