Sara Leketa
Sara Leketa has been on the greater-Boston music scene since starting out in Cape Cod way back in 1999.Even those who have not closely followed her career have heard her name because she is involved with many different projects. A singer-songwriter in her own right, she plays out as soloist, in duos, trios, and her own five piece band the Problematix. She also plays the part of guitarist Brad Whitford in the popular, all female Aerosmith tribute band Aerochix.
Leketa immediately cleared up a misconception about Aerosmith guitarist, Brad Whitford. “He’s not just rhythm. He’s also lead. He actually plays more lead than Perry does half the time. Everybody seems to think he’s just rhythm. But, once you dissect all the songs and have to learn different parts, it’s Whitford playing a lot of them. It’s crazy,”
Before joining any bands or performing, Leketa had already learned music by picking up the guitar, working with a songbook, taking a high school guitar class.
“You start playing with other people,” she said. “They teach you a little something. You teach them a little something. I just picked it up all along the way. But, I’ll tell you that being in Aerochix has really helped me to develop as a guitar player. It’s challenging stuff. They’re really a great band.”
Playing in a tribute band, Leketa said, puts a lot of demands on each member. “Being in a tribute band is so very different from a Cover band,” the guitarist said. “We strive to literally match their tone from different eras, use similar pedals, guitars, effects, and nail all the signature runs. People expect that when they come to a tribute band’s show, as most people are huge Aerosmith fans. We hope to always do the band justice and have worked our tails off to do so.”
“It’s funny,” she continued, “because it’s totally the opposite when I play solo and with my band any time I play a cover I want to put my own spin on it.”
Leketa has too many influences to list but they include Beth Hart. Melissa Etheridge, Janis Joplin, Brandi Carlile, “The list goes on and on. Classic blues like Bessie Smith,” she said. “Otis Redding, it just goes on and on. It’s as hard as my faith.”
Lisa Addario; Sara Leketa
Starting out on the Cape gave a needed boost when Leketa began her career. She fought an intense battle with stage fright. She was welcomed and supported at an open mic at a small Cape coffee shop called The Prodigal Son in Hyannis. Musicians, poets, and patrons there encouraged her not to be afraid on stage.
“It’s a little place on Ocean street,” Leketa said. “They were just open to all arts. Everybody went in there and did three songs or three poems or whatever. The community there was just super welcoming, super supportive. I had stage fright to the point where I was sick for three days before I played and they helped me get over that.”
Leketa eventually played in Boston and beyond but she maintains her residence in the Cape, living with her wife Lisa Addario, the guitarist who plays the Joe Perry part in Aerochix. The Cape, Leketa said, feels most like home to her.
“I think it’s a little more intimate,” she mentioned. “There is a level of intimacy that happens on the Cape than in Boston. Boston is a little more fast paced.”
Leketa has never faced discrimination for her lifestyle choice but she knows people who have been. “I’ve been very much welcomed and played with people who are very supportive and welcoming,” she said. “I’ve experienced some sexism as far as just being female. I think most women in the scene have, especially my band mates. They’re older than me, and the stories they tell me from when they were younger and paving the way, it’s horrendous.”
Leketa is blessed to belong to two welcoming scenes. “I think the community is strong enough that we all look out for each other and that’s musicians, and, people in the gay community as well. There’s a level of respect and we all just take care of each other.”
Sara Leketa
Leketa does not feel a need to have a label to identify her orientation. Most just think of her as “Sara.” “There’s a lot of people who need a label. A lot of people need that for identifying. That’s their truth. For me, I’ve never needed a label. I am what I am. Whether it’s guys, girls, whatever it is. I lean more towards women. But, I’ve never had a need to have a label on me. There’s no closet for me to come out of. It’s just ‘this is me.’”
Leketa’s songwriting does not necessarily reflect gay issues as she writes with metaphors. Yet, if her love song is about a specific person, she will identify them by their proper pronoun. “If that’s who I was writing about, of course, “ she said. “If would be he, she, it, they. A lot of times I write almost like I’m talking to the person, so it’s you.”
Leketa’s original song “Baby, You’re Good For Me,” about an ex girlfriend, indicates how members of the LBGT community have very similar relationship situations as straight people. Though the woman she wrote the song about was very good for her in some ways, the relation just didn’t click.
“She was just such a wonderful, wonderful person. As much as I wanted to be with her. I just couldn’t. This person really looked out for me. She took care of me. She was kind to me. She was sweet. We just didn’t click like that and it was kind of like ‘I love you and appreciate you as a person and a as a friend and the connection that we’ve had. As a couple it’s not going to work, and I have to go.”
Leketa, in addition to her Aerochix duties and her singer-songwriter activities, still finds time to work with her own backing band “The Problematics,” which includes her wife Lisa on guitar as well as a revolving cast of support players. Yet, Leketa and her wife are still most closely associated with Aerochix. It might be a visual thing.
“After a couple of photo shoots and doing the whole Aerochix thing,” Leketa said, “we sat back and we’re like ‘We all have the features of the people that we play. Lisa has the long dark hair. I’ve got the blonde hair. Our bassist has the blonde hair. It’s funny.”
Sara Leketa
Leketa, before joining Aerochix, was already very busy playing on the Cape, often playing two gigs a day. Her future wife Addario was familiar to her from playing on the same bills with another band. Addairio was persistent when she and her Aerochix cohorts decided to put the arm on Leketa.
“I’m like oh, man. Tribute band? I’m trying to do the original thing,” Leketa recounted. “I’m like ‘I don’t know if I want to go in this direction‘. I auditioned along with a bunch of other people. I was nervous as hell, and I got the part. That was 2009 when they started it. I joined in 2010.”
Leketa has realized her dream to meet some members from Aerosmith. She met Joey Kramer briefly at a NAMM conference in Anaheim, California. The entire band met Brad Whitford who was a fun person for them to interact with. “I’ve met Tom Hamilton in passing and his daughter. Lisa met Perry at a book signing.”
When asked if Aerochix has ever given them any feedback, Leketa said “They know about us. Put it that way. They’re sweethearts. The things they have said about us have been pretty positive.”
“Our friend (John) Shipp mixes Aerosmith. So when he’s not on tour with them, sometimes he’ll come and mix us,” Leketa said. “It’s really cool having him come mix us. Not just because we love him to death but because he knows where all the solos go and will turn us up in the mix accordingly.”
For the time being, Leketa is currently tweaking a new song titled “Here I Am.” Forced to work on it at home due to the current Covid-19 crisis, she is going to collect photos for a video of first responders and survivors that have gone through drastic trials and tribulations during this ordeal.
“One particular nurse was out in the field and she got it and then she recovered from it and she went right back into the field,” Leketa said. “I’m so inspired by people’s stories.”
When asked if she had any final words for this interview she said “Not really. Just be kind to people. That’s it.”
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