Joy Leslie

So I haven’t been on here mainly for two reasons. I’m sick and that makes me miserable. When you’re sick, you can’t sing… your voice is all scratchy and yucky. So then, you just get bored… UGH! I guess all in all I’ve just been in a funk - or “the slump” as I call it. I’ve been losing my momentum and my drive. It’s the same thing over and over again, day after day. I don’t hate being a singer. I love it. I just hate the routine I’ve put myself into. I think it’s time for a change…. but what?I have been sick since I last watched these two bulldogs last week. I had to dog-sit for two days for a really, really nice guy in Tribeca. I love dogs - and I loved watching these two… they were SUCH good-looking dogs! And really, very sweet and loving. But for some reason, as soon as the owner came around they wouldn’t stop jumping on me and pulling on my shirts. They did this two days in a row and even put a hole in a sweater of mine! Crazy… I thought the first day that they were actually snarling at me, but I soon realized that they just had such a hard time breathing that their breath just came out that way… Charlie and Eddie must be the best-looking english bulldogs in New York, though. I haven’t seen better looking ones here… They could be show dogs.

They are like football players!!! Barely reaching my knees (and I’m short) but at least 75-80 pounds each. I literally have 5 bruises on my thighs from them jumping up on me… but such is life when you’re a dog-lover like me… But don’t get me wrong, I’d do it all over again!!! … BUT I did get sick…My allergies kicked in and became a full-blown sinus infection… that’s the main reason I haven’t sung or been online for the last few days. I did get out on Saturday to see my brother’s dance project - and I’m really glad I did because it was AWESOME! They brought down the house. I just WISH I could dance that well… it would take a LOT of hours of practice though… I mean A LOT.* * *Potential… apparently I have a lot of it.. so they tell me. But sometimes I get in these slumps where I feel like no matter what I do it’s not going to be enough. Forgive me, I’m going to get a little personal here. I try not to do that so much, but everyone has problems right? I try not to be a complainer, but I really just want to get over this! The really disappointing news is that my album is going to be pushed back another month. I’ve been sick so much this month that I haven’t been able to finish my album, and (this is not such bad news) since my brother’s music is really taking off right now, he’s going to take all of February to do some promotional touring… so, I’m probably not going to finish my album until March. MARCH! That seems like a lifetime away! And I feel like the more time that goes by, the less interest people will have in me! Where did all of this doubt come from? I think it’s the slump.That durned SLUMP!!! *sigh* When you’re in the slump, nothing seems to go right. Like the computer starts going on the fritz, and you start losing little things, or you are so miserable that not even your favorite movie or your own husband can cheer you up. It’s like I need a good kick in the pants to get things rolling again. But there’s this little part that doesn’t want to at the same time… I don’t know… it’s a bad place to be.I guess the most important thing is that life goes on. And it’ll keep going on whether you’re on board or not. It stops for no one… so the best thing is to just pick myself up and keep on truckin… even through the dreaded slump.

UPDATE: I decided to sing a little something for you all anyways… it’s a snippet of Keyshia Cole’s “I Remember.”

Soooo guess what guys?! I got the job. I love it! I can’t wait to start hanging out with some cute dogs and cats and walk them all over the city. I’m going to work for www.Petaholics.com… go check them out!!!

I’ve been going to Chung King studios pretty much every day this week… Not always recording, but listening in on some of Ryan and Uness’s sessions.. learning, writing songs, watching a little TV (LOL since we have none), and trying to get a better feel and higher level of comfort for working in there. My husband and his friend have been working on some video concepts for some of my songs and they seem so fun - I’m really excited to start working on them. Uness has some more tracks for me to hear and get a feel for. Ryan is working on his Diamond Girl campaign still… OHHH you guys should check out this website and grab a t-shirt made by “Married to the Mob” … they’re SUPER cute! www.ryanleslie.com/dgtees … Hmmm what else? I’ve been working to try and get some more friend requests on myspace… added some new pictures, reaching out to other artists… You know what? A guy that works for a major TV network in NY messaged me on YouTube saying that he liked my cover of Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and that he was going to talk to his music director about me. I’m not sure what that means, but I think it sounds pretty cool. Also, StarsearchTV has added me to their page - and their stars page too!!! So make sure you give them some love. They have a YouTube channel and a website (starsearchtv.com).

