NEeMA's new CD - portrait by Leonard on the cover

[jarkko]

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/arch ... c6859.html

NEeMA releases new record Watching You Think on Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Produced in association with Leonard Cohen and Pierre Marchand


TORONTO, May 26 /CNW/ - Recording artist, poet and dancer, NEeMA is set to release her new album Watching You Think on June 29, 2010. Throughout the summer NEeMA will be performing live across Canada in celebration of the release.

The album Watching You Think was produced by Montréal-born NEeMA in association with Leonard Cohen and Pierre Marchand (Sarah McLachlan, Ron Sexsmith). Of NEeMA's work, Leonard Cohen has said, "in the midst of all the static, a voice of true feeling arises - a rare event!" Cohen also drew the haunting portrait of NEeMA, which serves as the album's cover.

Pierre Marchand, one of the most admired and celebrated producers in contemporary music has said about NEeMA "an inspiring presence - her evocative lyrics and warm voice paint beautiful, timeless stories and portraits." The album was partially recorded, and mixed at Marchand's studio in Montreal.

Sure to please music lovers of many stripes, NEeMA's Watching You Think, displays the artist's international background and experience, seamlessly melding elements of world music, folk, and jazz with a good measure of pop. NEeMA's songs of love, life and simple observations read like parables and sound instantly familiar to listeners who will find themselves singing along effortlessly by the second chorus.

Her voice delivers twelve original stories, in an uninhibited and authentic style, and is complemented perfectly by some of Montreal's best musicians, who add nuance to every mood and emotion. The musicians include Howard Bilerman, Tim Kingsbury (Arcade Fire), Tom Mennier (Martha and Rufus Wainwright), Joe Grass and Miles Perkin (Lhasa de Sela), and Gurpreet Chana (Nelly Furtado).

The production of the record is stunningly clear and spacious and the character on the whole remains unusually intimate. This should come as no surprise considering that Watching You Think was produced in association with Leonard Cohen and Pierre Marchand. Others involved in the album's production are Haig V and Fred Bouchard. Neema's Watching You Think is a confident and mature chronicle of a remarkable song writing talent.

With much positive feedback, her 2006 debut album Masi Cho was nominated for a MIMI (Montreal International Music Initiative) in the World & Roots category. Over the last few years NEeMA has toured Canada, Ireland, Australia, England and the US. In the summer of 2007 she performed over 33 concerts including Nova Scotia's Privateer Days Festival and the South Country Fair Festival in Alberta. Other highlights include her 2008 concert at the Electric Picnic Festival in Ireland, the 2008 Winterfolk Festival in Toronto and Canadian Music Week, and two sold-out shows at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 2009.

Born of Egyptian and Lebanese decent, NEeMA's presence on and off stage is powerful and charismatic, and her voice is honest and unique. She has traveled and experienced the world in ways that many wish they could. She has spent time with the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa; she has had the privilege of working with Tribal elders managing Wekweti, an isolated First Nation community in northern Canada. And with her journeys she has acquired an undeniable ability to communicate her stories through poetry and song, exploring those themes that are dear to the human heart.

NEeMA is set to tour this summer performing at renowned jazz festivals across the country.

[mutti]

Thanks Jarkko
I am going to head up to Vancouver, gather some friends and family
and go to NEema's concert
...love the artwork on the cover.
Thanks for letting us know..
Les (Mutti)

[lizzytysh]

A very fascinating personal and professional history. The description of her songs and voice make you want to listen to her. Great write-up.

Thanks, Jarkko .


~ Lizzy

[Diane]

This sounds intriguing, thanks Jarkko.

That picture of Leonard's is my favourite of his artwork. With its title, Watching You Think, it's a great visual poem. In the past I have sent it to someone who used to frequent these boards, because I enjoy watching her think.

[jarkko]

Below is a full list of dates and locations for NEeMA’s tour this summer.

