Biography
Led by Alice Leon, an East Coast singer and songwriter, the Princeton, NJ-based Alice Project focuses on melodic, hook-driven, tuneful pop/rock. Leon avoids abstraction or complexity in her work; instead, her compositions deliver substance and weight while remaining straightforward and immediately engaging. Her influences, whether drawn directly or indirectly, encompass Carole King, Carly Simon, and the Beatles alongside Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, Sheryl Crow, and Aimee Mann, the former lead singer of Til Tuesday who later pursued a solo career. Within the Alice Project, Leon maintains close control, authoring nearly all the material, sharing production duties on the group’s releases, and handling much of the arranging.
The Alice Project marks Leon’s second ensemble. Earlier she fronted After Alice, which performed on Star Search in 1990 and issued the album Sound the Alarm in 1995. Several tracks from that recording served as incidental music for the long-running CBS soap opera Guiding Light, on which Leon also appeared as a wedding singer delivering the program’s theme. After Alice disbanded in 1996, Leon continued as a solo performer on guitar and keyboards. While playing an acoustic set at a Greenwich Village café, she was noticed by a Sony Music executive who arranged an introduction to producer John Kalodner; Kalodner subsequently placed her under a development deal with the label. In 1997 Sony financed a demo produced by Dave “The Snake” Sabo of the Los Angeles heavy-metal band Skid Row and by Jackyl vocalist Jesse James Dupree. Corporate changes at Sony ended the arrangement, yet Leon retained the recordings and, later that same year, launched the Alice Project. She sold cassette copies of the demo, titled Conversations in the Bedroom, at the band’s early shows.
The group’s first album, The Big Number, appeared in 1998 on Leon’s own Clown Milk Records and featured the original lineup of Leon on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Mickey Angel on lead guitar, Scott Monetti on keyboards and background vocals, Jim Arra on bass and background vocals, and Scott Strunk on drums. Traveling With Lady Berlin, the second album, followed on Clown Milk in 2000 with a revised roster that retained Strunk and added James Leahey on lead guitar and Alan Greene on bass. In 2002 the Alice Project completed its third release, Overnight Success, also issued by Clown Milk.
The Alice Project marks Leon’s second ensemble. Earlier she fronted After Alice, which performed on Star Search in 1990 and issued the album Sound the Alarm in 1995. Several tracks from that recording served as incidental music for the long-running CBS soap opera Guiding Light, on which Leon also appeared as a wedding singer delivering the program’s theme. After Alice disbanded in 1996, Leon continued as a solo performer on guitar and keyboards. While playing an acoustic set at a Greenwich Village café, she was noticed by a Sony Music executive who arranged an introduction to producer John Kalodner; Kalodner subsequently placed her under a development deal with the label. In 1997 Sony financed a demo produced by Dave “The Snake” Sabo of the Los Angeles heavy-metal band Skid Row and by Jackyl vocalist Jesse James Dupree. Corporate changes at Sony ended the arrangement, yet Leon retained the recordings and, later that same year, launched the Alice Project. She sold cassette copies of the demo, titled Conversations in the Bedroom, at the band’s early shows.
The group’s first album, The Big Number, appeared in 1998 on Leon’s own Clown Milk Records and featured the original lineup of Leon on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Mickey Angel on lead guitar, Scott Monetti on keyboards and background vocals, Jim Arra on bass and background vocals, and Scott Strunk on drums. Traveling With Lady Berlin, the second album, followed on Clown Milk in 2000 with a revised roster that retained Strunk and added James Leahey on lead guitar and Alan Greene on bass. In 2002 the Alice Project completed its third release, Overnight Success, also issued by Clown Milk.
Albums
