Anna Lea was born the eldest of a set of twins in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Anna Lea often sang duets with her sister once she started school and “wrote” a song for her kindergarten class called “Fire’s Underway”. The teacher played this song, sung as a duet with her sister, for Parent’s Night. And so the love of music began for Anna Lea.
During the next 10 years Anna Lea sang in church and school choirs, high school Broadway plays and formed a folk trio with her sister and sister’s fiance. This folk trio, named Two Plus One, played at various coffee houses, rec centers and churches, and even did a gig at Vanier Institute, the women’s prison. That gig was a real experience for the three of them! Escorted into the prison at 7 p.m. and frogmarched out at 9 a.m. when it was lights out and lockdown for the night.
For the next few years, Anna Lea sang in a cover band named The First Impressions as lead singer every weekend at the Riviera Club in Norval, Ontario. It was quite a classy joint in those days, 30 or so years ago.
Anna Lea then married and started a family and abandoned any musical aspirations she may have had at the time.
It was not until 2006 that Anna Lea realized she was dissatisfied singing karaoke to other people’s tunes and decided to write her own songs. “Big Time Player” was her first song, followed by “Sweet Sugar” and “Not This Time”. It’s been a learning process for Anna Lea, since she writes the lyrics, creates her own music from Acid loops, sings her own vocals and produces the songs herself. She’s still learning. Anna Lea’s the first person to admit that she’s a lousy producer, but she’s the only one around to do it!
Anna Lea’s most recent song is a jazz instrumental called “World Revised”, and she’s quite enthusiastic about trying new things musically. One of the unusual facts about Anna Lea is that she started composing her own songs at the age of 54!
Anna Lea’s style is mostly blues/jazz/rock/folk oriented, but she doesn’t limit herself to any particular genre. She writes whatever sounds good and suits her style.
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