Wed June 30
Toronto, ON
Supermarket Club
268 Augusta Ave

Fri July 2
Toronto, ON
Hugh’s Room
2261 Dundas St West

Sat July 3
Ottawa, ON
Ottawa Jazz Festival
NAC Fourth Stage
53 Elgin St

Sun July 4
Montreal, QC
Montreal Jazz Festival
Musee D'Art Contemporain de Montreal – Beverly–Rolph–Webster
184 Rue Sainte Catherine Ouest

Tue July 6
Winnipeg, MB
West End Cultural Centre
586 Ellice Ave

Thu July 8
Calgary, AB
The Marquee Room
612 8th Avenue SW

Fri July 9
Edmonton, AB
Haven Social Club
15120 Stony Plain Road

Mon July 12
Vancouver, BC
Media Club
695 Cambie Street

Wed July 14
Victoria, BC
St Ann's Academy
835 Humboldt Street

Sun July 25
Guelph, ON
Hillside Festival
Guelph Lake Island
Guelph Lake Conservation Area

Tue July 27
Toronto, ON
The Dakota Tavern
249 Ossington Avenue

Toronto, ON

Wed July 28
Ottawa, ON
Zaphod Beebelbrox
27 York Street

Thu July 29
Montreal, QC
La Sala Rossa
4848 St Laurent
Montreal, QC

[jarkko]

Some videos at YouTube:

Break the Cycle at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6n5sWVv7Ec
Masi - a Message of Peace at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1UQiWjd ... re=related
Ayii Woole - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn6pk4bm ... re=related
She Flows - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkRmsJhq ... re=related
And videoblog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1tQvlDx ... re=related

[MarieM]

NEeMA's CD is available today on Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/Watching-You-Think ... 706&sr=8-1
Nadine also reports that it will be available on iTunes in the US and abroad shortly.

I wrote a bit about Nadine on my blog including how she came to know Leonard: http://speakingcohen.blogspot.com/2010/ ... ne-29.html
She very generously shared a song from the new CD, Unspoken, which is quite beautiful, for the blog post.

The Toronto Globe and Mail reviewed Watching You Think:

J.D. Considine
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published on Monday, Jun. 28, 2010 4:57PM EDT

Watching You Think
NEeMA
Sony

That Leonard Cohen thinks enough of NEeMA to be one of the producers on her debut album is impressive, but not half as much as the songs she’s assembled here. A gifted wordsmith, this native Montrealer knows how to take songs about falling in love – No. 1 on the pop-cliché parade – and make them feel every bit as special as falling feels to young lovers. (Incredibly, she even calls one of those songs Romeo and Juliet, and still it seems fresh and insightful.) But what really makes this special is that the settings are as thoughtful and detailed as the songs they adorn. A stunner. J.D.C.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/art ... le1621869/

And tonight the Ottawa Sun had a short interview:

Melancholy dominates Neema's music
By TONY SPEARS, Ottawa Sun
Last Updated: June 29, 2010 2:48pm
When: Saturday
Where: National Arts Centre’s Fourth Stage, 5 p.m.

Melancholoy is a pervasive emotion in Montrealer Neema’s simple, delicate music.

In the light of Monday’s launch of her second album, Watching You Think, and an upcoming cross-country tour featuring stops at the Ottawa and Montreal jazz festivals, one might wonder what she has to be melancholy about.

“I quit coffee,” the singer and guitarist told the Sun.

Neema came to music through the most unconventional of paths — a management degree. It got her a job as commmunity manager of Wekweti, an isolated inland First Nations community in the heart of the Northwest Territories.

The work couldn’t compete with music’s lure.

“I always had it in my heart, that I’d be doing my art full time,” she said.

Neema had started writing poetry at seven, then began to sing.

She didn’t pick up the guitar until she spent time in Australia.

“I kept waiting for (my friends) to play so I could sing,” Neema said.

She got tired of waiting.

So why the melancholy?

“I’m always searching for a sense of community,” she sings on Running, a track from her new album. “Even when I’m a part of it I’m not, really.”

Neema can’t explain the source of the isolation in those lines.

“It’s an inner feeling,” she said. “I’ve had this feeling ever since I was a child.”

She’s of Egyptian and Lebanese descent, but the Montreal-born singer is reluctant to attribute it to her cultural background.

It might be the artist’s natural aloofness, Neema ventures — the feeling that creeps up on someone who is always observing others.

The intensity of one-on-one connections banish those feelings.

“With you I’ve found some rest,” she sings on Runnning.

Or maybe it’s the company she keeps.

Her neighbour Leonard Cohen — whose persona is not generally described as being particularly chipper — is a fan and friend, and the artist behind the album’s cover. It’s a simple sketch of Neema’s head, one hand on her forehead in a pensive pose.

Watching You Think was his title for the picture, she says.

In many ways Neema is Cohen’s musical heir. Her music is elegant but restrained, giving prominence to the poetic lyrics.

Her voice is unconventional, low and almost husky, sweet with a hint of a smokey edge. She also strays into spoken word, assuming a Bob Dylan-like quality on ‘Romeo and Juliet.’

