Leslie Winer

Leslie Winer (born December 24, 1958) is an American musician, poet, and writer. She began her career as a high fashion model before she transitioned into music.

Early life Winer was born in Boston to a teenager and handed over to her adoptive grandmother in a hospital parking lot in what was an illegal adoption involving the exchange of money. She grew up in Weston, Massachusetts. She relocated to New York City to attend the School of Visual Arts where she studied with Hannah Wilke and Joseph Kosuth.

She is of Scots-Irish, Basque, Mi’kmaq, and Acadian descent.

Winer appeared in fashion campaigns for Valentino, Christian Dior and Chloé. She also appeared on the magazine cover of Vogue Italia Pelle, Vogue Gioiello, and Vogue Australia. She continued to model throughout the 1980s.

In 2014, Winer returned to modeling as the face of Vivienne Westwood's spring/summer 2014 campaign.

In 1991, she moved to Miami and was working at Island Records founder Chris Blackwell's South Beach Studios, where she recorded her albums 3 Bags Full and Spider. Winer occasionally records music with Swedish composer Carl Michael von Hausswolff and others. She has also worked with Grace Jones. thumb

Personal life Winer had a friendship with writer William S. Burroughs and credits him with being a major mentor. Burroughs mentions his friendship with Winer in a number of interviews and books with French journalist Alain Pacadis and Burroughs’ own last book Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs.

Winer dated artist Jean-Michel Basquiat early in her career.

In 1986, Winer married Kevin Mooney for "the papers." "The British wanted me to leave the country," she said.

Discography Albums Album Year Artist Note Witch 1993 © & Leslie Winer Debut release of the Transglobal label Witch 1999 Leslie Winer Re-release under her real name Spider 1999 LW & © Recorded between '94 & '97 (1) 2015 Leslie Winer, CM von Hausswolff Recorded and mixed in France and Sweden, 2012–13 YMFEES 2018 Leslie Winer & Jay Glass Dubs When I Hit You - You'll Feel It 2021 Leslie Winer Career-spanning double vinyl anthology incl. previously unreleased tracks

Appears on Track Year Artist Release "Just Call Me Joe" 1987 Sinéad O'Connor The Lion and the Cobra "You" 1991 Holger Hiller As Is "Counting the Rosaries (Happiness & Love Mix)" 1991 Book of Love "Counting the Rosaries" several tracks 1992 Max Silence Running "Personals" 1994 Jon Hassell & Bluescreen Dressing for Pleasure "If You Reach the Border" 1995 Bomb the Bass Clear "Calm Gunshot" 2000 Mekon featuring Leslie Winer "Calm Gunshot" "When I Was Walt Whitman" 2013 Mekon Piece of Work "This Blank Action" 2014 Diamond Version CI "Dave The Shoe" 2018 Christopher Chaplin Paradise Lost "Pioneer B" 2020 Fritz von Runte The Last Album"Tenderness"2021Maxwell SterlingTurn Of Phrase "Little Indian" 2024 Shelton Little Indian (EP)