Author and musician Malgre Lui is building a following in spite of himself. Malgre Lui is the French stage name of Bloomington-Normal's Jamison Lee and it translates to "in spite of himself", and in spite of the exotic name, Lee writes simple candid ballads which can be previewed on Malgre Lui's Myspace. His debut EP received a favorable review on NPR’s All Songs Considered and is available on Amazon and iTunes. His poetry has appeared in Kansas State University's Touchstone and Silenced Press.
Last Tuesday, Lee appeared at TheatresCool's monthly open mike series where he was billed as a special guest among the night's thirteen performers. About forty Bloomington-Normal residents attended to hear Lee perform four original songs during his twenty-five minute presentation. His set list included "A Garage Sale", "This American Song Flute", "My Old Amish Grandpa" and "Ohio", a song reflecting upon Lee's home state.
Lee's music is self-reflective and slightly melancholic but not without wit and occasional self-parody. During his opening banter Lee described his music as "sort of contemplative and kind of sad" but hoped the crowd found it to be "rigorous and challenging as we expect a lot of poetry to be". He even jokingly invited audience members to stand beside him and mock him should the mood become too serious.
Lee attended Kent State where he earned his undergraduate degree in English but confesses, "I was like a million different majors for a while. I was a French major, a philosophy major and a psychology major. I had no idea really." Eventually, he settled on education, earning his Masters there before coming to Bloomington-Normal. He's lived here for a year now and says, "I've done a lot of readings with the university and the university galleries. I usually read poetry and prose."
He's intrigued by "the space where poetry and music merge," and when asked what is the deciding factor which makes any of his works a song or a poem, he reflects a moment before answering. "That's a really good question. The boundary between poetry and fiction or prose is very fluid." He strives to make his prose "sound beautiful...it's like poetry in that way...it's very musical." Yet he also confesses that his poetry "will have certain qualities of prose." Ultimately he says, "the boundary is hard to decipher sometimes. It also depends on whether you're talking about hearing it aloud or on the page" and concludes that the printed page is "where the main decision will be made for me."
When asked about future projects he says he's currently anticipating Pork Records' release of CD and vinyl editions of his EP, which will be a split project between Malgre Lui and the Massachusetts band Birds of California. Lee intends to distribute the EP locally but isn't sure exactly where yet. (For those looking, local indie shops Mother Murphy's, Waiting Room Records and North Street Records would be likely sources.) Lee's also studying comedy and writing a book "among a thousand other things." He says, "The closest thing I have to being done actually is A Cookbook For Vulgar Vegetarians. It's going to be a comedy."
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