| Sarah McLeod | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Sarah McLeod |
| Born | 1978 |
| Origin | Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
| Genres | Electronic rock, New Wave, dance, rock |
| Years active | 1994–present |
| Labels | Warner (Aus) Festival Mushroom Records Naughty Mouse Ink Pty Ltd |
| Associated acts | The Superjesus |
| Website | http://www.SarahMcLeod.com.au/ |
Sarah McLeod (born 1978) is an Australian musician, the former frontwoman of rock band The Superjesus. She has three ARIA awards and over 300,000 record sales to her name (from her Superjesus days 1994-2004), and has been referred to as the "iconic Aussie rock chick".[1]
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McLeod, originally from Adelaide in South Australia, started singing in her late teens. Coming from an expensive private religious girls' high school (St Peter's Collegiate Girls' School) and a planned career in stockbroking, and with only a few chords and a love of performance (discovered during a holiday with friends in Bali), she formed her first band, Fallen Down Monster (FDM) where she first displayed her rock-wench characteristics and honed her vocal and guitar skills, and fun loving energetic stage pressence. McLeod, with FDM performed indy covers and wrote several strong originals which were never recorded, before finding creative synergy with Chris Tennant and forming a new band, originally called "Hell's Kitchen" which later became The Superjesus. McLeod released three albums and an EP with the Superjesus and after nearly ten years split with the band in 2004.
Sarah is the younger sister of TV presenter Leah McLeod (b. 1971).[2]
McLeod once lived together with Silverchair bass player Chris Joannou for several years and dated actor Daniel McPherson. In January 2011, the Daily Telegraph reported that McLeod was in a relationship with KJ (Kara Jane) from Sydney band The Art [3]
In 2005 McLeod launched her solo career, releasing her first single "Let's Get Together" in May, followed by single "Private School Kid" (a duet with Chris Cheney from The Living End) in July. Her first solo album, titled Beauty Was A Tiger (Festival Mushroom Records), was released in September 2005. Sarah's new backing band (known as The Black Diamond Express) consists of Stu Hunter (keyboards), Mick Skelton (drums), Patch Brown (guitar) and Grant Fitzpatrick (bass guitar). All the tracks on this album were written either by Sarah herself or with Chris Peters, bass player with Detroit band Electric Six.
Following the release of "Private School Kid", Sarah split with her record company. She went on to release the singles "All But Gone" as an independent EP, and "He Doesn't Love You" which was also remixed. In October 2006, the remix of her single "He Doesn't Love You" reached #1 on the Aria Club Charts, and has also been released in the UK.
In 2006, McLeod tried her hand at some solo acoustic gigs, which were so successful they culminated in a tour of Australia, playing some songs from Beauty Was A Tiger, some old Superjesus hits and a few covers. According to her recent interviews she feels she has really hit her stride and, in October 2006, she released a self titled CD of her new live & acoustic sound.
McLeod worked on a follow up album that was slated for release in 2008. She spent much of 2007 and 2008 traveling in the United States and living in London where she has recorded songs for the album. Sarah first previewed a track titled "Love Will Conquer All" on MySpace in 2007. Since then, there have been various other tracks, demos and samples released on her MySpace profile including "Sometimes Love" and "No One's Ever Died of a Broken Heart". She has also mentioned various other songs in her blogs, In October 2008, Sarah stated that she was working on some new demos and added a cover of the song "Leaving on a Jetplane" to her profile. In November 2009 Sarah released the single Tell Your Story Walkin an electronic, New Wave sound of the 1980s music which has become a surprise hit in the club scene. The second single White Horse was a hit in clubs both in Australia and around the world.
In 2009 Sarah posted several demos on her MySpace profile including "Love to Last", "No One's Ever Died From a Broken Heart" and "Tell Your Story Walking". Although she has not confirmed the songs for her album, she stated that she will continue to post more demos in the coming months.
In July 2010, Sarah released some remixes from John Roman, Autoerotique and Grandtheft for her forthcoming single "Double R" which is slated for release in August. She also released her cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark".[4]
Sarah McLeod was revealed as the driving force in her new project Screaming Bikini, After the release of their debut album in May 2011.
Most recently, Sarah has been touring the country performing acoustic shows, often accompanied on stage by bass player Kara Jayne (aka "KJ" from Australian band The Art)