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Electra Vocalist/Songwriter -------------------------------------- "What do I like? Money, love and sunsets... not necessarily in that order. Oh and Forests filled with songbirds and green.... yes.. .lots of green." Electra was born in Manhattan to an ex-Vogue-model mother of Russo-Polish origins and a surgeon father of old East Coast family and values. Music studies (piano and recorder) began at 5 and dance (ballet and modern) at 8. She played various instruments at school (flute, clarinet, saxophone, glockenspiel! and yes, even the triangle!) and was a member of the 'Glee Club' - (for the uninitiated, that means singing). Alongside music, she loved riding horses, solitude and personal freedom. At 15, Electra moved to live with her sister in Barcelona and studied ballet, jazz and belly dancing plus languages (Spanish, French and Catalan). After a year there and a minute or two in LA, Arizona and Colombia SA, returned to New York to continue with professional voice, dance and newly added drama studies. At 17 a professor from Julliard guided her into operatic vocal training. The next 3 years were devoted to voice, dance and drama studies (Herbert Berghoff Studios) plus a one-year Studio Engineering course at New York University. Training in technique did not dispose of her passion for harder, more immediate, less 'techniqued' music and dance. A lifelong attraction to British Rock roots triggered a move to London, where Electra was almost seduced by a 'Top of the Pops' production team, but escaped with her integrity intact to front two or three predominantly hard rock/progressive rock bands (i.e. Twelfth Night being the first, followed by 'Rich Bitch' with Mick Ransome on drums). During this period, she adopted her lover's (later to become her husband) surname and called herself 'Electra Macleod' and entered into the full-tilt get-back boogie of the Ladbroke Grove/Portobello Road rockin'-yer-head trendy London universe. The life-style became intense and after a runaway year in Amsterdam to recover, some time out to get married (and later to divorce), Electra (no longer Ms Macleod) returned to London and moved into session singing through The London Booking Agency. She worked professionally with many songwriters and producers; but most often with the very gifted songwriter/producer Craig Pruess (at the time he was scoring films and writing/producing for Sir Cliff Richard, amongst others). Nick Mason of the epochal super-group Pink Floyd brought a song to the table via Rick Fenn (ex 10CC guitarist) who was one of Craig's songwriting partners. The song "Survivor" was the theme track to a film of the same name. This particular job upped the ante and soon Craig and Rick began to write specifically for Electra and the project received attention from RCA (pre BMG). Final crossroads reached, it was time for a decision; although the image and music were beautifully produced, the direction the production team selected for her, was strictly, painfully, commercial and ran straight down the white line in the middle of the road. After amicably exiting the world of formulaic music, (it was a very close call) Electra spent a year looking and, at last, formed the band she'd always wanted - Dead Easy - with guitarist Ian Jones. (Ian had co-written "Blitzkrieg", a track Metallica covered in recognition of the influence of Ian's band BLITZKRIEG.) Dead Easy's new manager, Paul Loasby (the 'Father' of the Donnington Rock Festival), helped put together a deal to produce an album for licensing. There were members of Faith No More, Metallica and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath guesting on that project, but after 6 months in the studio, the recordings were never mastered and the deal fell apart. (Not far enough apart. The publishing contract remained unbreakable until April 2003.) Sometime during the end of that period, deeply despairing of ever finding the true path to enlightenment and a pleasantly stable bank balance, Electra drifted from what we liked to call 'sophisticated' (the Thinking Man's) Heavy Metal into Dance/techno/trance. On the London dance trip down, too many samples of her voice were being taken and the music, 9 times out of 10 did not require a skilled vocalist or, often, any vocalist at all. Samples would suffice.
Wounded,
battered, DISAPPOINTED and just sick of the run around, she returned to
a quiet life in Edinburgh and began working
on a project ("Eva Luna") with dance/R&B producer Dave Galbraith
(Wonderlust). Concurrently, she was hired as a session singer fronting 'The Steve Martland Band'; a
40-piece brass band with lyrics and opened the South Bank Festival in London at the Queens Hall and a week later
performed for Prince Charles at the Princes Trust in a rugby pitch in the
Rhonda Valley, Wales. He seemed a pleasant enough fellow.. with his
entourage - the entire British army stationed on the perimeter.. In the last year of the last millennium Electra made several trips back and forth to the UK; was in Richmond Park with dear friends and family for the total eclipse of the sun on 11 August 1999 and then up to Edinburgh for the Festival. During a night of particularly hardy partying (post Orbital gig in Princes St Gardens -"we're gonna dance like it's 1999!") met and fell in love with the man who encouraged her to write music again. The songs CRAWL (finalist in UK Songwriting Contest), THAT BOY and 'I HAVE BEEN A FOOL' which inspired film-short 'Memorie', by Alavala, are some of the 60-70 songs Electra has written and produced during this period, working solo. 2003 saw her showcasing material at Music Festivals in NY, Las Vegas, LA and in the United Kingdom and winning the 'Alt Rock Female Vocalist' Award for her vocal prowess . Copyright which was held for songs for the DEAD EASY project was returned to her, after years of protracted legal 'discussions', in April 2003 and Electra now owns the entire catalogue of her work. In 2005 she set up the publishing and artist management company MGCK Music Limited That has INDEED been a struggle, but the great joy "is knowing I own my own life and time and answer to no one except whoever my 'GOD' is on any given day." Currently, Electra is developing a new solo project entitled DEEP SIX and oft-times joining serendipitous electronic Scottish sonic savants ALTRES onstage for live gigs. Electra is settling into the discovery of her voice as an instrument to explore and defy conventions. She also happily lives sometimes in Edinburgh, sometimes in San Francisco, sometimes in Arizona and anywhere there are sunsets. Amen."" MGCK Music Electrasong Live Dates CD's
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