Lachi is the front woman of a band (of the same name) made up of a group of visually impaired musicians.  From the debut single "We Can Fly", she had me. If you're a little closed minded and saw the group image before you heard the music, you would think that you would be about to listen to an R&B/Jazz group.  Lachi breaks that image from the get go as we discover her style is actually a very convincing Alternative/Pop sound. It's easy to hear that she has been influenced by artists like Alanis Morrissette, Bjork & Fiona Apple. She also states that she's also loved music by The Beatles, Radiohead, Yanni and classical composer Mozart.  Quite an array of inspiration for someone who grew up in West Philadelphia, Ithaca and upstate New York.  The blend of all of these artists has definitely given Lachi a unique sound of her own. Click onto the link to listen to "WE CAN FLY".

On July 22nd, Lachi will celebrate their CD Release at Joe's Pub in NY city followed by their national cd release on July 27th. Breakoutmagazine.com had a chance to talk with Lachi about her CD and plans for the future.

Coming from West Philly, and upstate NY, I wouldn't think that your influences would be the artists that you've mentioned.  How is that you came to know these artists?

I'm not really sure, from a young age I was always drawn to the piano, and so, just knowing artists that played the piano like Yanni and Mozart. My mother would buy me classical CD's and that's pretty much what turned me on to classical music and from then on I started listening to Alternative style music.  Growing up in the inner city people were always listening to hip hop, urban and R&B, but from a young age I was turned onto classical music which led to alternative in general.

Hearing that music from a young age, is that when you knew that music was something that you had to do?

I knew that music was going to be a big part of my life, but for some reason I always thought I was going to be an accountant. But it wasn't till I moved to N.Y in 2006 that I realized that music was gonna be where I was going to go. I started performing on the side for fun and realized that performing was my passion. My complete passion. Especially since I'm a songwriter,  To perform those songs, I knew it was something I had to do.

What do you want people to get from your music?

I want people to understand that, not all music has to be about love, hate and being rich. Sometimes you have to tackle some other issues that people relate to like triumph or insecurities or other emotions that everybody has to deal with but nobody in the mainstream wants to tackle because it's a bit taboo.

Your CD is very well produced. On it your sonicbids.com/lachi profile, you have a cover of a song called Paranoid Android by one of your influences, Radiohead.  What made you decide to do this cover in the a cappella style arrangement that you did?

Throughout college, I had created an all female a cappella group called "Cadence", and we did a lot of a cappella music, which is music without instruments and the vocals would be the instruments.  I had become pretty skilled at arranging a cappella music and this guy said that he was putting together a Radiohead tribute album and asked if I wanted to contribute a song and I said Paranoid Android is one of my favorite songs, singing a cappella is one of my favorite song styles, so maybe I'll combine the two.

How is that you got discovered?

Well I still feel like I have  a long way to go, like I just started, this is the first step even thought it took a long time to get here. I started out playing coffee shops, open mics, building fans one at a time. Really, my secret is that I had a day job and was able to pay my own rent and pay for recordings and pay for some publicity. Also just being social and proactive about your friends coming out and showing support.

We at Breakoutmagazine.com are wishing Lachi much success on the release of her CD this week and hope that our readers continue to support up and coming independent artists. Check out more of Lachi's music at www.lachimusic.com