I’ve been wracking my brain for a good song to sing - and I decided on Mandy Moore’s rendition of “Have a Little Faith in Me.” I’ve always liked it and I always think about my hubby when I sing it… awww LOL. Have a listen and hopefully you all like it! I’m kind of hungry - so this one isn’t going to be a super-long entry. Just a little hello, I love you all, and stay tuned for more updates! MUAH!!! Love, Joy

WOOOOWWWW it’s LITERALLY been one month since my last post… So much has happened! If I wrote it all here, I’d have a 4 page entry - so here’s a brief recap:For Christmas I went back to AZ to see my parents. It was a nice, warm, and peaceful holiday… just my parents, my brother, my husband and the dog. We took family portraits, and went to see a Christmas dinner theatre. I got new clothes and my master’s degree framed! Pretty cool. Then right after Christmas, we took a 13-hour drive up to Sacramento to see other family. Mainly, my hubby’s parents, my granddad, and my uncle and family. The ride was PAINFUL. It was the worst rental mini-van EVER and EVERYONE had back pain. We stayed until Dec. 30th then made our way back to NY!I was actually pretty happy to be back! My brother has been working at Chun King music studio’s from 4pm - 4am pretty much every day on music. On New Year’s Eve, the husband and I joined him and I even recorded “In Your Arms” as an acoustic version for my album! So many people have given me positive feedback on that song, we couldn’t resist. So it was very chill new year’s, but great because I got to ring it in just right… So that makes an official count of 8 songs completed for my album! Uness actually comes back today and we’re going to finish up a fourth… that’ll make 9, and then just 2 more to complete it all! Can’t wait!Exciting news! My brother’s Diamond Girl is really taking off! He even performed it at DJ Clue’s birthday party at Spotlight in Times Square. I had such a great time watching up there - and he got this cool DJ and horn section to play with him… it was so awesome! Cassie, Cheri Dennis, Trey Songz and Diddy also made appearances. I have a photo that I’ll post from the night.Me and Ryan in the Green Room before his performance:I decided to get a part-time job as a secondary income. Nothing huge, just a few hundred dollars extra a month. I have an interview on Monday for Petaholics.com to be a dog-walker in the city! I love love love love dogs so this would be perfect for me. Wish me luck, y’all, I really want this one!As for a video, a while back a good friend asked me to reprise the wedding song I sang at his wedding back in 2000. This year marks their 8th anniversary - so happy anniversary to Ben and Kim Nunes! Hooray!!! Enjoy guys, and take care! I’M BACK! 

I’ve been busy working in the studio with Uness and we have completed a whole new song and I LOVE it!!!! I’ve had such a good time working with him and we really have a good music vibe going on. It’s cool - and I’m really glad to be in the studio again.. I didn’t realize how much I missed it… but it really does make me feel really productive and everything!!!

I’ve also been working with Chanan and my legs and abs are SO SORE!!!! LOL that tells you how out-of-shape I let myself become since I left Arizona. But I’m glad to be active again… I feel less guilty when I eat the foods that are less than healthy. OH! And my money has finally been deposited so I finally was able to pay him for being my trainer, and buy some new stuff for myself too. (You know how us girls like to get down…)

So I don’t have time to write much because I’m about to work on my 2nd song with Uness, but I did have time to record me singing One Republic’s “Apologize” for you all!!! So I hope you guys all enjoy!!!

So I’ve been working a lot the last few days, and it’s been great! I have completed one week of working out with Chanan and my abs, legs and arms are all SO SORE!!! That’s a good thing though, because it means that things are working! I also had a new hair appointment, and (as you can see) I’m back to straight hair. I like it… it feels a little like home LOL :D… Well, I still am going to keep it curly when I’m not wearing it straight, but since I’m doing shows now, I think this works better… just does. I have another video from my open mic this week, but I don’t know how to rip it off of the site! I had Evan help me last time and he’s not here right now… so, you’ll have to wait a little bit… but it’ll be worth it, promise! A whole song this time!

I saw my first snow, that was also cool… it’s been years since I’ve been in a place where it just snowed sometimes… like that. Um.. yeah. okay. LOL..

Hmmm… OH! So my bank account is finally open! Hooray! I have a source of money again - thank goodness! But I just got the news that my forbearance on my student loans ends TODAY so I either have to call them and get another one, or start paying! Eeeee!!! My dad gave me a request to sing something for him, so I’m going to see if I can’t find the music for it so that I can sing it for him. And working with Uness is awesome! We’re actually in the middle of working on some stuff right now, but I realize that I haven’t been updating as much as I should… so I took a breather to see if I could get something on here for you… I brought in some chord progressions and we laid down the start of something great - I can already tell.

