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Zee Avi is just 23 but she’s an old soul. A
huge talent in a petite frame bringing a universal message
from the unlikely birthplace of Borneo, an ancient island
east of Malaysia which remains an untouched, natural
paradise, an apt description of her songs.
How Avi came to record her debut
album in L.A., the first joint release from Ian Montone’s Monotone Label
and Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records, is a true
21st century tale of the way the Internet has transformed
the music business and shrunk the globe in the process.
Born in the tiny town of Miri in Sarawak on the island
of Borneo, Zee grew up near the South China Sea in a
liberal, encouraging household where her father owned
an energy consultancy. “I was bred to be
a lawyer,” she says, but music was in her blood. Her
father’s father sang and played double-bass, accordion,
violin and guitar in bands.
At age 12, Zee moved from Borneo
to Kuala Lumpur where she has been based since. At
17, Zee started locking herself in a room for hours on
end to learn to play guitar. Guitar took a back seat
for 4 years while she was studying fashion design in
London. When she returned to Kuala Lumpur, she picked
the instrument back up and began writing songs and performing
with a band.
Zee began recording her songs on
a webcam and posting them on YouTube for a friend to
hear. “I remember
getting so excited when there was one new comment from
some random person I didn’t know… One read ‘I’m
lost for words - I shall favorite it and ponder if that’s
OK,’ ” which was written by Kris Rowley,
a U.K. singer-songwriter with a YouTube following under
the name Zzzzzzzzap. He began posting her videos
on his site, which began a viral snowball effect.
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