Ted Leo '94 is performing at one of his smaller venues, a coffee
shop in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Despite his role as headliner for
the event, Leo hangs out behind the merchandise booth when not
on stage, talking and mingling with the audience. "I really liked
the songs from the new album," says an excited fan, while an embarrassed
Leo frantically searches for the correct T-shirt size. "They sounded
really good."
"Thanks a lot," he replies, handing her a shirt. "I'm really
glad you said that, it means a lot." The man who can captivate
an audience with driving guitar riffs and vocal dynamics on stage
has an unassuming, grateful air with fans.
Leo is approaching 32 years old without a steady job, a nice
house or more than a meager savings to his name. Most of the musician's
time is spent driving in a van, hanging out in smoky bars and
sleeping in strange hotel rooms. Somehow, he couldn't be happier.
Now, only after a decade in the business, a slew of critically
acclaimed group and solo albums and a well-respected label backing,
does the prospect of financial success seem a tangible reality.
"I have traveled the tougher road," Leo admits. "It's only now
that I'm starting to get the kind of success that is going to
allow me to pay my rent."
Leo, a New Jersey native, began playing in bands in 1987 as
a high school student, though the stakes were never high. "You
were kind of just playing for your friends anyway. It was a really
tight-knit, smaller scene in New York for a time," he says.
At Notre Dame, Leo and bassist Chris Norborg '93 and drummer
John Dugan '93 formed the group Chisel. The band built quite a
campus and local following, on one occasion, selling out Washington
Hall as part of a fundraiser for the homeless in South Bend. "It
was really sort of encouraging back then," Leo says. "People at
Notre Dame were excited that people were writing their own songs
and taking themselves seriously."
After graduation, Chisel members headed east to the nation's
capital. It wasn't a difficult transition, Leo says. "We did have
friends (in D.C.), and over the years we had built up connections
with people that helped us to sort of slide in."
Throughout their four-year period based in D.C., the band toured
throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. The trio released
three albums, Set You Free, Nothing New and 8 A.M.
All Day, before calling it quits in 1997.
After several failed side projects, Leo for the first time considered
taking a shot at a solo career. Lacking both a band and financial
backing, he began writing songs for what would ultimately become
his first solo album, Tej Leo (?), Rx / Pharmacists, an
oddly named experimental work that would be released to moderate
critical success. Leo next recorded Treble in Trouble,
which highlighted both his lyrical and musical song-writing abilities.
After his move in 2001 to Lookout! Records, a dominant force
in the world of underground music, Leo's breakthrough album, The
Tyranny of Distance was released. It was praised by such
giants as The New Yorker and All Music Guide,
which compared Leo to song-writing greats Billy Bragg and Elvis
Costello. The album is a testament of the success an independent
musician can attain. In Leo's eyes, that independence is important.
"I have maintained a strong punk ethos about the way I carry
out my business," says Leo. "I have a real distaste for major
labels and the popular culture of music."
Despite the success of Tyranny, Leo cites the summer
of 2002, which he spent touring in support of Tyranny,
as the darkest time in his career. "I probably hit the lowest
point ever," he says. "I couldn't write a word. Everything seemed
to be going to s---." After picking up on the underground success
of Tyranny, Rolling Stone had shown an interest
in spotlighting the artist and then chose at the last minute not
to use him.
But something saw Leo through his self-doubt and financial misery.
"When a kid comes up to you and tells you that your record has
changed his life, that's the kind of affirmation of work and world
that should be the ultimate affirmation."
Now Leo's fourth solo record, Hearts of Oak, has surpassed
even Tyranny in popular and critical acclaim since its
February release. About the same time, Leo finally was featured
in Rolling Stone, as well as in Spin and as
a guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. For a guy who
admits, "All I really thought about at Notre Dame was playing
guitar anyway," such commercial frills are simply a bonus to what
he calls "the kind of rewards you don't get otherwise."
* * *
John Fanning is a senior English major who has written for
the Boston Phoenix, the Elkhart Truth and other
publications.
March 2003
