Bitter Sweet Swooner - Leona Naess - Brief Article

Interview, April, 2000 by Dimitri Ehrlich

Leona Naess doesn't sit. She perches. Slightly exasperated by the easily misjudged hype surrounding her, Naess bites her nails to stubs. She's a 24-year-old singer-songwriter who was chosen by Calvin Klein as a celebrity model before her album was even released. Blessed with a saintly voice that purrs out tales of bitterness, the good news is she delivers. In "Charm Attack," the first single from her debut album, Comatised (Outpost/MCA), Naess rails against the type of guy she says all women fall in love with: "the kind who's totally wrong and you try to save." Her harmonies with herself betray her conservatory education: They are exquisite, ghostly touches, delicacies in a song that's otherwise pure pop.

Naess studied classical composition at Purcell, a music school outside of London, and has a degree in anthropology from New York University. Her father is self-made millionaire Arne Naess, who was once married to Diana Ross, a fact Naess takes pains not to trade on. Of her father, she says, "He's not a tycoon, by any means, unless he's hiding it in some bank account I'm not aware of." If Naess sounds like she has major issues, she is, at least, quick to admit it. "Doing what I do, you have to have some issues with needing attention and approval," she says. "And I wish I didn't, because then I wouldn't do this. I would just open a nice restaurant."