Lea and Aidan Keeley
article by Mary King
photos by Amanda Crawford, Megan Franken, Jonathan Sippel, Lea Keeley, Claire Scott
The canopies are up. Tea lights are twinkling in the dusk, illuminating a set designed for an acoustic show. The humming of a small audience is mixing with the summer sounds of morning doves and cicadas. The air is sticky, hot and it smells of sunscreen, cigarette smoke, and citronella. The evening feels almost like jazz — friends and family are piling around appreciatively on blankets and chairs, eagerly awaiting that first sultry note that will pull the ambience together: the note that marks the beginning of the set.
Siblings Lea and Aidan Keeley are on the stage. The humming of voices softens, it's almost time. Lea picks up her small acoustic guitar and adjusts the microphone, her blonde hair barely hiding an excited grin as Aidan, patiently waiting for his sister with one hand on his Warwick bass, gazes modestly into the small audience. Lea smiles, takes a breath and aims a look at her brother, who nods back — yes, they are ready to start. A hushed count-in, “one, two, three,” and the soft, steady bass line of Marvin Gaye's classic “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” rolls through the backyard.
The audience simmers and listens. Aidan is so adept with the bass that his playing looks effortless. Lea begins to sing, her voice smoothing it's way through the heat, alternating between soft and girlish one moment, then edge and all bite the next. Her range, mostly alto soprano, dips it's way up and down — the high notes hanging in the air, the low notes resonating in an impressive timbre that is soulful and reminiscent of R&B. The song ends on a softly sung note that hangs in the air and like a pause for breath, there's a small silence following their performance before applause.
I've known the The Keeleys for a while. Lea and Aidan's parents Laura Lynn Burton and David Keeley are certainly artistic tour de forces. Laura holds an impressive resume: an associate conductor, talented musician, musical director and composer. David Keeley, who's impressive acting credits include Mamma Mia! on Broadway, as well as Rock of Ages in Toronto, is a well recognized actor and musician. It's safe to say that they are a talented family in many areas of art, music and theatre. Aidan and Lea Keeley's natural (and inherited) affinities for music were well nurtured.
“I loved when our family would get together at this old cottage back when I was young,” begins Lea. “My dad, my uncle Doug, and my Grandma (Marge) would always sing these old country tunes around the campfire ... Marge would be swaying back and forth to the music while belting out harmonies, everyone was just so in the moment with each other ... Always is when my family gets together to play music.” Lea recounts another fond memory of the musicality that was ever present in hers and Aidan's childhood: “[...] sitting around our kitchen table, Mom and Dad with a glass of wine, listening to Gypsy Kings and Stevie Ray Vaughn...When I was supposed to be in bed already, too.”
The siblings showed an obvious affinity for music as children. “I started singing when I was very young, just for fun around the house,” says Lea. “Then I started doing singing competitions at Kiwanis around age 12.” Lea also had some experience being classically trained in voice, but it wasn't for her. “I preferred to learn my own way,” she says. As for Aidan, he started playing guitar and piano at an early age, and bass when he was 16. “It was largely because of Victor Wooten ... he really inspired me to start playing.”
When I ask the talented duo about their respective influences, the answer explains their versatility as musicians.
Alongside Victor Wooten, inspirations for Aidan are Stevie Ray Vaughn, Radiohead and John Coltrane. “I was really into Red Hot Chili Peppers and Flea at that time, too,” Aidan says. Included in Lea's inspirations is local musician Jay Holdsworth, who she describes as real, raw and honest — the exact type of musician she loves. Another inspiration for Lea is Tori Kelly, a YouTube artist that she stumbled upon. “Tori writes incredible songs, and tells beautiful stories with her voice [...] I aspire to be like her one day, her music is really about [overcoming] adversity as an artist and sticking with what you believe in... that stuff means a lot to me.” And of course, a must-mention has to go to Etta James, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. “I mean, who wouldn't admire them?” Lea exclaims.
