LAFogle

My name is Lesley Ann Fogle; I use the abbreviated moniker LAFogle [lah foh gull] as my writing signature. La translates to many things but I like the word interplay of LA meaning the in several Romance languages, as well as being the sixth tone of the major scale. My last name, Fogle, means bird in German; technically our name traveled from Vogel to Vogler to Vogle to Fogle. Though I am married, I maintain my given birth name.

I am a multi-disciplinary artist, sound engineer, author of the poetry book the waywith sun (ISBN 978-0-9796025-1-1) and Proof of Ear-lier Existence, a selection of 35 poems turned into songs by Mal VU, my former Chicago-based music collective. I started Mal VU in 1998 while working in a jingle house and spending after-hours there experimenting with noncommercial mixing techniques. I worked with a lot musicians and explored many different styles of songwriting. The emphasis was on the creative spark of improvisation. I produced six Mal Vu albums of material gleaned from living the therapeutic arts. Mal VU means badly seen as well as bad volume unit.

My current band name is After-Death Plan. That is named after plans drawn by one of the characters from my personal mythology. After-Death Plan 2017 album Literature featured songs about books and authors from Dostoevsky to Jung to Bukowski. Our 2019 album, Psycho Social Sexual,  includes a title track that channels the articulate, defined nature of lexical rage in a world that rewards the limiting of language with a causality of inclusiveness. As fans of art cinema, we produced several music videos and have been steadily learning more about the visual media. We are sitting on at least two albums of material as it became a lot to put ourselves “out there.” The third album is called Bread and Circuses. I am satisfied to put out music that contains vocabulary with a rich range of themes. I am always trying to explore new styles which goes against a lot of advice to stick with a narrower brand.

I have also explored my writing styles and have a large cast of characters fleshed out. Some are introduced in my book the waywith sun. It would be hard to pick a genre, but I call my writing style neurogenesis, in that it strives to learn and created new pathways, using arrangement and lingual interplay to reveal bigger ideas and connect inner work with consciousness and environment. I have spent my lifetime learning, questioning, and working on myself. My work does not try to fix anyone else though I hope some of the stories can help loosen the hold of human superstition.