{"id":33230,"date":"2020-05-19T12:30:07","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T16:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=33230"},"modified":"2020-05-15T18:18:12","modified_gmt":"2020-05-15T22:18:12","slug":"premiere-lenii-tea-sessions-cereal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/premiere-lenii-tea-sessions-cereal\/","title":{"rendered":"Lenii Launches Tea Sessions With Backyard &#8220;Cereal&#8221; Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_33249\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33249\" style=\"width: 1000px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-33249 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Lenii-e1589579784274.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"854\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33249\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo Credit: Baby Bill<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Lenii likes to drink tea (Barry\u2019s Tea to be exact). While in quarantine with two friends, musicians Ryan O&#8217;Shaughnessy and Baby Bill, the trio easily down 12 or 13 cups of a day \u2500 apiece. Having grown up in Cork, Ireland, Lenii was accustomed to the culture \u2500 one which bred an environment of gabbing over tea with friends and loved ones. There\u2019s something soothing about hearing someone say, \u201cI\u2019ll put the kettle on.\u201d Whatever you might be feeling that day, it all washes down with some piping hot tea and good conversation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Ireland, people drink like eight cups of tea a day,\u201d Lenii tells Audiofemme. \u201cIf you visit someone\u2019s house, the tea is offered before you even get through the door. I even have a tea cup tattooed on my arm because it reminds me so much of home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, it only seemed natural to launch a &#8220;Tea Sessions&#8221; series during these very uncertain times. Born Ellen Murphy, Lenii launches this creative endeavor with a stripped-down version of her song \u201cCereal,\u201d shedding away the gummy layers for a guitar and keyboard-driven performance. \u201cI got lucky enough to be locked down in a house in LA with two amazing musicians, also from Ireland,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were just jamming one day playing each other\u2019s songs and drinking tea, so I just thought it would be cool to film us,&#8221; says Lenii, whose voice is given a proper showcase. &#8220;The first episode was really spontaneous, and I loved the idea of a low-pressure quarantine \u2018tiny desk\u2019 type series.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A3nsCze-cJw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/0OTRupAMrE3Fx5CYtVZ6dt?si=oQ3bUhLJTtG5EpEhb0MsJA\">original iteration of \u201cCereal\u201d<\/a> (co-written with and produced by Nick Sadler) unleashes a more biting attack, while the live performance video allows Lenii to feel looser within its structure. \u201cThe \u2018Tea Sessions\u2019 version of [this song] was really just myself and the boys having fun so the song took on a whole different mood. A little less aggressive and a bit more jazzy. Playing it outside was cool, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vibrant greenery frames the video, somehow drawing you into her world, if only for a moment. In many ways, this \u201cCereal\u201d performance taps into the lack of human connection these days. Lenii admits the last few months have \u201cdefinitely [been] emotional,\u201d she says, \u201cas I\u2019m sure is the same for everyone. I miss playing live and going to sessions, but I\u2019ve been quarantined with two writers so we\u2019re still getting a lot done. There\u2019s a lot of pressure to use this time to be productive so just remembering that it\u2019s okay to not feel creative all the time is super important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Of course, worry often tends to seep into her mind. \u201cIt\u2019s very strange being so far from my family at a time like this, so I think about that a lot. But [I&#8217;m] trying to go with the flow and not worry too much,&#8221; she says. &#8220;In the music world, I know playing live won\u2019t be the same for a long time, and I think there will be a major shift in how the industry works.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Lenni\u2019s 2019 song \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/5K2T0NwmPnFnJfN7Vh2mAl?si=-Z6aCSCkQCeypoaZpSgz_Q\">Yellow<\/a>\u201d was named Adult Contemporary winner of the <a href=\"https:\/\/songwritingcompetition.com\/winners\">International Songwriting Competition<\/a>, a distinction that certainly threw her for a loop. \u201cI honestly didn\u2019t even know \u2018Yellow\u2019 fell into \u2018adult contemporary,\u2019 so I was shocked,\u201d she admits. \u201cI came second in that category in 2017, so I was like, maybe A\/C is my calling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She adds, \u201cI would continue, regardless, and aim to get better all the time, but it\u2019s a really cool bit of validation that I\u2019m heading in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lenii continues riding high on a string of singles, including &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/4X3Aqh3BVDtvEheAydZxvb?si=XN_DZv5oSt-D8GsTyQxEbA\">Regular 10<\/a>,&#8221; the newly released &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/6WYdgZCvRWkkOTFcWqcunA?si=IQQdWmBCRRW58_6EwOfPCg\">I (Don&#8217;t) Miss You<\/a>&#8221; and &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/album\/5QxQADBWVE89VWM8Zf4bL2?si=SsJt0pJqQw-IHvq7Xf4aJA\">Crave U<\/a>,&#8221; which was recently remixed by Cyril M. Though social distancing may have temporarily altered her trajectory, the &#8220;Tea Sessions&#8221; offer a fun, intimate portrait of an artist on the rise, doing her part to keep calm and put a kettle on for all of us.<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Lenii on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/byLenii\/\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LeniiMusic\">Twitter<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bylenii\/?hl=en\">Instagram<\/a> for ongoing updates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lenii likes to drink tea (Barry\u2019s Tea to be exact). While in quarantine with two friends, musicians Ryan O&#8217;Shaughnessy and Baby Bill, the trio easily down 12 or 13 cups of a day \u2500 apiece. Having grown up in Cork, Ireland, Lenii was accustomed to the culture \u2500 one which bred an environment of gabbing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":33249,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[573,305,567],"tags":[477,10292,10288,2035,1662,10293],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Lenii-e1589579815521.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33230"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33250,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33230\/revisions\/33250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}