A silvery blue-reflective kimono over a worn out blue yellow smiley-faced sweatshirt, and ripped denim shorts was what Ioanna from IO Echo wore the first time we met.
After she and Leopold performed their first ever set at Syracuse University, there was most definitely question left throughout the air. The stage was dark, lit up by two panels divided by an Asian fan center stage. Leopold played the guitar stage right with his black stringy hair covering his face for most of the night, while Ioanna serenaded the microphone with her dark insisting voice stage left.
It wasn't long before Ioanna became center focus, back-bending towards the audience in combat boots, singing on her knees, jumping up and down, raising just one fist. I overheard students in the crowd "Oh my God what is she doing? Look at her now..." It was truly a show of it's own. Something this type of crowd was not used to.
There was something special about IO Echo that made the contrasting duo individual from all the other bands I've seen at Schine Underground.
You might wonder where a band like this could find inspiration to perform the way they did. After discovering that they occasionally project images in their studio, I asked Ioanna which image inspired her last. Hieronymous Bosch: A fifteenth century dutch realist painter, known for his use of religious imagery is the man that caught her eye. "He was a mental patient, so I think next time we're writing I'd like to be able to harvest some of those images and project them when we're in the studio to just kind of get into that."
(Hieronymus Bosch) One of Ioanna's greatest characteristics was that she was fearless with the idea of coming off as weird. "I'm singing the words I wrote, and we're doing the music we wrote so we might as well express ourselves even if we look kind of weird or whatever, at least it's us up there."
I couldn't help but ask her what it was like working side by side with someone who she once shared a relationship with. "It's nebulous... as long as you're feeling things, that's what can inspire." It's not often you come across people who are so free to express who they are and what they feel.
Although I didn't have the opportunity to speak with Leopold, it was more than a pleasure to be in the presence of Ioanna. She spoke about how her mother's movements throughout the far east influenced who she was both sonically and visually. As well as some of her earliest artist influences being Enya and Yanni, which she does plan on connecting with one day. Concluding our conversation, she asked me about who I was and what I did. She seemed enthusiastic as if I were the artist and she was the interviewer, which was nice for a change. I asked her what best part of her job was and she confidently replied, "Being able to connect and identify with people...Having human connection is really nice, as humans one of the things that distinguish us from other animals is that we can make art, or we can express ourselves."
With this recognition, Ioanna truly puts passion into establishing herself as an artist and creating music for those who can relate. She is an individual of self expression which creates a style that remains difficult for anyone to look away from.
