It was not her intention to become a recording artist when she uploaded her videos to Youtube, all she wanted was to show one of her friends a song she has written. But Zee Avi, a Malaysian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and ukulele player, ended up becoming a recording artist when Brushfire Records signed her a few months after her videos were on Youtube.
“I went on there without any expectations or intentions for it to be a marketing tool, because I’ve never perceived YouTube to be that, I saw it as an outlet for entertainment and for me to share my music. The fact that other things are happening is pretty crazy.” Zee Avi says.
I learned about Zee Avi on Youtube a week ago; I just stumbled upon one of her songs, “Bitter Heart”. The video is in black and white, and in it Zee Avi looks like a girl from the 60s. I became enamored with her voice, it reminded of the Australian band Frente! The song “Bitter Heart” does not sound bitter at all, it feels like a little girl skipping along with the beating of a happy heart. I love the song’s easy rhythm and its simple jazzy chord progression; it is very minimalistic yet it sounds so complete.
Of course, after discovering such a good song I started digging for more from the girl, and I came upon the song “Honey Bee”. This song sounds more mature than “Bitter Heart“, and it reminded me of one of Joan Baez’s 70s performances. The third video of Zee I watched was the song “Kantoi” which sounded naughty. I did not really understand what it was all about because many of the words in it are not in English, probably Malaysian. But I know that it’s a naughty song because of the way it was sung and the way it was presented on video.
After hearing three songs from Zee Avi, I found myself going to her website and learning about her debut album, Brushfire Records & Monotone Present: Zee Avi, which was released in May. I listened to the whole album on Zee Avi’s Myspace blog. I guess Zee Avi may have a good future in music, her music sounds so refreshing.