Yesterday was my hubby’s birthday! We got to see Chicago on Broadway and it was very cool! It did kind of suck that his friends couldn’t come out after (they all had to work today), but we made a decent night out of it…. a nice dinner and a show… it’s like a cool date night! And I bought him a copy of Katt Williams Pimp Chronicles Pt. 1 and we laughed our heads off! SOOOOO funny!

Okay, so Evan just walked in and showed me how to rip the video… so here it is! I already have this one on YouTube, but the piano was really out of tune… so hopefully, this one is kind of better… it’s “In Your Arms” by Ryan Leslie and yours truly… enjoy!!! xoxo, Joy

Alright!!! So the last time I was on here, I sang a little Lauren Hill and I said that I had some shows coming up. Well, I did the two shows and they were a lot of fun! I sang on Monday and Tuesday night in New York and got some really great feedback and reviews from the people there. What a cool experience. I’m definitely going back!!! I was thinking of posting the videos, but I’m not sure I want those to be fully out yet since my cd isn’t released yet… so maybe a snippet or something.. we’ll see I met some guys that actually asked me to be a part of one of their showcases, so I’m going to keep in touch to find out more about when and how and where… If any of you are in New York when I do I show, please come by! I’m going to be posting on here when and where you can catch me.

So as for what else has been going on with me, weellll, the biggest news is I’ve been really sick lately which explains my absence.. I literally was in bed for two days this week, and could barely get out for longer than an hour on the others. I’m actually feeling much better today, so I’m here in the studio doing a little bit of work. Ummm I also set up my new bank account, I start training on Monday with Chanan aka Jakhamah, and I have a new hair appointment tomorrow (actually TWO new hair appointments tomorrow)… so I think the curly hair is going to be a little less consistent now a days… especially since I’m doing some shows now, and I want to look a little more glam. So yeah!!! Life got a little busy all of a sudden! But this feels really good. I’m also going to start work with another one of Next Selection’s finest, Uness.. We might work on writing some songs to sell to some artists and make a little money… Otherwise I literally have no other source of income.. check out Uness’ MySpace page too - boy can siiiiiiing like nobody’s business LOL!!! www.myspace.com/uness - seriously check this guy out! He and I are going to try and put some more music together for me so that I can finally finish this album and get my release ready to go! The last time my brother and I spoke, we’re looking at a Valentine’s Day release… My only concern is that I heard Janet Jackson is releasing an album in February and there’s no way I can compete with that icon! LOL… we’ll just see.

Five days until my husband’s birthday… any ideas on what to get him? I haven’t got a clue! LOL

But until then, here’s a little snippet for y’all… Hope you like it! LOL the song cut out midway through the last chorus, but it came back on… it was kind of funny… but I’ll let you all see for yourselves..

I wanted to take some time today to wish any American’s out there a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you had as good of a day as I did, or better! I woke up, spoke to my family, spent some time checking out this stray mom cat and her kitten next door (so cute!), got ready and then went to the studio. There, I met up with my brother for lunch and then spoke to Uness for a few hours about the direction I wanted my next couple of songs to go in. It was a very cool experience to just sit down and listen to the different kinds of music that inspire me to do music. Hopefully, later today, I will speak with him some more. Then my brother dropped me off at my husband’s job… I know!!! I can’t believe he had to work that night too… but all-in-all, I actually had a fun night. I met some really nice people there (some of which were away from their families too) and I didn’t get home until nearly 3am! It was a fun night. So I hope you (whoever you may be) had a great night too!

