Photo by Allison Hubbard
Audrey Reed took her iPhone out and opened iTunes. She then entered “MLEO” into the search bar. It was finally there. After everything she had gone through, it was finally there. After all the bullying, all the loneliness, heartbreaks and sacrifices, it was finally there. MLEO’s EP was finally available for download on the iTunes store.
Reed started reading sheet music when she was just 3-and-a-half-years-old, a practice that reinforces Phyllis’ short description of her daughter’s traits: passion, love and perseverance.
“It would make me feel closer to God.” This is what a 7-year-old Reed told her mother when she was asked why she wanted to play the harp. The harp would be Reed’s second instrument, after learning how to play the piano at the tender age of three. The saxophone, guitar, flute and mandolin would come later.
“If she wanted to do something you wouldn’t hear the end of it.” From ages five to seven, she pushed her mother to get her into harp lessons. Laurie Buchanan, a famous harpist who gave lessons at the University of Texas at San Antonio, took Reed under her wing.
Audrey has lived in Oklahoma, San Antonio and twice in Sacramento; her father was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, which is why the Reeds moved around. Audrey and Giovanna didn’t have a lot of toys growing up, and had to rely on their imaginations for entertainment.
They created an imaginary world called the Island of Robair that even had its own currency, language, sections, enemies and a dark spot reserved for the bad guys called “Creepers Corner.”
When Audrey was in the sixth grade, her school was hosting a talent show, which first exposed the world to Reed’s talent: singing. She performed “Colors of the Wind” from “Pocahontas.”
Audrey attended the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Camp. Then came the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, the Monterey Jazz Festival and the prestigious Downbeat Magazine awards for vocals and tenor saxophone art performance. Reed’s band director Josh Murray was instrumental in inspiring her to pursue her dreams. “I am very grateful I was able to learn from him,” she said.
Reed was part of the jazz program at Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, in which she played the tenor saxophone. When auditioning for the part, she taught herself how to play the instrument in three days.
Reed is multifaceted. Besides music, her mother always emphasized the importance of being active, something that was reflected when Reed qualified for the Junior Olympics in swimming when she was in the third grade. Besides music, she was involved in both swimming and Olympic weightlifting during her high school athletic career.
Auj, as some of her friends call her, is also a published author. When she was 16, she wrote a children’s book called “Mehotep’s Melody,” a tale about a little boy who turns his bow into a harp and plays for the pharaoh.
Reed also suffers from hypothyroidism, which is a condition in which the thyroid gland does not make enough thyroid hormone. This can lead to fatigue, joint or muscle pain, sadness or depression and weakness. But Reed didn’t let the obstacles stand in her way.
After a year of sojourning, she returned to Rio Americano. Reed mentioned that the experience pushed her music to new levels. “It motivated me more because I didn’t have a good friend base. I ended up doing a lot of things on my own,” she said. After earning her high school diploma in Sacramento, she moved to Malibu.
Reed is an advertising major, and according to her it was in high school when her passion for music started coming alive, something that brings us to the beginnings of MLEO, which is pronounced “Mah-Lee-O.”
Reed and her band members, bassist Nick de la O and guitarist Victor San Pedro all went to Rio Americano. After a solo performance at the Malibu Inn, Reed realized she needed a band; she realized she couldn’t go on performing by herself. “It was boring and cliche. It wasn´t what I was trying to express through my music,” she said.
Reed picked up the phone and called De La O and San Pedro, who are now students at Cal State Northridge. Their “passion for music,” as Reed mentioned, was what brought them together and made the band come to life. The band, however, didn’t have a name.
One day Reed, who mentioned her admiration for ancient civilizations, was bored in class. She started writing band names in her notebook, and came up with four symbols that have been represented throughout history: man, lion, eagle and ox.
Although the inspiration for the name was based on historical content, Reed claims that MLEO doesn’t strictly mean man, lion, eagle and ox. “I liked how it didn’t have strong associations with it so we could shape our music to that name so when people heard, it would mean nothing but us.”
Drawing inspiration from jazz idols like Ella Fitzgerald, Reed is the songwriter and self-proclaimed manager of the band. She said MLEO has drawn inspiration from many different styles of music, including alternative music, rock, indie and jazz.
A song that exemplifies this stylistic combination is Round Two. One of the more upbeat songs in the EP, it was inspired by a line in James Blake’s “Retrogade.” “Ignore everybody else, we’re alone now,” helped Reed come up with a song to explain the concept of following one’s ambitions with disregard of what others think of them.
Even though MLEO’s EP, which was released on Oct. 5, only has four songs, Reed labeled the recording process as something that takes up a lot of effort.
After researching several recording studios in Los Angeles, MLEO decided to settle for TrackShack Studios in Sacramento. The band recorded for four days; the first one was dedicated to band performance, the second to vocals and the remaining ones to sound mixing.
When the EP was finalized, the band signed up on CDbaby.com to make their record available on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and Google Play. CDbaby.com is an online music store specializing in the sale of CDs and music downloads from independent musicians.
Reed went home on the Oct. 4 long weekend at Pepperdine expecting to reconnect with family after more than a month of classes. The next day while standing in her kitchen, Audrey Reed took her iPhone out and opened iTunes.
When iTunes showed MLEO’s tracklist, she felt conflicting emotions. “It was a mixture of ‘It’s about time’ and ‘I’m not ready for this yet.’” Reed called De la O and San Pedro to tell them the good news; it was time to celebrate.
MLEO’s future? Embracing “motivation and drive,” according to De la O. Reed has set her sight on taking MLEO to greater heights. “I don’t know about big time, but at least to a point where we can touch people with our music. I really believe it can go somewhere; I really do.
“I can’t set my hopes any lower than us being a very successful band. Putting our sights any lower than that would be a mistake.”
MLEO is set to record the rest of their album, which will be tentatively named “Sunken City,” in December. The release of the full album is scheduled to be around May next year.
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Follow Ricardo Avila on Twitter: @RAvila27
As published in the Nov. 14 issue of the Pepperdine Graphic.
