Leisure

Fresh from their European sojourn, Auckland’s own supergroup LEISURE have revealed the final single Too Much Of A Good Thing from their upcoming album release TWISTER ahead of their headline Australian album release tour.

The new track’s groovy, voltaic rhythm transcends the norms of your average funk track and is the 1970s nostalgia trip you didn’t know you needed. The unusual melting pot of contributions in LEISURE mean the group is greater than the sum of its parts, with each member bringing in influences from 70s funk, 90s R&B, going all the way to dance music in early 2000. The band answer some questions for Hi Fi Way.

Are you stoked with how well things are going for the band at the minute?
This band pretty much started as an accident so we are really grateful for everyone who’s listened and is following us. There’s so much new music coming out everyday it’s kind of overwhelming – so it’s crazy for us that people take the time out and choose us out of basically unlimited content.

How was the tour of Europe and playing the Great Escape Festival in London?
It was really cool! It was a bit of a whirlwind so it can be hard to process everything while you’re in it. Luckily, after our tour was done we got to spend a week on the French countryside and decompress while we wrote for our third album.

Are you starting to build a strong following over there?
Yeah I think so! It seems to be pretty consistent wherever we go now which is a amazing. Radio is still important I think in the pop world but in general internet has really levelled out the playing field. We try not to be too pushy and prefer that our audience finds us on their own time, which I think helps make it more special – as opposed to being told to listen (if that makes sense)

Has it been hard to keep a lid on the excitement for your own headline tour this September?
Yeah! We love playing in Australia. Our first every live show was in Sydney so there’s something special about Australia for us. Everyone who came to our last Aus shows seemed to have a really good time and were super enthusiastic which was very cool. Looking forward to playing Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide too, it’ll be our first time there.

What can music lovers expect to hear/see on this tour?
We’ve got a new album to play with now, so it means we can flesh out our live set and get more moments happening. Some of the new ones work really well live (Feeling Free, S.L.Y etc) so it’s really uped the energy of the show. We’ve been expanding our stage plots with new lighting and stuff over here so hopefully we can figure out something similar for our Aus shows.

How would you describe the Leisure sound?
It’s really a solid mix of everything I think. There’s 5 songwriters/producers who all dive into really different corners of the genre spectrum which helps us kind of breakdown a lot of stuff in our own way. There’s definitely some hip hop, r&b and soul in there mixed with some psychedelic stuff. I’ve seen comparisons to Primal Scream’s Screamadelica which I don’t think is far off – especially when it come to our live show.

How did you all find each other?
We had all known each other or of each other for a while. It was Jaden’s idea to go away to a beach house and try write some music for a laugh basically. That’s the first time we had all worked together as what would eventually become LEISURE. We wrote Got it Bad and All Over You on that trip, before we had even considered the idea of turning it into a ban.

Is there a hidden meaning behind the band name?
Nothing hidden! The band and process is somewhat sacred to us and the name is intended to be I guess a grounding mechanism to come back to if we ever start getting caught up in the machine and popularity contest of the music world. As wanky as it sounds I look at it like the breath or a mantra in meditation, something to come back to once you noticed your mind has wandered off.

What do you hope listeners will take away from the single Too Much Of A Good Thing?
LEISURE is an escapist band. We exist for our pleasure and whoever wants to listens, so every song’s purpose for us is just enjoyment. That being said the song is about realising that you’ve maybe gone a bit far into excess and you should maybe get your shit together a bit and put your energy into the right things rather than short-term gratification. As we all know; instant gratification usually means long-term suffering and vice-versa.

What is the plan for Leisure beyond this tour?
We’ve got our third album mostly written, I think one more week/end away just to make sure. We wanna get it out soon and have a quick turn around while we’re still excited about these new songs.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Leisure on the following dates…

AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES

Fri 13th September – Perth @ Jack Rabbit Slims
Sat 14th September – Adelaide @ Rocket Bar
Thu 19th September – Brisbane @ The Brightside
Fri 20th September – Melbourne @ The Corner Hotel
Sat 21th September – Sydney @ Oxford Art Factory

Tickets from http://www.theleisurecollective.com/