Lia Ices

Lia Ices

Lia Ices is the stage name of Lia Kessel, a singer-songwriter. The verified origin for this artist is Chicago, United States, although the bio also places her early life in Westport, Connecticut and says she lives in the Hudson Valley, New York. She begins playing piano at the age of five and later studies theatre at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, then explores dance and theatre at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and studies Shakespeare at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Early work and collaborations

Ices starts performing publicly in 2005 under her birth name, Lia Kessel, in small New York venues. She issues an independently pressed EP of songs that is not commercially distributed. During this period she works with two backing bands, The Marina and Wild Cries. In late 2007 she appears on Baby Dee’s album Safe Inside the Day, contributing vocals to three tracks. Her brother, Eliot, is also a musician and collaborates in her music.

Albums and recognition

In 2008 she adopts the name Lia Ices and releases her first full-length album, Necima, produced by Nicolas Vernhes at Rare Book Room Studios in Brooklyn, New York. Her singing is compared with artists including Kate Bush, Feist, Bat For Lashes, Tori Amos and Cat Power. Her second album, Grown Unknown, appears in early 2011 on Jagjaguwar Records; she writes much of it during six months in Vermont, records it at The Clubhouse in Rhinebeck, New York, and mixes it again at Rare Book Room Studios. The album includes “Daphne”, a duet with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver.

Later releases and wider attention

Ices gains wider attention when “Love Is Won”, from Grown Unknown, plays over the closing credits of an episode of HBO’s Girls. She also releases a 7-inch single of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”, with Syd Barrett’s “Late Night” on the B-side, through Jagjaguwar Records.