Track By Track: Leisure Takes Time To Talk Twister

Leisure is not a band. They prefer to think of themselves as a musical “collective”.

Whatever they want to call themselves, the five members of Leisure have been acting like a band…signing with a major international label (Nettwerk) and recording a new album (Twister). They are even playing a concert this Friday at The Powerstation.

The new album is called Twister, and its the band’s second. Having been recorded two years ago, the five guys are happy to have it finally be released (also this Friday).

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda sat down with Tom Young, one of the Leisure collective to get an inside look at what Twister is all about. And here they go…running through all 14 songs, track by track!

Click here to listen to the Track By Track interview with Leisure’s Tom Young:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

M: We’re here to talk about the new Leisure album, it’s called ‘Twister’, and you’re Tom  Young. It’s a five piece band but you guys talk about being a collective of sorts, explain that for me.

T: It’s kind of a way for us to not get too caught up in the project and allow us to keep our own individuality within it. We’ve all got projects that we do outside of it and then eventually we want to start producing other artists I think, that was one of the intentions when we started out, we haven’t really gotten there.

M: What is your main thing that you do in the band and what do you do outside of the band?

T: In the band I play bass when we play live, but when we record it’s just anyone doing it.

M: Everybody does everything?

T: Yeah

M: I see, and you guys have signed to a major label recently as well with Nettwerk Records. How is that changed the picture?

T: Heaps. We kind of started off with a thesis of not really escaping, but learning from our experiences in the music industry, and the creative process in general, and taking what we didn’t like about those things and being aware of them and holding them aside to try and make space for the good parts that you know. So that means we can make a song and be like ‘we like this now, let’s put it out’, after a couple weeks. So that was the process for the first record, and then with the label, I mean they have their own ideas about the way things should be and what kind of band you are, so its …not a battle…they’re really cool people, but just learning what not to do, cause we wanted to put it out last October and then they had an idea, they gave us all these single release dates up till July this year and then we were like ‘Ok, we’ll see how that works.’

M: How is it working?

T: We’re gonna be relieved to put it out

M: You can’t wait to get it out if you were planning on last October

T: And still that was like two years in the making as well

M: Where was the record recorded?

T: A couple of the guys are engineers during the day, so their work place is the studio, so it’s the kind of studio an artist will go to to do their stuff, so in order for them to not feel like they’re at work, and all of us I guess, we rent airBnBs around New Zealand, we’ve done some overseas as well, but mostly we like the West Coast because of the sunsets. We just kind of get a house then get two studios going and then we just… the days, like you wake up at lunchtime and then you just start working on ideas separately and then maybe after dinner time we all come together in the main studio and we smash it all together and then work on stuff as a group

M: Sounds pretty mellow

T: Yeah, it’s really nice

M: We’ve got fourteen tracks to get through on this record, would you say there’s an overall vibe/sound/feel, something you were kind of aiming for over the entire record before we get down to the nitty gritty?

T: No and I think that’s why it’s called Twister, because for me that title is describing the process of making it. We had so many times we were like ‘Yes!’ and so many times we were like ‘No, what is happening?’ Usually that was contrasting feelings happening at the same time so Twister was kind of the process of us getting to the point of actually creating it and getting it all together.

M: So the first track is called ‘Feeling Free’, What are you going to tell me about that?

https://vimeo.com/303618057

T: That started out as a beat from Josh, I think it was called something snarky like Festival Beat 2020, cause he was like ‘Yeah we need to be playing festivals, this is festival style’, but he was taking the piss so he sent that through and there’s a sample on it, it wasn’t a sample but we thought it was a sample, and we were like ‘where did you get that sample from? That’s cool …’, we thought it was some old soul, and he was like ‘Oh nah it was me’, he recorded it and then pitched it down, so I always laugh imagining him actually recording that.

M: Lyrically what’s happening with that song?

T: It’s just trying to shed everything and trying to be liberated, which is kind of what the music video is heightening, I don’t know if you’ve seen the video.

