Renee-Louise Carafice 'Tells You to Fight' Album Launch

Renee-Louise Carafice returns to New Zealand to launch her debut album, Tells You to Fight, with a very special performance in the beautiful environment of Auckland’s Hopetoun Alpha.

Featuring support from Tim Guy and Bond Street Bridge, this will be a night to remember of exquisite music and well-crafted songs from three of New Zealand’s most original singer/songwriters.

In 2003, on her 22nd birthday, New Zealand singer-songwriter Renee-Louise Carafice was institutionalized at Auckland's Te Whetu Tawera with severe depression. As a means of coping in this challenging time, Carafice wrote an illustrated book of songs about her experiences, later referring to them as her 'hospital songs'. While in this difficult time in her life, she feared that her life was ruined, to some extent, by her institutionalization, having no knowledge of people who had come through the mental health system and gone on to lead fulfilling and good lives. She developed a strong and unshakable vision of becoming that role model, to herself and to others, and to prove that she could not just survive mental illness but live a totally glorious life.

As soon as she was barely able, Renee-Louise Carafice released these songs to the public, through live performances with her band "Operation" and through student radio. 95bFM featured her first single, "Lorazopam" on its top ten chart for 4 straight weeks, only 8 months after her hospital release. Renee-Louise attempted to convey her experience of mental illness in a gentle, sometimes teasing, often touching musical format, which quickly saw the public reacting with fascination and support. Not long after, she toured New Zealand with US acts Crooked Fingers and Micah P Hinson, as well as opening for David Pajo.

In 2005, Carafice won the Nescafe Big Break award for young people with vision, having submitted her music. With her awarded money she recorded her solo album "Renee-Louise Carafice: Tells You to Fight". The album was recorded at Steve Albini's legendary analog recording studio "Electrical Audio" in Chicago, USA. It was engineered by Nick Abbott (engineer of Crowded House, Goldenhorse, Pluto), produced by Ben King (Goldenhorse) and mastered at Skye Mastering in Scotland (Talk Talk, Madness). In 2006 she moved to Chicago to pursue her music career amongst her musical heros. Since her move, she has opened for extremely popular US acts such as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone and Xiu Xiu.

When performing live, she will often use multiple instruments at once, moving between keyboards, guitar and children’s instruments to create a layered and full-sounding solo act. In the United States she also performs with a seven piece backing band, including a small string section and the bassist from Iron and Wine.

Renee-Louise has recently signed to NZ independent label, Monkey Records, who will be releasing her album in late July through Rhythm Method and she will be touring New Zealand in August with Tim Guy. Her first single from the album, Bodhisattva, has been in the Kiwi FM top ten for several weeks and the video is getting good airplay on Juice, C4 and Alt TV.

Renee-Louise recently received this endorsement from the Mental Health Foundation:
“It’s great to hear someone with Renee’s creativity and skill being open about her experiences. It all helps to promote a strong positive message that people who experience mental distress are capable, creative and entitled to full citizenship.” - Judi Clements, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation.

Tour dates to be announced soon.