Bleu (musician)

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William James McAuley III, best known by his performing name, Bleu, is a Boston, Massachusetts musician. Along with his solo work, he is the lead singer and songwriter of the Electric Light Orchestra-style power-pop band L.E.O., and has toured the United States and internationally with bands such as John Mayer, Puffy AmiYumi, Hanson, and Toad the Wet Sprocket.

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[edit] Early career

Bleu was known in the local Boston music scene for his live shows and work with other musicians, and received some local notoriety for his debut effort A Bing Bang Holidang, which was a charity benefit for the Boston Institute for Arts Therapy. A single from that record, "Boston All Star 12 Dayz," received some local airplay, featuring famous local musicians and acts from Guster and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones as well as Kay Hanley of Letters to Cleo and Bill Janovitz.

Bleu would soon follow with his Workaday Day EP before releasing his first proper album, Headroom. Released via Lunch Records, it received generally positive reviews, but did not take off until Bleu's entry into the WBCN Rock & Roll Rumble, which he won in 2001. This lead him to local opening slots with Jump, Little Children and Ben Folds. He would later win a Boston Music Award for "Best Boston Band" (as well as be nominated for 5 in his career), and land a major label contract.

[edit] Major label career

Bleu's next album, Redhead, was released in 2003 on the Columbia Records imprint, Aware Records. Two versions were released, and featured the song "Somebody Else," which was also on the Spiderman soundtrack. The first version of the album featured a song, "Sayonara," which had backing vocals from Puffy AmiYumi, and the latter with the single "Get Up," which received moderate national airplay. The album was also released in Japan with the PuffyAmiYumi guest spot featured, and Bleu did a short tour.

Bleu eventually left (or possibly was dropped from) Aware Records after a public dispute about the direction of submitted demos, and his third studio album, tentatively titled 'A Watched Pot', is in limbo regarding its release. Bleu is either attempting to recoup the rights to the album from Aware, or currently shopping it around at other record labels for a possible release.

In 2006, a side project with Matt Mahaffey of Self called L.E.O. was released. Featuring contributions from Mike Viola, Hanson and Jason Scheff of Chicago, Alpacas Orgling was meant to be similar to 1970s AM radio pop music, and is described by the band as an "alt-pop version of the Traveling Wilburys"

[edit] Discography

Bleu has also worked on a number of different projects.

[edit] External links

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