M: Haven’t seen the video yet no.

T: I had the idea for a nudist colony just doing their normal stuff, trying to be as non-sexual as possible, completely natural. Then we pitched it to this guy Jason Bock , I don’t know if you know Jason Bock?

M: Sounds familiar

T: He makes awesome cinematic videos and he was like ‘Cool, I like it’, then he was going to be in Eastern Europe anyway and he was just like ‘I’m gonna shoot it in Belgrade. So it’s got this communist backdrop of all these old concrete Siberian buildings and stuff, and that was like contrast with the nudity. It was kind of trying to be, just with that pressure of modern day social media and everyone’s worried about everything, so it’s kind of a remedy for that.

M: Track number two is ‘Too Much Of a Good Thing’, which was the first single off the record right?

T: No that’s the most recent.

M: Most recent single, okay

T: That was about realising that material things and instant gratification isn’t really the way to go. It’s pitched lyrically as a romantic song, but it’s not really about romance, it’s more about indulging and realising that instant gratification usually means long term suffering.

M: Musically, it’s kind of funky and soulful and why is it sounding like that? It’s kind of what the whole record is all about isn’t it?

T: Yeah, it’s just five people who like five different things so yes it’s got this kind of bombastic beat and then, I don’t know what Jason did, Jason produced that one mostly and he put on some warping thing, I don’t know it’s crazy. It’s my favourite sonically off the record, I like the way it hits.

M: And we have ‘Man’

T: That was again about confidence, and trying to take ownership of your shit, and just basically just trying to hold yourself boldly.

M: And what is your, so you’re playing bass on most of these?

T: Yeah.

M: And with the kind of vibe and the sound that you guys are going for, the bass line is fairly integral to getting that down so is there a lot of discussion about the bass and how its sounding or does it just come naturally?

T: Not really, it’s usually a natural thing.

M: Now ‘The Hype’ which I believe I saw some notes and you guys said this was more abrasive than other things that you … although I didn’t find it necessarily abrasive although maybe it was more abrasive than what your used to though.

T: Yeah, the process was certainly more abrasive.

M: How was that?

T: We were never really sold on it.  We were like oh, this is cool. And like, in its original demo form and we were like, it was more of a B side for us, and then we signed with the label and sent through all these songs and they were like that’s the hit, that’s the single and we were like, ‘Oh what? Ah man, now we’ve got to do this’. So we went through a bunch of different versions and I was just saying to Jason before, I think we finished it off and put it out kind of as an experiment to see if something that if we weren’t a hundred percent on board with creatively would resonate the same way as something that we all felt completely happy with. So it was like the label loved it and we like oh it’s cool, you know, so it was like kind of a test you see will people resonate with something the label was like kind of pushing, rather than what we felt was naturally a like a Leisure song that belonged, so it was a cool learning process.

M: So we will wait and see what people think about it? You played it out live and all?

T: Nah, we’ve got too many songs already.

M: Too many songs already, oh such a problem. Ok, ‘Easy Way Out’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QSDKi4oq4E

T: That was mostly Jaden lyrically, but I wrote some verses as well. It’s just about not succumbing to pressure or apathy really. I think apathy is a big problem these days. People are so overwhelming like the media and stuff, and what we are told is happening and it’s so easy to turn off and be like, can’t do it. It becomes, becomes background noise, like something crazy will happen overseas like something will be bombed and it will be newsworthy, if it’s white people being bombed it will be newsworthy, but even then it’s newsworthy for a day and then some celebrity says something controversial about something else.

M: Can you write a song about something like that, that has a particular message to get across, do you think that the lyrical content gets through or people are just grooving along to this vibe?

T: Yeah, Leisure’s not an intellectual band and we never will be. If there are any political connotations it’s never literal and it’s never really intentional. It’s more an escapist music. It’s just about having a good time really. Which is what we want it to be. Because if it becomes serious or we get caught up in other things then we will probably end up trying to escape from it at some point.

