The Spectrum

Issue date: 9/21/06 Section: A & E

Media Credit: The Spectrum/Alyssa DiMaria

It's been a year and a half since Jeff LeBlanc started performing live and since then he has grown as an artist, finding new influences and starting to write his own music.

As one of Sacred Heart's musical crooners, Jeff is very passionate about his music.

"The thought of being able to express ideas and have people say, I get that is a feeling that makes me absolutely high," Jeff LeBlanc, junior, Center Moriches, N.Y.

"Songs don't really have a due date or a time of arrival, they come and go as they want and that's the most difficult thing about this music thing," said LeBlanc.

Since he has only a handful of tunes that he has wrote himself, he still mainly plays covers at his shows.

"I'm only going to play original material that I feel is up to par with what I'm trying to do," said Jeff.

Picking cover songs is not an easy job for Jeff. He is not a fan of just taking requests and playing songs just for the sake of playing them. He invests a great deal into his cover songs, and his process of picking them is a little more in depth.

"[The] cover songs that I pick are tunes I feel that I couldn't have written better myself, almost photographs in my mind that someone else wrote the words down first," said LeBlanc.

Jeff has written his own music and the thought of recording is not that far off.

"Recording is such a finalization of sound, I have to make sure that I'm ready. Right now I'm really focused on playing live," said Jeff.

He has performed here at Sacred Heart in the past and has a pretty strong following. However, sometimes he still gets nervous.

"Before a show, I'm usually terrified with a laundry list of concerns, but once I start playing and forget about the extracurricular stuff, I'm on my game," said Jeff.

Performing is something that he holds to high standards, as well as being influenced by the music of others.

"I think essentially we all want to be like someone that we can't be in our own lives," said LeBlanc.

Jeff's influences come from across the board; ranging from the classic sounds of soul, blues and jazz to the modern singer songwriters.

"People come and go, but there's always melody; melody is my biggest influence," said Jeff.

Aside from melody, Jeff is most inspired by John Mayer.

"He's obviously my number one influence. He has the capability of writing melodies that I can't get away from," said LeBlanc.

Jeff spends most of his time playing his guitar and listening to Jamie Cullum, Howie Day, Mat Kearney, Dave Barnes and Coldplay's "Parachutes."

This Fall's show will be held on Tuesday, September 26 at 10 p.m. in the Holy Grounds.

There will be more shows later in the year.

"I'll be on a stage somewhere. I really can't consider it a school year without being on stage," said Jeff.

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