Album Notes

Dead is the New Rich is LEIF(kolt)'s sixth self released album since his first, Adam's Eve in 2000, and this time around he's trying to recast the traditional DIY mold. "The entire music business has changed in the last five years. I used to look to different labels to see what kind of trends were going on in music. Now, I feel like they have no clue as to what to do next. It seems like they are rushing to catch up with the musicians who've taken the lead in advancing how fans experience music and the artists themselves."
By embracing all types of new media including micro-blogging with fans and streaming live interactive performances he's managed to cut out the need for support from any kind of traditional record label. "I've never had a label, so I started making and releasing the albums myself out of necessity. They probably wouldn't want me anyway." And, judging from his against the grain marketing style, he might be right.
While many labels and artists have to fight against having their albums leaked before their release, LEIF released all the accapellas for Dead is the New Rich a month before its May 21st release so fans could make their own remixes and post them online. Shortly after the albums official release date he plans to have an interactive live performance of the entire album online, via UStream, encouraging fans to chat, email, and twitter him in between songs.
The entire picture and LEIF's grand plan come into focus when you listen to the non-traditional themes and counterculture punk rock mentality contained on Dead is the New Rich. Taking on topics from celebrity obsession to homelessness he takes on a hyper stylized version of himself, tip toeing through a culture where everyone is constantly tuned in and starving for the next tragedy.
The album's title track finds him lamenting over a gurgling base line, "Gluttons are the new James Deans, ripped fish nets and broken dreams...we focus when they self destruct and put it in a magazine!", and builds into a multi layered chorus of voices sermonizing, "When the stars fall, we catch 'em in a bottle. Than we drink so we feel like the sun is inside us."
This time around LEIF opted to write and record the majority of the album in small unscripted chunks, so instead of having lyrics or the music planned out ahead of time he formed them spontaneously as he moved along . "It allowed me to pay more attention to how a verse sounds and flows together instead of getting caught up in grammar or finding a specific word. I can focus solely on the idea and feeling of each song." In this way his lyrics come across as a sarcastic blend between a lunatics political rants and a Zen priests wise haiku.
Dead is the New Rich incorporates wonderfully hectic drum programming and eerie synth based melodies, finding itself wavering between bouts of sheer mania on 'Fine City' and paranoid stoner ballads like 'So Much Bad News' where he croons, "Mouths of talking heads, direct me what to do, I try to stay myself, but I struggle just as you." He often incorporates heavy layering of vocals that create the impression of some sort of psychedelic all boys choir, with harmonies hinting at influences ranging from classic cowboy movies to the cracking vocals of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, and reaching their climax in oddness and beauty on the chorus of albums last track 'Final Meal'.
With Dead is the New Rich LEIF hopes to open the minds of the traditional HipHop listener and bridge the gap with people who have washed themselves completely of the genre. He aims to attack a society and an industry from the outside and help liberate fans from the status quoe. He hopes to crack the surface of an industry in peril and finally put to rest the dinosaurs of the past, ushering in a new level of interconnectivity between fans and artists.
It's hard to find the kind of die hard idealists that made the music of the 60's and 70's as passionate and impactful as it was, but with this album LEIF(kolt) rekindles a spark that has long since moved on. And, while the industry sluggishly tries to catch up to the new DIY culture, LEIF(kolt) continues to taunt them from the finish line. He manages to sum it up on 'the Counterculture', "Buy my soul, I'm marketing a way of life. The counterculture seems so cool but that's only if it's not mainstream. Right?"



Dead is the New Rich incorporates wonderfully hectic drum programming and eerie synth based melodies, finding itself wavering between bouts of sheer mania on 'Fine City' and paranoid stoner ballads like 'So Much Bad News' where he croons, "Mouths of talking heads, direct me what to do, I try to stay myself, but I struggle just as you." He often incorporates heavy layering of vocals that create the impression of some sort of psychedelic all boys choir, with harmonies hinting at influences ranging from classic cowboy movies to the cracking vocals of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, and reaching their climax in oddness and beauty on the chorus of albums last track 'Final Meal'.

This time around LEIF opted to write and record the majority of the album in small unscripted chunks, so instead of having lyrics or the music planned out ahead of time he formed them spontaneously as he moved along . "It allowed me to pay more attention to how a verse sounds and flows together instead of getting caught up in grammar or finding a specific word. I can focus solely on the idea and feeling of each song." In this way his lyrics come across as a sarcastic blend between a lunatics political rants and a Zen priests wise haiku.

It's hard to find the kind of die hard idealists that made the music of the 60's and 70's as passionate and impactful as it was, but with this album LEIF(kolt) rekindles a spark that has long since moved on. And, while the industry sluggishly tries to catch up to the new DIY culture, LEIF(kolt) continues to taunt them from the finish line. He manages to sum it up on 'the Counterculture', "Buy my soul, I'm marketing a way of life. The counterculture seems so cool but that's only if it's not mainstream. Right?"