Leslie Maria Knauer

About Leslie Maria Knauer

Leslie comes from a musical family. Her father, Peter Knauer, a native of Hamburg (Germany), moved with his children from Canada to California in the late 1960s. He became the manager of what would later become the family band and also played keyboards. Leslie has two brothers: Jed Knauer (born 1955), who played guitar and piano, and Benny/Banjamin Knauer (born 1958), who played keyboards and sang.

In 1978, Leslie and her brothers founded the pop group Promises in Thousand Oaks, California. Leslie was the lead singer and sometimes played bongos. Their big break came in early 1979 with "Baby It's You." The song reached number 4 in Germany and even topped the charts in Australia and New Zealand. Promises released the albums *Promises* (1978) and *Real to Real* (1979).

The story of Promises was short: After the significantly less successful follow-up album, "Let's Get Back Together," and due to musical differences, the group disbanded in the late 1970s. Leslie wanted to develop her musical style more in the direction of rock/punk.

After Promises, Leslie continued working as a singer and musician. She was initially active with Roxy Roller and then joined the rock band Precious Metal, with whom she recorded several albums and toured extensively for years. Later, she founded the power trio Kanary, where she was the singer and guitarist. The band released several albums.

In addition, Leslie was also active as a musician with Power Stripper and worked on various film and music projects. Two Kanary songs, for example, were used in the Dennis Hopper film Choke.

Leslie has a daughter, Alexi Wasser, who works as an actress, author, blogger, and producer. Leslie is also married to Al TeMan and lives in Hollywood.