Rising pop singer Lena Fayre is sixteen years old today, yet her clarion, crystalline voice bears the same beauty and precision that made Lauryn Hill famous at roughly the same age. Her tones are bright, strong, and clean, with a carefully balanced vibrato that denotes the precision and control of a trained opera chanteuse. Her style shows more refinement than common pop music in both writing and performing, making her overall sound accessible to fans of Rihanna and Celine Dion alike. Music industry journalists have agreed that Lena Fayre's music presents “pop with a touch of the urban edge,” an appropriate phrase the young artist coined herself in describing her music.
This urban edge works as a catalyst for Fayre, distinguishing her from less forceful female performers, while at once infusing her songs with verve and vivacity. Of this she writes, “From the beginning, I did not want to do bland pop songs that go in one ear and out the other.” She has decried lowbrow, low-impact artistic direction in pop music as “totally forgettable,” and has demonstrated her capacity and intent to perform pop that is creative and full of her own vibrant, variegated personality.
Closely collaborating with Lena Fayre since her 12th birthday is Kosta Lois, a dizzyingly talented music writer, producer, and pianist from North Hollywood, at whose studio Fayre and Lois record much of their material. Also contributing to her first album is Tony Maserati, audio engineer and mixer whose legendary work has included songs by James Brown, Lady Gaga, and Tupac Shakur among scores of others. Additionally, Fayre's compositions have been realized under the tutelage of veteran writers Jaden Michaels (Carly Rae Jepson's “Kiss”) and Jenn Decilveo (Cody Simpson's “Paradise”).
Lena Fayre's debut extended-play album, currently untitled, is due for release in spring of 2013. Promoters and fans should not miss this chance to hear the artist in her original, unique and uncompromising splendor. It is doubtlessly the beginning of a long, colorful career.
-S. McCauley