Her music, however, is ultimately very much her own.

And that’s nothing to be sad about.

http://www.ottawasun.com/entertainment/ ... 57501.html

[st theresa]

Guess it is not meant to be for me to see Neema--I arrive in Wpg on July 7th and am there till the 14th while she plays my city. Simon and Garfunkel also indefinitely postponed their concert so I guess this will not be my summer of music.

[sturgess66]

http://www.straight.com/article-332584/ ... nces-tunes

Heavy hitters have helped NEeMA turn travel experiences into tunes
July 8, 2010
By Alexander Varty

In the form of Leonard Cohen and A-list producer Pierre Marchand, singer-songwriter NEeMA can call on a pair of impressive musical mentors. But her real teacher, she contends, is travel.

“For a long time, that was really my biggest passion,” she reveals, checking in on her cellphone from a Toronto café. “Geographically, historically, spiritually, culturally, I learned so much. I did well in school, but I was never very interested in class. But on the road, travelling, I was deeply interested. It was through hearing people’s stories firsthand that I learned so much about the world.”

The Montreal resident, whose parents were Egyptian and Lebanese, has spent time in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Indonesia. Perhaps most importantly, she also lived in the Northwest Territories for several years, where she worked as a community manager with the Tlicho First Nation. That experience is clearly audible on her 2006 debut, Masì Cho, which opens and closes with a traditional Native prayer song and is named for the Tlicho expression for “thank you”. But it’s also present on NEeMA’s just released sophomore effort, Watching You Think, although in considerably subtler form.

“I’m very happy that you hear that influence,” she notes. “They speak slowly and really say what needs to be said, and that’s a lot of what this record is about. It’s about getting to the essence, instead of just scratching the surface or trying to embellish what I feel.”

The straightforward folk-pop songs that make up the bulk of Watching You Think are just that: elemental expressions of love and friendship. But NEeMA contends that their simplicity is deceptive. It took a lot of work for the songs to find their present form, she says, and that’s where her two veteran advisers came in handy.

“With Leonard, the friendship started first,” she explains. “Eventually I started sharing my songs with him and seeking his feedback on the writing. And that feedback ranged from very specific, like ‘What are you trying to say in this line?’ to very vague, like ‘I don’t hear the song here. I think you should go start over.’ It was invaluable, in so many ways.”

Cohen also contributed Watching You Think’s cover art, while Marchand opened the doors to his state-of-the-art recording studio and offered input both lyrical and technical.

“It’s interesting,” NEeMA says. “I’d always thought that Leonard’s field of expertise is really the writing, and Pierre’s is the music, but both gave me incredible feedback in both domains. Sometimes when I was writing a new song I’d share it with Pierre, and he’d have really good things to say about the lyrics—things I’d then go think about and change as a result of what he had to say. And both Leonard and Pierre recommended that I set up a studio at home, because I was feeling like I needed a more intimate setting to do some of the vocals. So I’d play them what I’d done at home, and they’d help me choose what was the best take.

“Neither of them are easy in their compliments,” she adds. “But if both of them say that they love it, then I know I’ve done something really good!”

NEeMA plays the Media Club on Monday (July 12).

[bridger15]

http://www.canada.com/entertainment/NEe ... story.html

NEeMA looked for God, found Leonard Cohen

by Eric Volmers, Canwest News Service July 9, 2010


A "chance encounter" with Leonard Cohen five years ago led to a friendship and apprenticeship
of sorts under the master songwriter and poet, which is a fact that has received more than a little
attention from the press as NEeMA promotes her sophomore disc, Watching You Think.
Photograph by: Handout, Sony

There is nothing quite as romantic as being a restless spirit.

So it has obviously been a gift to Sony Music's publicity department that Montreal-born singer-songwriter NEeMA's backstory is filled with enough tales of travel and intrigue to fill five biographies. Whether it be working with street kids in Egypt, living with Tibetan monks in India, helping to manage a First Nations community in the wilds of the Northwest Territories or surfing in Australia, the 30-something songwriter's wanderlust has led to what she refers to as some "intense experiences."

Her spiritual curiosity caused her to seek out both the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa while backpacking in India - not bad names to have dropped into a bio.

Meanwhile, a "chance encounter" with the iconic Leonard Cohen five years ago led to a friendship and apprenticeship of sorts under the master songwriter and poet, which is a fact that has received more than a little attention from the press as NEeMA promotes her sophomore disc, Watching You Think.

