Biography
Haywood (real name: Leah Jacqueline Cooney), was born in New Zealand, but moved to Perth, Western Australia at a young age, where she trained on piano and vocals before moving to Sydney by 1999. Haywood signed with Epic Records (Australia) to release her debut single, "We Think It's Love", in February 2000, which peaked at #7 on the ARIA Singles Chart. Two more Top 40 hits followed with "Crazy" in August and "Takin' Back What's Mine" in April 2001. Her debut album, Leah followed in July and peaked in the Top 40 on the ARIA Albums Chart.
In 2002, Haywood moved to Los Angeles, California with her husband, Daniel James, and started Dreamlab, a production and songwriting company managed by Advanced Alternative Media Inc.. A discography of songs written, co-written and/or produced by Leah Haywood/Dreamlab may be viewed on the AAM website.
From their Los Angeles studio, Haywood and James, as Dreamlab, co-wrote and co-produced Aly and AJ's debut top 40 single "Rush" and produced 8 tracks on the record; which has sold in excess of a million records worldwide. They have worked with actors Emmy Rossum and Keanu Reeves on their respective musical endeavours, and had further releases in 2008, including Epic Records rock band, Automatic Loveletter. Dreamlab co-wrote half the tracks and produced the entire record for Ryan Cabrera. They have printed limited amount of copies of their electronica EP self-titled Dreamlab. An LP version was completed by late 2008.
Also in late 2008, Haywood provided background vocals for the ballad "Out from Under" sung by American pop singer Britney Spears off her sixth studio album, Circus. In 2009, Haywood co-wrote Perth singer Cassie Davis' third single, "Do It Again", and "Pieces," a track on Allison Iraheta's debut album Just Like You, she also wrote "Masquerade" for Ashley Tisdale's second album, Guilty Pleasure . She is also known to have co-written and produced at least two tracks from Australian singer Amy Pearson's upcoming second studio album Aftershock, and these are the title track "Aftershock" and "Doctor Love". In 2011, Haywood co-wrote 3 songs on American singer-songwriter Demi Lovato's third studio album "Unbroken"; "Hold Up", "Mistake" & title track "Unbroken". Also co-wrote Hit the Lights for the third album by the American singer Selena Gomez. Leah also co-wrote and co-produced the track Marilyn Monroe off Nicki Minaj Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded which debuted at number 1 on billboard 200 Albums.
Haywood and James have started their own record label Layer Cake Records and signed alt rock band Neon Hymns and Hunter Parrish. Parrish debut is expected to be released late June.
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—André Maurois (1885–1967)
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