M: The next song is called ‘Falling.‘ I now have it jotted down in my notes, Marvin Gaye’s name, is he an influence or somebody that you guys were thinking about when you’re recording?

T: No that was mostly me,  Falling, Josh had done the drum beat, I think the other boys were in the other room working on something and I just want to do something more chill. We were just doing high energy stuff that day and I just wanted to do more chill. And so Josh did that beat and I just did the bass line and the guitars and then the vocals I wrote about the girl I just met who I’m now engaged to. I had come out of a relationship and then met her really quickly and I was kind of scared cause it was too easy, it was just like Woah, you know what I mean, and then it’s kind of insulting to other parties you know what I mean, there were all these things going through my head like I don’t know if i should do this. Sso the line ‘someone can save me from falling in love’ like kind of sums up how I was feeling at the time.

M : So some more personal stuff.

T: Yeah

M: Alright, ‘Money‘ is next.

T: That’s mostly Jordan. He sent that through ’cause he does a project called High Hoops, which is similar to Leisure but it’s a bit more…  but he sent that through pretty much done, like the core was there and then we just tidied it up a little bit, put on a bridge, and that was super easy for us, It think it was easy for him.

M: That one had a pretty strong bass line in it.

T: Yeah, that was Jordan’s bass line in it, I think I just re-recorded it. The way I play bass is I palm mute everything and then pluck with my fingers like a guitar, it gives it this muted sound, kind of like a Hofner but I play on a Mustang from ’66 so the mids are real cutting in it and so I think that gels, that’s what you’re saying like the bass, I think that style of bass playing gels a lot of the songs together.

M: ’66 Mustang, where’d you find that?

T: Ebay.

M: Nice one. ‘On My Mind’ is the next tune, it’s a more upbeat tune right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s64Ple64hGg

T: Yeah, I didn’t have a lot to do with that. That was mostly Jason, but I remember not being convinced and then the more I heard it and the more like, incarnations it took, I came around to it and I thought I can do that. It’s a bit more rocky, it works really well live, we play that live, and yeah it’s just undeniable live sound.

M: Is that a consideration, when you’re putting a record together how it’s going to go over in live context?

T: This one, writing it, that was a big part of it cause we’d been playing live more and our first album was a bit more subdued, which is cool but then, we felt like there were these moments missing from the live set. We want to provide the energy and mostly for us to have fun we, I think we initially were scared about high energy music like writing high energy music because it’s easy to do wrong so we’re happy that we’ve got some faster paced or more obvious in your face music and cause we didn’t want to do that on the first album cause we were scared of that. We were like ‘Let’s just keep it chill.’

M: The next track, we are up to number nine, is ‘`S.L.Y’, someone like you?

T: We wrote that in Omaha behind Leigh.

M: I’m American, so, Nebraska??. Yes I know where you’re talking about now.

T: That place was weird it was pretty brutal and there was some weird energy in that place. It was a very kind of Tapu vibe up there. But that one came out pretty much on the first night, that was one of the first things we did. That’s probably one of my favourites off the album, cause it’s just straight to it.

M: The big organ part in it, I don’t know if it’s actual organ, but organy sounding anyway.

T: We play that live, I mean no one’s heard it yet, but there’s only one vocal line so everyone learns the song straight away and everyone sings along.

M: There’s something to be said for simplicity if you want to get it going.

T: We really, really go for simplicity cause ,we’re not like twenty we’re not nineteen anymore, we’ve been through all that, trying to make complicated chord arrangements and thinking highly of our musical expertise and all that shit. Then you just kind of go through all that and you come back and just like simple music, cause it’s the most effective.

M: Right direct to the point. Alright, ‘UltraViolet Light.’

T: That was also from Omaha. That was pretty much just a product of our mindset at the time. Whatever we were drinking or otherwise.

M: Cause it features flute and a sitar on it right?

T: It’s not a sitar, we thought that it was, but Josh had recorded that sound before and it was in the studio before we went out and it was him with a beer bottle playing slide guitar. We were just feeling wavy and woozy at the time, so that’s why it sounds like that.