"I've had this spiritual-seeking journey or whatever since I was very young," says NEeMA, on the phone from a tour stop in Winnipeg. "I started wondering about God and life after death since I was 10 or 11. That's always been a very deep interest of mine, or question. So, I think that was an influence on seeking out such people."

Her oddly capitalized one-word name, Egyptian and Lebanese descent and undeniable beauty all conspire to present the singer in a certain exotic and mysterious light. But in conversation, NEeMA is friendly, chatty, open and gracious about her career path, particularly when discussing how the Cohen association has helped her creatively. Cohen, alongside Sarah McLachlan producer Pierre Marchand, was an adviser during the recording of Watching You Think, part of a small inner circle of mostly Montreal musicians and producers who helped shape the folky leanings and poetic ambitions of the 12 songs.

But her relationship with the enigmatic Cohen, who also supplied the portrait of NEeMA for the cover art of Watching You Think, goes deeper than mere production advice.

"With the writing of these songs, he's been part of that process since the beginning," she says. "I started sharing my work with him. So he's been kind of a teacher or consultant, supporter, mentor - whatever you want to call it - good friend for the entire process of this album."

NEeMA says she met Cohen by chance roughly five years ago. They live in the same neighbourhood in Montreal and would run into each other at the cafe or in the park, where the two would eventually take her dog for a walk. Soon, he became "probably the biggest influence on my life in the past little while."

"When he was in town, we started to hang out and share ideas about all sorts of things," she says. "Eventually, I started to actually share songs with him. The friendship is what emerged first. After that, I started to share my music with him and my writing with him. He started drawing me. But that all came after."

You would have a difficult time finding any recent press about NEeMA that doesn't focus on the Cohen connection - which may have overwhelmed a lesser album. But Watching You Think is a strong sophomore effort that finds the artist chronicling both inner and outer turmoil in broad, poetic strokes. Perceptive and stripped-down backing was provided by musicians such as Arcade Fire bassist Tim Kingsbury, pianist and arranger Tom Mennier and tabla master Gurpreet Chana, who has played with Nelly Furtado, among others.

The result is a pristine album of folk music with some poppy world-beat shadings, none of which takes the focus off of NEeMA's dulcet vocals and poetic musings. She even makes "Romeo & Juliet," Dire Straits' underrated tale of romance, so convincingly her own that many have assumed she wrote it.

It's all pretty impressive for someone who had such a late start in songwriting and singing.

NEeMA was a poet, dancer and academic before turning her attention to music. She didn't seriously study voice and guitar until she was 25. Roughly 10 years ago, she managed the remote First Nations community of Wekweti in the Northwest Territories alongside tribal elders. Once a month, she would make the 200-kilometre trek from the remote town, which has a population of fewer than 150, to Yellowknife to play cover songs at open-mike nights.

Her stint in the North came after nearly a decade of world travel - everywhere from Egypt and India to Australia and Los Angeles. It wasn't until 2007 that she independently released her debut, Masi Cho. While it showcased both the First Nations and Tibetan influences she soaked up through her travels, NEeMA admits she largely turned over the reins of the project to more experienced musicians. Despite all the high-profile help, she was more confident with her abilities and vision this time around. Many of the 11 songs were written while on tour. "Lost in L.A.," a song about class division and the pursuit of material goods set in the city where the singer lives part-time, was actually massaged during a show at Calgary's Ironwood a few years back. By the time she hit the studio, all the songs had been fully road-tested.

"There was a handful of people that I shared the songs with, and, of course, the musicians in the studio," she says. "This one stayed very, very close to me. It was almost like a baby in the womb. I only sought opinions from people I had enormous trust in."

Canadian tour dates include:

July 9, Edmonton

July 12, Vancouver

July 14, Victoria

July 27, Toronto

July 28, Ottawa

July 29, Montreal

© Copyright (c) The Calgary Herald

[bridger15]

This image was on the same page as the link above.

[jarkko]

NEeMA's comprehensive website is now open at http://www.neema.ca
Her official photos have been shot by Lorca Cohen!

[jarkko]

we just finished a music video for 'Escape'
it was a collaboration with a primary school in Montreal
you can watch it here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Io5eLjDywQ

NEeMA's official video for Escape
from album Watching You Think
Director: Mark Morgenstern
DOP: Jean Deraps
Colourist: Luka Sanader
http://www.facebook.com/NadineNEeMA