MUSIC

"There’s more to being punk than punk, and Lee Swan nails it." JOY MAREK (LIVE WIRE)


"Raw, sombre, playful and oblivion-atingly virtuous... there’s no other word for it. You gotta love Lee Swan!" AARON BAILEY (ON)


"This isn’t punk, it’s jazz!" GIULIANO Z (THE MIND BOMBERS)

Want To Sing Along?
Download The Lee Swan Text Book!

BIOGRAPHY

Lee Swan was born as Lily Morris on October 29th 1966 in Curaçao. She grew up in Miami, which she later heralded "the mindless Miami monotony" after having fled the city from an unhappy family life at just the age of 12 by smuggling herself onto the, in 1978, newly opened Miami-New York Amtrak direct line. Strongly influenced by the homeless teenage punk scene, in 1980 she was noticed playing her own angry and insightful songs by the benevolent Sharmilla Princeton in central park.
Sharmilla took Lee under her wing and by the end of 1982, at just 16 years of age, Lee Swan had found her band "The Cygnets" and was literally the most electrifying newcomer on the New Yorker live circuit. The charge was only to last 2 years. Lee became pregnant at 18 and withdrew from the scene (forever?). For some she still remains strongly in mind although many others never heard her.
Now finally the savage and spacious sound of Lee Swan & the Cygnets has been retrieved and re-produced from 9 previously unknown original live recordings and newly recorded material based on the original tracks.
Lee Swan is now living in New England.

Lee Swan’s music has been described as US-American Space Punk. Reaping the fruits of punk’s anarchic world view and making it into an experiential journey of transformation. An individuals fight between their own emotional vacancy and awakening. The struggle against the outcomes of being educated in the deep seated materialistic norms of bourgeois society.

BAND MEMBERS


Rob Hurt Playing For Lee Swan Sal Gado Playing For Lee Swan

Bertie Ramirez Playing For Lee Swan Treb Pincon Playing For Lee Swan

CREDITS


Additional Synths: Illy Fragie, Hope Young
Additional Vocals (Every Word You Say): Quincy Roberts
Backing Vocals (This Is The Last Day): Rob Barendsma, Thomas Feyerabend
Cello (Space Shit): Thomas Feyerabend

Produced By: Julian Hoffmann, Roberto Hurtado Salgado, Marcus Violette
Production Assistant: Ilmarin Fradley
Artwork: Susannah Violette

SILLYPRANKS Berlin 2016 www.sillypranks.de