Local Indie Rockers LibCor Solidify Line-Up in Wake of Releasing Debut Album

Locally based indie rock singer-guitarist Olivia Lee began her musical career in an unlikely place. She grew up in Calcutta, a small Ohio town on the border of West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

“[Calcutta] is in the middle of nowhere,” she says in a recent phone interview. Her band LibCor performs on Friday at the Westside Bowl in Youngstown and will open for Gymshorts on Thursday, Aug. 11, at Mahall’s Apartment. The group also shares a local bill with Prithee and Four Times Louder on Thursday, Sept. 8, at the Grog Shop. Columbus-based Zuck’s Turkey Farm will perform at that show as well. “I’ve always sang. I went to a Korean church and sang at church, and my mom was singing Korean songs around the house. I started playing guitar when I was 15.”

While teaching at St. Francis University in Pennsylvania, she started performing around town as a solo act. At a random open mic night; however, she met guitarist Corey Kurtz, and the two started playing together as a duo. Now engaged, they moved to Cleveland in 2019 after Lee took a gig as a psychology professor at Cleveland State University.

“He lived in Indiana, PA,” says Lee when about Kurtz. “I went to an open mic night about 40 minutes from home, and when I went to open the door, it was cancelled ,and the door was locked. The host said I should come to her buddy’s house and have a beer and jam. That was how I met Corey [Kurtz].”

The two moved to Cleveland just as the pandemic shut down the local clubs.

“It was hard to find any gigs, and we just played open mics and didn’t have much time to meet people,” she says.

During the pandemic, the duo kept busy and recorded their debut album, Cut the Rope, and that helped them recruit bassist Mike Deane and drummer Jake Campian to join the group. Deane joined in October of last year, and Campian joined this past April.

“We finally got this band together in the last few months,” says Lee. “Mike [Deane] had been in prison for 26 years, and he got out in the summer of 2020. He was in Columbus and was in [the indie band] Eric’s Mother in the '90s before he went to prison. He moved to Cleveland, and we met him a few months after he moved to Cleveland. He now works at a legal office. Now, he’s a paralegal who helps with criminal defense.”

Lee says she likes a variety of music, ranging from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to the Clash and Jefferson Airplane. You can certainly hear Airplane singer Grace Slick's influence on her — Lee sings with the same power. Lee also cites Alabama Shakes and Cage the Elephant as influences.

The other band members like a variety of acts too.

“Corey has more of a folk influence and also punk, even though he doesn’t play it,” says Lee. “Mike likes more of the ’90s bands. He’s into jazz fusion. Jake, who is 22, is into what he calls butt rock, which is the kids’ term for the ’90s rock bands. He likes Blink-182, and he’s also into jazz fusion. I don’t know if any of that is reflected in our music. I’m not really sure what to call us. Indie rock is fine. Someone said we are 'mystical alternative,' and I really like that term.”

The band recorded the album at Rumpus Room Recordings, a small space in Lakewood that worked well for the band's approach.

“It’s basically an attic," says Lee of Rumpus Room. “It was my first experience recording an album, and I learned a lot about recording. Matt [Lindsay] was a really great guy to work with. He does also of punk albums in the area. I felt very comfortable with him. If I wanted to do something over, he was willing to work with me. I’m always trying to a perfectionist in some ways, but I felt very comfortable recording with him.”

With its gentle guitars and hushed vocals, the Cat Power-like album opener “Perception” is really beautiful and sets the tone for the six-song release.

“Lyrically, I would say I was thinking of how things that we perceive might not really exist," says Lee when asked about the tune. "Color is something we interpret with our brains. It doesn’t actually exist in the real world; it’s just how our brain interprets it. Hence, the title of the song. It’s also about how we have created this world we live in, and it’s different from the world we lived in as a species. It’s along those lines.”

Lee says more local shows in addition to the aforementioned gigs at Westside Bowl, Mahall’s and the Grog Shop are in the works too.