///PRESS

Posted February 2009

//JONNA LEE

Lee was born 1981 in Linköping and grew up in a small Swedish village in
the country with her mother.
She was a natural talent and a musical mind at an early age though no one
in her family had any musical leanings.

-"My parents are both very artistic but neither one of them have any
musical skills, so growing up in a house without any musical instruments
made it hard to practise what I love. I secretly practise singing whenever
I was on my own 'cause I knew no one would understand my passion for music
and that had me fighting to persue being a musician", Jonna says.

In her teens, she packed her belongings and ran away from a rough
environment at home, to an even rougher one in London. The goal being to
find out what she had to do to get to where she wanted to be, "at the top
of the world" as she describes it herself. Her first encounter with the
music buisness came at age 17 when she as a member in a duo released her
first album. Not being satisfied with sharing the spotlight, Jonna Lee
went solo and learned to play all neccessary instruments to become the
artist she wanted to be.

In her early twenties, Lee found her way back to Sweden and moved to
Stockholm where she became a part of the underground indie scene, but
still keeping one foot it London. She started recording her own records
that were released only trough her website until she was signed by Swedish
indie label Razzia records spring of 2007.

Jonna Lee’s debut album “10 pieces, 10 bruises” was released in
Scandinavia Oct 2007 and was produced by Lee together with Swedish
producer Claes Björklund (Travis) in London. The first single was “Dried
out eyes”, followed by “And your love”, a duet with UK talent Ed Harcourt.
Harcourt also produced three of the tracks on her debutalbum. Danny Goffey
from UK band Supergrass guest plays and sings on the album.

“10 pieces, 10 bruises” was also released in Japan in July 2008 by P-Vine
records.

In September 2008 Jonna Lee released a 5 track EP entitled THIS WAR, a
teaser from her then to be released second album, that also featured the
song “The Light” that Swedish radio picked up and put on the playlist
though it really wasn't meant to be a single.

Feb 25 2009 “THIS IS JONNA LEE”, produced by Jonna herself together with
Claes Björklund, hit the stores and Itunes worldwide. The first single was
“My High” followed by "Lake Chermain" and "Something so quiet". Her second
album she describes, is a more honest and forward record but is still
musically related to her previous recordings.

"THIS IS JONNA LEE" was entitled "the Next big thing" on Itunes USA May 2009.

Her some what unexpected, stripped down, version of the industrial electro
band Nitzer Ebb's song "Violent Playground" generated many new fans come
fall of 2009 when Nitzer Ebb themselves discovered the cover on youtube
and decided to promote it on their website.

Jonna Lee’s distinguishing feature is her elegant but hoarse voice
combined with her hopeful but mellow songs and her stage persona that is
something out of the ordinary. "When I'm on stage, I own the stage and I
truly love what I do", Jonna says.

Don't miss Jonna Lee at SXSW in Austin, TX 2010.

//Posted Sep 30 2009:

JONNA LEE OCH MAIA HIRASAWA PÅ NÄRA TURNÉ

Svenska artisterna Maia Hirasawa och Jonna Lee gör unikt samarbete när de
i höst ger sig ut på en turné tillsammans där de inte bara delar scen -
utan också spelar varandras låtar.

- Det blir en intim och väldigt spontan turné, säger Maia Hirasawa.
Det var i somras som Maia kom på idén om en extremt avskalad höst.
Hon fick ett infall och ringde upp kollegan och kompisen Jonna Lee, och
frågade om hon skulle vilja göra en turné där de delar på utrymmet och
arbetet, där de kompar varandra i låtarna och följer varandras nya idéer.
- Vi delar samma kärlek till att spela live, så att dela scen känns helt
logiskt, säger Jonna.

NÄRA är en turné där rösterna brister, där gitarrsträngarna går av, där
två av våra finaste låtskrivare och sångerskor gör det de gör bäst:
spelar, rakt ut, precis framför dig.

MAIA HIRASAWA: släppte GbgvsSthlm i våras och debuten Though I'm just me
2007, producerar sina egna skivor, spelar det mesta själv, har turnerat i
Europa, USA, Japan, Brasilien och Kina, gjorde The Arks The Worrying Kind
i Melodifestivalen 2008, en gång medlem i Hello Saferide, låtar du har
hört: And I found this boy, Mattis & Maia, Gothenburg, South again, The
wrong way

JONNA LEE: släppte This is Jonna Lee  2009 och 10 pieces, 10 bruises 2007,
producerar sina egna skivor, spelar det mesta själv, är ny programledare
för P3 Live Session, har gjort duetten And your love med Ed Harcourt och
även spelat förband till honom, hade klubben xx, låtar du hört: My high,
Dried out eyes, Lake Chermain

Maia och Jonna repar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch\?v=VI4Np2Lt_YA
http://www.youtube.com/watch\?v=9MvBAgAPDMg