Finding My Revolution St. with Al Lee

In a sublime departure from our regular programming, 54Lights host Kondwani Mwase sat down with singer songwriter Al Lee to talk about his poignant work – Revolution St. The album, the artist’s second release, is a deeply personal endeavour. From his home in Revelstoke BC, Al Lee broke down his early days in music and even shared that his original move to the mic (i.e. singing) was born of necessity rather than want. 

Al Lee also spoke about his views on being an Iranian musician singing Blue Grass and Folk inspired songs. His love of music, which arguably seems to has started with a Blues love affair, draws from music’s ability to “transcend colour”. Counted amongst his inspirations – the legends like Neil Young and Bob Dylan. 

And though the interview was light hearted, fun and a reunion of two old friends, we took some time to unpack Al Lee’s second album and title track – Revolution Street. The song, like many others on the album, is complex and emotional. They draw from real life events, in this case a real life feminist revolt in Iran, and weaves in his personal nuanced insights.  

But rather than hog the spotlight, Al Lee, in typical fashion, shared how he embraced the contributions from the instrumentalists on his album…ones whose work fortifies and underlines his efforts. Enjoy our latest episode where we glean from a great interview and sample some bite size tracks. 

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

• Biggest Interview Scoop – Uncovering why Ali Haeri took the stage name Al Lee 
• Largest Interview Surprise – Al Lee and Kondwani Mwase both had Def Leopard cassettes 
• Largest Interview Regret – revealing that both Al Lee and Kondwani had Def Leopard cassettes
• Things you’ll never be able to take back – bad jokes about Millennials and reading…seriously though, we do regret that slight and accept old men jokes in response. 
• Revolution St. is available on Apple Music, Spotify, and other popular sound streaming platforms.