OKAY - so down to some more business stuff. I’m having a hard time these days with anxiety. I don’t know where it all came from, but I was looking online for some shows that I could do and all of a sudden I started to feel really nervous about the whole thing. I mean - am I really read to do this? To completely put myself on blast for everyone to see? Am I going to be able to take the talk? the criticism? the good and the bad? Do I feel like I’m going to go out there with my best foot forward? I think I feel so nervous because I’m not as prepared as I should be at this point. I have to be honest - I’ve been really slow-moving with it. I think I’m stagnant because I don’t always know what the next best move is… but since I haven’t figured it out, I haven’t made much progress as a result. Soooooo it kind of sucks. Actually right now, I kind of suck. It’s totally an attitude thing and I need a major adjustment. I just don’t know how to kick my own butt into gear, you know? I have random ideas, but for some reason, I fear failure so much that I don’t even try them out. My brother said something to me yesterday that made a lot of sense. He said, “Joy, you won’t fail… You’re going to get back exactly what you put into this. So even now, you’ve been 100% successful at getting the results you’ve worked for.. and that will continue,” AND HE’S SO RIGHT! Which is the frustrating thing…. *sigh* Thoughts/coversations like this in my head make me feel like I’m either going off the deep-end or I’m having some major PMS symptoms. LOL! I know!!! I kind of feel like a wreck and I just want to pull myself out of it! Maybe I feel worse and worse because I’m not putting in as much as I know I should. Maybe this is all guilt… or maybe, I just need to stop talking about it and just do something already!!!

It’s a new day, you guys! I just gotta do something with it now…
In the meantime… Since I’ll be working on some other stuff - I don’t have a video ready… so I want to leave a friend-tribute. My friends are so awesome… I miss them all.

Two of my best friends, Natalia and Olivia

Surrounded by some lovely Latinas!!! Gloria aka Glow-yuh, Katita aka “Soul sista”, MOH Natalia, and other bff, Oliva

Evonne, my other best friend and my little girl scout.. and Christina. So much fun!!!

WOW bringing it back!!! With hubby, bff Olivia and her hubby Larry, my “summer sister” LuzElena and her hubby Mike

Don’t get to talk to her much, but I really love her to death.. This is my girl, Naddia.

THIS is really why I wanted to go back to school. You can only have this kind of fun with some cool college friends…

USC had some great people… my sister (forreals!) Kari, Rexanne, JC (aka I love Jesus), and confidante and little light, Amy

My friends are so great. Too bad I’m so far away from all of them!!!! LOL I love them.

Alright, so I messed up. I shouldn’t have posted all those wedding pics on my facebook because someone totally took them and now they’re on ybf.com. They’re going to be taken down I think… they’re already down on my facebook. And now, if you’re not my facebook friend, you can’t see them. I hate having to do that. However, I also see now that such precautions are necessary… since some people look for things to use to hurt others and they’ll manipulate my good intentions to do that. Sooo yeah. Lesson learned. The only stuff that’s going up is stuff that I don’t mind getting put up and that I know will not affect other people’s careers.

In other news.. Uness is back in town!!! Hooray! I think we may start working on some music together. Super cool guy… I really need to get on the ball. I still have NO IDEA what I’m doing. It’s been a few months, you know? So I’m thinking I’m going to start trying to do some shows. I need to get my face out there. I’m too timid with this music thing. I was talking to a guy and my husband last night at a restaurant and they were both saying that I act too humble. No one will notice me if I don’t make some sort of stink about myself.. that’s just not really how I am, so I’m literally forced to fight NATURE when I talk about me. I never thought I’d say this, but I think I need a bigger ego. LOL!!!

I woke up REALLY late today. My husband went to work this morning, only to come back when he realized that he didn’t have to be there until this evening. So stupid us, we went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until 3:15 in the afternoon!!! So my whole day is shot. Then, on top of that, I also learned that he’s working a DOUBLE SHIFT on Thanksgiving, so we won’t get to do anything that special together. Super bummed!!! I just need to take a few deep breaths and try not to think about being bummed. Besides… tonight I get to see BEOWULF in IMAX 3D!!! I heard it was awesome. So I’m at least happy about that.

Okay so for my video today, since I was having such a bad day, I decided to sing a feel good song. It’s Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All” and it has always made me feel better about things when I’m feeling a little down in the dumps. So I hope you like!

*sigh* So today I wanted to post a new blog and video for everyone… but it’s now 10:51pm and I have no idea what song to sing… STILL. I’ve been searching online for hours for a good idea for a song, or for a decent instrumental… I was looking for Bubbly by Colbie Caillat but the person that had it up on YouTube deleted it! I also looked at One Republic’s Apologize but it’s kind of not my song. I tried it, but I didn’t like how I sounded on it. Actually I didn’t like how I sounded on ANYTHING that I tried to sing today. It’s one of those days where everything you try to sing sounds bad. It’s been frustrating for me because there was a lot that I wanted to do that I didn’t get to do.

