Buzzy Lee is the recording moniker of lauded Los Angeles musician Sasha Spielberg, and today sees the release of her debut album Spoiled Love, a collaboration with long time musical compadre and producer Nicolas Jaar via Future Classic. Along with the album’s release comes an engaging video for new single “Strange Town”, conceived and co-directed by Sasha.
Says Sasha, “‘Strange Town’ is about a coastal town in Northern California where I could play the role of the person my ex wanted me to be. In the music video, I wanted to play on this notion of who I am as I present myself to the world versus who I am deep down, which is ultimately just a #failgirl.” The video’s co-director Jeff Leads Cohen expands on the concept, “Sasha initially pitched the concept for “Strange Town” to me as a performance where the cameraperson gets fed up and starts doing their own thing. I thought that was really funny and loved the idea of making something subversive that was part music video, part behind-the-scenes cringe doc. It was also really cathartic to troll ourselves in every shot and get creative coming up with different ways to fuck up a music video.”
Sasha and composer/producer Nicolas Jaar are long-time friends, which perhaps explains how each track on Spoiled Love manages to achieve such an unaffected authenticity. Says Sasha of the recording process, “These songs started breathing on the coast of Northern California, sat through the traffic of Los Angeles and then found their way to Northern Italy, where I crafted and recorded them with Nico over three trips, over three different seasons. We lived in the studio and maybe only left once or twice for a walk. This album grew out of a breakup, out of the seasons, and into my hands.”
In January Sasha took her popular “ Gearhead” character from Instagram Stories over to Twitch and launched a weekly chat show with some of her musical friends and peers, sharing their love of interesting recording equipment and geeky gear chat in front of a rapidly expanding audience of tens of thousands. Gearhead chatted merrily with Dev Hynes (Blood Orange), Rostam, Kevin Morby, Chrome Sparks, and Chris Coady, giving fans an entirely new perspective on their favorite musicians’ best recording tricks. Upcoming guests include HAIM, Hand Habits, and Nicolas Jaar. The initial monthlong series is being extended into February. Since her debut EP Facepaint first caught the attention of music fans upon its release in April 2018 – helped in no small part to the runaway success of stand-out track “ Cool Hand” – Sasha has ploughed forward with creative intent, on the Tommy Mandel collaborative single “Close Encounters of Their Own Kind” in 2019, and opening for the Dirty Projectors on their 2018 tour. That same year, Sasha garnered attention in Europe with her charming stage presence at Pitchfork Paris Festival and Primavera Club in Barcelona. Just as the Los Angeles Times wrote of Facepaint, her new album flaunts that same “voice that can gracefully maneuver across octaves,” as she delivers lyrics with a ‘dramatic flourish’. Having previously been compared to the likes of Kate Bush, Haim and Lykke Li, with Spoiled Love Buzzy Lee hits a note that is all her own. While coy and fanciful, Spoiled Love is unapologetically confessional – Sasha knows what she wants to say, and she nimbly uses her vocal range, all-knowing sarcasm, and biting self-awareness to land on a sound that is quintessentially hers.
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