Following the release of their latest track Golden, Oxfordshire-based alt-rock band Leader are ready to head out on tour and then hit the festivals. While the guys had a moment, Claire Dukes caught up with the lads for a friendly Q&A. What brought the five of you together to become Leader? Musical interest, we have all known each other as a group of friends. This makes things easier and harder sometimes! You formed in 2015, which makes you, as band, still quite young. Do you feel young? We have a new line-up, so we feel fresh. The new music we’ve been writing is exciting and we’ve got a big year ahead, so yeah, we feel young! Is there a leader of the band? No we argue amongst ourselves… majority rules! What makes a good world leader? Someone who loves music. What can fans expect from your latest material? The songs are a lot more polished at this stage with the use of new production, which has opened a more synthetic avenue for us, as well as a more dynamic live show. What separates your earlier music from where you are now, like with Golden? The new line up has created different ideas and concepts when producing, ideas have moved in a new direction from the older more indie feel., and more upbeat and catchy, without having to define a genre. What’s the main inspiration for your songs? If it’s fair to say, there seems to be a running motif within your lyrics about love and loss - has there been some heartbreak guys? We write how we feel in the moment, we tend to use personal experiences in the lyrics, one of the latest songs is about Ben’s daughter, so not all heartbreak! A horrible question, I know, but do you have a favourite gig so far? You’ve played alongside some pretty big names. Always tough to answer, we love playing local venues as well as the big stages, Common People festival was incredible and probably stands alongside Truck Festival in 2017. There was a scare over The Cellar’s future not long ago, and venues across the West have been facing closure. Does this scare you, or motivate you? We would say both, it’s a shame to see any venue open to music close its doors, however it drives us to continue to play and keep the scenes alive and kicking in the grass roots. You each get to perform with a band/musician of your choice for one night only. Together or split, dead or alive, who’s that band/musician? We argued over this answer for hours and are still arguing now but the one that we can all agree on is Kings of Leon. What’s the strangest fan mail you’ve received? We have some awesome loyal fans but none of them have sent anything out the ordinary… yet. One girl travelled all the way from Ireland for one of our Oxford shows, just because she was determined to get a selfie with us. Bless her. How are you feeling about your upcoming tour in April? We can’t wait, our first tour in the new line up and we have been rehearsing constantly! We get to play some awesome venues on the tour, and get to go to some places we haven’t before. What’s coming up next for you guys after the tour? What do Leader get up to when they have time off? Festivals season which we cannot wait for, we are also back in the studio with new material ready to get out. Our manager doesn’t let us have time off…
Thursday April 19 - Purple Turtle, Reading Saturday April 21 - The Jericho Tavern, Oxford AND Friday July 20 - Truck Festival, Hill Farm, Oxfordshire
