The Great Lesile: New Singles, Recording Post-Lockdown and the Future of the Music Industry

 

London alternative rockers and genre chameleons The Great Leslie are a band that pull no punches when it comes to quality. Performing since 2019 they have slowly worked their way to being at the forefront of independent, alternative rock with a spate of unique singles, including Money and #IKYK. Fronted by the dynamic Oliver Trevers, who's unique song writing ability takes influence from such diverse sources as Jimi Hendrix and Ella Fitzgerald, this is band at the forefront of alternative music.

I wanted to know more about what makes this band such an integral part of London’s independent music scene, so I sat down with the band last Friday to chat about new singles, recording post-lockdown and the future of the UK music industry. 

Q: So first off how did you all come to music ?

Jay: For me it started at age 9 when I got my first guitar, I started just strumming and experimenting for a bit until I got my first lessons at the age of 13 and then I never looked back after that.

Ryan: Yep for me I got into Drums and Guitar at quite an early age and I just can't see a time in my life when I didn't love music, It was just something I wanted to do for so long.

Oli: Have to agree with Ryan there. I came from a family that was mad about music and I just loved sing from an early age .

Q: How did the band get together ? 

Oli: Well it was a sort of natural progression really, I had moved to London to study Singing at ICMP after doing my undergrad at Leeds. At ICMP I met Guillermo and we started working on some songs. We realised that we wanted some other people to share that journey with and expand our horizons, so we got some ads together for social media and after a few auditions we found Ryan our drummer and Jay our bassist.

Q: So your new track is called 'Out of My Hands' can you tell us anything about it ?

Oli: Well for most of our more recent stuff we've gone for a more dance based approach, before lockdown we were looking at the possibility of touring more, and so our output at the moment has been for a much wider audience than our previous stuff. But this song is the anomaly, this song is very personal. It's a confessional a letter to myself, talking about my insecurities, my faults and ask myself to learn to accept them. That its alright to have flaws like that and that it's what makes me who I am.

Q: And What was I like for you guys to record that in the studio post lockdown ? What did you feel ? 

Oli: Well it was just happiness really, it was nice to be out after so long away from doing the thing you love the most and see our producer again (insert name here). I felt that we felt ready to record #IKYK (I Know You Know) now that gigging wasn't an option we'd been given some time to really work on our writing and our voice as a band.

Q: What music are you listening to at the moment ? 

Ryan: Got to be the latest album by Deftones, what's it called ? Ohms I think ?

Oli: Yep, Deftones for me too, although now that you mention it I have got Hallucinogens by Matt Maeson stuck in my head now, it's just that chorus that gets me every time, it just has so much energy to it. 

Jay: I’m going to go for something a little different here and say Bring Me The Horizon, I mean Amo was, for me at least, was one of their best albums so far and so was the one before, That’s The Spirit . BMTH just seem to be on a great run of songs at the moment, Amo especially is really good at balancing that more dancy, poppier sound with their metal stuff. 

Q: So I know you guys are at the forefront of live music in London at the moment and there’s been a lot of criticism over comments made about recently over the state of the music industry and the lack of funding for it during the current pandemic, what were your thoughts on that? 

Jay: As in Rishi Sunak’s comment ? Its stupid for multiple reasons. I feel that the reason that they aren’t helping is not just because they don’t care but because they don’t need to care. 

They don’t need to care about grassroots venues and the bands that play them because the simple answer is that they're not voting for them.  

Oli: I can only describe it as woefully ignorant. When you think about the amount of money the UK contributes to the Music Industry, him saying that it's not viable is just a woeful position to take.   

Q: So, Final question what can we hope to hear from you next? 

Oli: Well we have 1 more single releasing this year after ‘Out of My Hands’ and that comes out in November, along with various other bits and pieces of content and then that's us done until March next year, when we’ll hopefully have 6 new tracks ready to perform, but as for touring that's completely up in the air at the moment. 

Jay: Yep I think all we can say about that is we’ll be back when it's actually legal to do our job... 

The Great Leslie’s New single ‘Out of my Hands’ comes out at the end of this month.

For more info you can find them at their website:www.thegreatleslie.com