Lea and Aidan both have YouTube channels (Lea, Aidan) and BandCamps, (Lea, Aidan) on which they upload both original content and covers regularly. Aidan's music is some of the grooviest funk I've ever listened to. Lea released an album this past winter called Just Go. The album, an at-times melancholic but simultaneously inspiring mixture of folk and R&B, features 6 tracks. The spearheading single track is “Change for the Good”, a song about what it means to “live to express, not to impress”, (a lyric from the song), which was featured in the CBC New Canadian Artist competition.
Lea's song writing process is natural: “It's more so just whatever comes to me in the moment when I feel it ... Sometimes I'll just sit down and write out some lyrics, then put it to music later. Other times I'll have a melody on guitar or piano already and add lyrics later,” Lea explains. “If I am TRYING to write a song, it will never work though ... [laughs]”. Aidan's songs, conversely, tend to be less lyrical and more focused on instrumental loops ... and are deeply funk driven. “I find I write the best spontaneously; when improvising. Then if I improvise something I like, I'll attempt to repeat it, a lot, and get it into my muscle memory. Having stuff like a loop pedal and even my iphone recorder helps remember ideas too,” he says. “In the words of Bootsy Collins, you just play with it! Ain't nothin' good unless you play with it!”
There is something to be said about a family musical act, something oh-so-satisfying about seeing others who know each other so well fuel each other creatively. The ingredients that seem to need to be present for this, other than supporting each other, might include an innate, almost spooky ability to remain in sync with each other. I remarked about how, when watching them play with each other, it was interesting to note the compatibility, or rather, the way they feed off what the other is doing. “It sounds simple but you just have to be open and willing to listen to the other person,” says Aidan. “It's kind of like ... two friends having a conversation, you know, you're just being in the moment ... willing to listen, not being afraid to express yourself. Having a balance ... where you're not giving or taking too much.” Lea adds to this analogy: “[Aidan] really adds a different side to my music in a beautiful way, his bass playing is beautiful and he can do things no one else can do... we both just feel each other when we play, it's a feeling I don't get with anyone else. When we play, we just ... understand each other on a musical level.”
It helps also that they are able to give each other inspiration and constructive support. “He hears things in songs that I sometimes won't hear until listening to it a few times. He also writes beautiful songs, most of which are in crazy, unusual time signatures.” This musical respect goes both ways, too: “Lea's really developed as an artist lately, she's become really good at the guitar in a short while and her voice is always getting better. She has a real soul/R&B quality [...] It's just always fun to jam with her, because in addition to being my sis, she's a great musician also.” A pause, then: “Oh, and I guess we may have psychic powers 'cause we're related, so that helps, too!”
So where is the future of this talented sibling duo heading? Lea and Aidan are now living together in Montreal, continuing to grow together and separately as musicians. “I'm hoping for more gigs in Montreal, and I'm actually wanting to put a new album out by the end of the year,” says Lea. The songs on this new album will be less geared towards folk ballads and will feature upbeat, anthems of youth that everyone can sing along to. “More fun and funky,” Lea says cheerfully. “If everything works out, I'm hoping Aidan can play on this album, too [...] he is definitely my backbone, musically.” Meanwhile, Aidan wants to continue to write more original stuff, perhaps feature more lyrics in some of his songs. “I've written a lot of poetry, maybe I might try fitting that to some songs?” As well as continuing to write his own music, Aidan has aspirations towards becoming a studio musician, playing bass with bands and maybe even getting an album out there.
Whatever direction it is that the Keeley's are heading, it's obvious that they have a lot of respect and love for each other and their art. I will be happy with wherever their music takes them - as long as it means I can still sit myself down on the soft grass in a backyard (or maybe a field of a big outside venue) in the soft, yellow glow of tikki torches and, leaning lazily back on my elbows, listen to Keeley's music wade through the night, mixing with the sounds of crickets and of summer, and reflect on how lucky I am to know such talented individuals.