M: Who’s playing the flute?

T: It’ll be a sample. It will be a keyboard sample yeah.

M : ‘Tied Up’ is next. Some kind of bondage thing going on there?

T: I did throw in little cheeky metaphors in there. That was from Muriwai, we rented this house, it’s got a little tower thing, it was a strange house, but that was about kind of liberating your need for, well not need for independence, but kind of realising when you get into a long term relationship there’s things you do have to sacrifice and you can’t just do whatever you want whenever you want. So it’s kind of saying that. There’s a line in there I remember writing that I thought was weird at the time, and I still think it’s weird, it’s like something about popping like an inflatable animal or something, and I was writing that about Jason, ’cause he’s got kids and stuff, so he experiences those things, like when he goes away, it’s like you know, he got kids,  a home and a wife, so he’s got to deal with those kinds of pressures which is what the songs about. I forgot the exact lyrics sorry, but the balloon animal kind of gives connotations to children so I like that line, I gave that imagery. But yeah there’s obvious bondage things in there, why not?

M: The next two songs are both very relationship orientated. ‘Running‘ and then ‘Lovers Maze.’ Do they kind of go together in your mind?

T: Yeah, definitely. Running, I remember making the piano at the start. I was using like a sample cutter and each key had a different piano melody or chord on it and you would play the keys and it would cut up different chords together so that’s how that ‘ding ding dong’ was made and then that came together really quickly.

Lovers Maze is about knowing someone and being attracted to them, well having something going on and then you have to part and it’s kind of just trusting if it is right when its right and then you’ll come back together again. So I guess it’s like the songs about love but it’s not about flings or anything, it’s mostly about long term.

M: So is just one of you married at this point with kids?

T: Josh just got married as well so we’ve got two married and I just got engaged, oh no shit, that was two years ago. But yeah I don’t know, cause I mean it’s such a big part of life, I mean every song I write is pretty much about love but is been nice about talking with the boys about stuff and like, and then writing about these things that I wouldn’t have any idea of what they meant when I was maybe nineteen.

M: It’s not what you were thinking about.

T: Its cool exploring like self-sacrifice when you have to. You’re not number 1 anymore.

M: Sometimes you’re not even number 2. Then we move onto the last track on the album ‘Alone Together.’

T: We wrote that a while ago, ’cause we started putting out singles, we put out Money and Alone Together and was almost two years ago now, but Alone Together I did the beat and the bass line and I had some psychedelic vocal thing on in there but I took it out, and sent the boys the beat and the bass line and the pads and then Josh was just like Yep, and then he sent it back like in a couple of days and he had the core thing there and it came together really quickly.

M: Does it ever happen that you send it out and it comes back and it’s like, ‘That’s not what I was aiming for.’

T: Yeah, it usually just doesn’t come back. So I’ve got a lot of beats that I could start a band with rejected Leisure beats. I’m sure we could all start our own bands with the beats.

M: That’s why you have your side projects I guess so you can get that stuff out of your system. So the album is out on the 26th, and then you are doing some gigs?

T: Yep, we’re playing the Powerstation on the 26th and then San Fran in Wellington on the 27th and we are doing Christchurch and Dunedin the next weekend.

M: So is it a worldwide release or is it just NZ at the moment?

T: Worldwide, yep.

M: So what does that mean for you when you’re done doing your things here are you heading overseas and touring everywhere?

T: I guess we’ll see how…if people like it. We just did a European, I mean it wasn’t really a tour but it was some shows, people call like a couple of shows on the weekend a tour these days, so I don’t really know what to call it. It was more like a speed date tour. We did some headlining shows in London, and Berlin and Paris and then we played the Great Escape Festival in Brighton. So we did a little bit of that but I guess that was mostly promotion and stuff but I guess we’ll just see. I’m not really sure, we’ve got no plans so, oh we’re going to Australia in September so thats…

M: …That’s a plan.

Leisure’s new album, Twister is released Friday, July 26th.