I spent the morning with my husband. We tried this new breakfast place on 116th and it was really good. When he was leaving for work at around 3ish, he said that I should do a blog today. I said okay because I needed to go to the studio afterwards and I was planning on having my day go something like this:

3:30pm get ready
4:30pm sing song for blog and upload to YouTube
5:30pm go to studio to pick up stuff, do Myspace and Facebook, and finish this blog
10:30pm come back and relax

BUT obviously, that didn’t happen. So here I am sitting down all dressed up and nowhere to go. I was still going to go to the studio up until 10pm, but now I don’t want to go out there on my own and it’s nearly 11. GRRRR so frustrating!!! I need some new instrumentals or something!!! I did promise that I would do a blog, so I’m writing in here… at least there’s THAT. So let me at least update you on what’s been going on with me:

I think I found a trainer. Jakhamah aka Chanan is offering his services to me! On Sunday we met up for a lunch meeting and I asked him about maybe training me 3 times a week to keep my weight normal and stuff. Also I was asking him about choreography, but my brother doesn’t think I need that as much because I really need stage presence more than anything. But yeah, I have a trainer! And Crystal is coming down this weekend to NY so I’ll get to see a friend this week which is also very cool. Also, one of my good friends since forever is having his anniversary soon and asked me to reprise the song I sang for him and his wife at their wedding. I gotta re-write some of the words because the video he has of it is kind of cut off, but I got the jist of it… soooo I’m going to be working on that for a new video soon, too.

GAH! I can’t get over this frustration of the fact that I got ready to sing something and I came up empty-handed!!! Tomorrow better be a better day!!! I promise - an actual video comes tomorrow.. Until then, here’s some fun pictures of me, my husband and some of my favorite people.

My husband and me - HOMIES LOL:

My parents back in the day:

My brother and I back in the day:

LOL my fourth grade graduation day!!!

Me with my hubby and some other USC friends:

The best wedding EVER!!! (LOL look at my bro on the far right):

There’s a lot that has gone on since I last wrote in here! I finally got to meet my new friend, Crystal, out in the city. She’s an aspiring singer/actress from Boston. Great songwriter too. Anyways, she was in New York to audition for these guys that said they represeneted Kat de Luna and Universal Records. Then they said Sony, but the man’s card said Empire … weird. But anyways, yeah, they wanted her to sing in a showcase or something. Well, they were all really late in getting to her but we finally met up with them. Small world, they all knew my brother. Or at least OF him. They were asking me to sing for them too, but I was like, “Sorry, I’m already signed with another label.. I’m really here for my friend..” LOL it was funny getting to say that to some big music execs. So yeah, Crystal - SUPER COOL and really sweet. Loved her. Can’t wait to head out again with her. I forgot to tell you, we both have one dimple.. mirror image of each other. Funny… Oh and then that night on my way home, I walked past Brooke Shields and Lindsay Price. I was just thinking to myself as I got closer to them, “That lady REALLY looks like Brooke Shields!” LOL.. well of course she did.

So then I got to head out on a photoshoot with my brother for a campaign that he’s doing. It was really really awesome. I got to meet some really cool stylists, makeup artists, managers, a beautiful model named Irina Shaykhlislarnova (I know, try saying THAT two times fast… or even just once fast. LOL). Super nice, very cute girl. Modeled for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues too. Here’s a picture of her:

I know!! Gorgeous right? Well, she IS a model. AND the best part of the day? I got some of the clothes! I got some Givenchy shoes, a Kooba clutch purse and some leather studded gloves. (I don’t know the brand on those).. but SO AWESOME! My first designer anything! LOL…

AND I finally tried out a basic dance class. It wasn’t at the Broadway Dance Center. It was at another place closer to my house. It was taught by my new friend Chanan Lareche aka Jakhamah!!! I actually had a really fun time and it wasn’t because the lady at the front desk had a really cute dog. It was a smaller class, more laid back, and the people there were more at my level. So I was comfortable and not so intimidated by all the professional dancers in the room. LOL.. So had a great time. I think I’ll go back next week. He teaches step, hip hop and house dancing. I’ll finally get to experience that! Hooray!!!

Anyways, that’s all folks! I have a video for you - I’m kind of fighting off this dumb cough, so my voice is husky.. so to take it easy on the voice, here’s an Amy Winehouse for you: