Leoni is a much loved member of Solstice and is also carving out an impressive solo career in her own right. Her Rush covers album was well received and her first album of original material, Synthetic, is out soon.
We caught up over Zoom not long after the Solstice gig at Kidderminster Town Hall.
You’re busy with Solstice and your solo career at the moment then Leoni? Busy with life to be honest with you. It’s all interesting and challenging and adult things really that most people don’t want to have to deal with.
I did wonder actually. I picked up a few things from the songs, a sense of you channelling and going through some things. Out of interest what did you pick up? Don’t worry, I’m more curious than anything to hear it from someone else’s perspective.
Well I wondered if you had problems or issues with depression maybe because I had that for many years. What made you think that though. Was it the lyrics or the way that I sing? What was it that you picked up on?
The lyrics certainly but I think probably it’s the way that you come across in person. I got the feeling of self protection. I can totally understand if I come across like that. It depends on my surroundings I think.
I’m entirely up for making musical connections and speaking to people who come and support me. Also new people who could potentially be interested in my music but also just because they’ve taken their time to come to a show. The entire reason that I do this is to connect with people. I’m a mixture of an introvert and the socialite so when it comes to work I’ll chat everyone’s ear off because it’s something that I’ve been doing for such a long time. When it comes to me being on my own I like my peace and my reading corner, with countless academic/ nerdy books and fairy tales. I’ve healed parts of myself from various corners of the world by reading and trying to figure my brain out, scientifically speaking and emotionally.
So it’s just that – it’s more than anything how I feel at the time knowing that I’ve got people relying on me professionally and also trying to sell my merchandise which helps pay the bills. At the same time, trying to enjoy it all is the most challenging part because in my head there’s a list of things I have to get done. I’m very rarely present unless I’m performing. That’s with life in general, or teaching I found can be performative in that way and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
My old High School teacher, who I still do a lot of shows with, used to describe his teaching role as a performance and I really understand that because I’ve been in a room trying to show confidence. I’ve had students compare me to the guy from the film Whiplash for example, where I can be very blunt and to the point. It’s not for any other reason than getting to the point and trying to block out all of the distractions because my brain just goes a million times an hour and it drains me all the time. So I have to be rigid and very blunt with things and I think that’s probably how it comes across sometimes.
You’ve mentioned your books and I’m straight away thinking what academic books is she looking at and reading that are so absorbing? I did a Masters in song-writing so some of the books are tailored around lyrical repetitions, or some of them can be based on neurological repetitions. When I say repetitions I mean patterns of things that I’m recognising in myself that I’m going to write. Ok, I relate to this, I relate to that, how can I put all of this together and understand where my baseline is so that I can have better control for myself and my emotions, even my life in some ways. I think I’ve always needed that sense of control, the minute that I realised I didn’t have it.
You’re a lot about what’s beneath the surface aren’t you? Oh, yeah, I hate surface level stuff. I’ve never been the kind of person to get on with generic interests. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but there’s just so much going on in my head at all times. I just like to understand things to extremes more so than feel those things.
I found out you’re from Blackpool and I love that area. If it was me I’d want to still be in Blackpool. Which parts of Blackpool did you visit?
Well I’ve been to the touristy parts and none of the places where people live. To be honest with you the touristy parts are the worst part of it. The bits where people live in central Blackpool, it’s not to everyone’s taste, but when they have a bit of money they can be really beautiful and it’s a seaside town. My grandparents moved from Scotland to be in Blackpool when my mum and my uncle were very young. So the reason we’re here is because they thought it was an attractive place, but I was brought up closer to a fishermen’s town called Fleetwood. I was in Thornton-Cleveleys which is sort of in between Blackpool and Fleetwood. I worked in Blackpool and worked in Fleetwood but I went to school in Thornton, so I had a variety and I was in a quieter part of the area rather than the hustle and bustle of Blackpool -Crack-heads if I’m being honest.
Everyone’s lovely up north and, yeah, coming from that and going to London was a huge shock. In a lot of different ways it still is. That sense of community is more overwhelming in London because it’s not present all the time, I think. So when you’re at a gig and you’ve got people coming up and saying, ‘Oh that was really good’ – I don’t take compliments very well because half the time I’m not entirely sure that I believe it. Not because they’re not telling the truth but because you wouldn’t exactly go up to someone and say that was shit, whereas up North people actually do as a joke, it’s the banter. Coming from a Glaswegian family that sense of banter makes me believe that I actually was alright. I have more sense of belief in that than someone saying, ‘Oh my God that was incredible’.
You listened to a lot of music growing up I guess? We had loads of old records. My mum is sadly selling her radiogram .She’s got a really big one, similar to what she had in the tenements in Glasgow. But that was when they were really young. My grandparents are Glaswegian. My mum’s in her fifties and moved to Blackpool when she was quite young, but my uncle kept the accent for whatever reason. Mum’s now completely Northern, more Northern than you would expect. She’s more Manc’ than anything. But we still have this Scottish banter and this Scottish attitude. It’s really odd.
So I’ve got a Northern background, now living in London, but with Scottish grandparents who brought me up essentially. We spent a lot of time with my grandparents as a kid. It wasn’t just a weekend here and there. We would see them every day, and then we’d stay with them for most of the weekend as well. They were huge, huge parts of mine and my sister’s family and our lives.
But yeah, they had a radiogram in Glasgow. So when they came to Blackpool, they just left all the furniture and my mum was gutted about it. So when she found one, when she was a lot older, she paid to get it restored. It wasn’t the same one, but it was quite similar and she’s sadly having to sell it now because we’re selling our house and she’s moving in with my grandma because my grandad is no longer with us.
We don’t have the space any more for the radiogram, but it was an amazing thing. So we had all of the vinyl out. They’ve got tons and tons of it. I’ve got an entire rack of my own stuff here and then there’s shelves and shelves of it at home.
The first time I encountered you was last year at Jellyman’s Mill in Kidderminster. When you came forward during Wongle No. 9, you blew me away. I spoke to Andy about it because it’s my favourite song. He said, ‘If you talk to Leoni she will say the same thing.’ Your face when you come forward is an absolute picture.
That’s me in my prime. I was brought up in pubs and there was a house band in those pubs. Pete really is the reason that I’ve got those faces. He was a small, confident man with buck teeth who was a total sweetheart and he encouraged me every single time, ‘Come on get up’, and I wouldn’t, I would just stand in the corner until my mum literally shoved me on stage. And it would only be like the local people who would be there. It was a jam night and it was the band and a couple of people who were locals and wanted to have a drink out. But I learnt my craft there. from these guys who held that space for me. So all of that stage presence and demeanour that I have at that point (in Wongle) is a mixture of that and what I’m feeding off from Andy.
I hadn’t played with Andy before, apart from rehearsals, and you would expect a couple of faces in rehearsals. But when we got on stage and he was doing the same faces I told him, ‘I actually can’t tell if you’re making that face because I’m playing something wrong or that’s just your stage face.’ He looks very confused when he’s performing, and more than anything I think it’s his passion coming through, or his sense of rock, in those visuals. But for me at the start it was very much like, ‘Hang on a minute I’m doing something wrong . . . it looks like he’s telling me off here.’ But then I started doing it back to him and I think we’re both making the same face now. It’s like we’re in amongst confusion for the whole thing (laughs).
Can I ask you what did success in the Best New Artist category in Prog magazine mean to you? I don’t know how that happened. I’m so grateful for it though. I mean, I was working in HMV reading Prog magazine at 16, so for me to actually be in a category in my name in the middle of the magazine, it definitely means a lot. And the fact that it’s a reader’s poll shows that people are actually listening and appreciating what I’m doing. . The fact that everyone believes in me this much is incredible.
I’ve got to ask you about the Freddie Mercury Prize as well. So I joined ACM at 18 and applied for the BASCA Scholarship, which was a song-writing scholarship and the Freddie Mercury one. I got runner-up in the BASCA Scholarship, so I thought there’s no way that I’m going to get another one. I got a call from a guy who works at ACM, who was a part of the development team and he said, ‘You’ve actually won the Freddie Mercury Scholarship, so we’re going to announce it soon.’ Brian May and Roger Taylor sorted out my tuition fees which was a whole part of it. So they know who I am and they like what I do. Mental!
As your solo career develops I guess that means you might have to reduce your role with Solstice at some point? I don’t think I’d ever not want to be a part of Solstice. I’ve already spoken to Andy about the Walter Trout shows that I’ve been booked on for October. I prioritised my solo career in that way which is completely the right thing to do because it’s not going to come around every other month. It’s a very good deal for me and the minute that it happened I said to Andy. ‘How would you feel’, and he immediately said, ‘Yeah you have to take it.’ He’s so encouraging and so understanding. He’s been there and done it all himself.
Not only is he one of the loveliest men I’ve met in my life but he’s encouraging of development for the people he is working with. Every single person in that band leaves space for everyone else. Every solo, every movement that someone makes, is encouraged in the performance. So Dyane gets up and does her thing or she has a riff section. Everyone’s looking to her, acknowledging her and the audience can really tell that. There isn’t one person that gets dismissed in that band and I’m just so lucky to be a part of it.
Ebony asked me to take over for her when she originally went to the Netherlands. I was playing at the Craufurd Arms with The Anchoress and opening the show, then Ebony and Nick were on after me. I got up on the main stage with Catherine and afterwards said. ‘I would love to write some music with you guys’.
Then I was on tour with Moving Pictures, the Rush Tribute, opening up for them and I got a call from Ebony saying, ‘I’m going away, have you heard of a band called Solstice?’ I said, ‘Yeah, what about them?’ I’d only seen a couple of Facebook adverts but I immediately was like, ‘that’s so cool, that’s so hippie’ but in the most magical way. You can tell everyone really loves what they’re doing and immediately it was like, ‘Yeah, put me forward for it.’
I just love Andy’s guitar parts and his writing. Musically they’re the most talented bunch I’ve ever met in my life. I don’t know how they’re not bigger than they already are. They already have a massive following. They already have songs that blow the roof off of a lot of people that are in the charts. And again, that sense of community is, if anything, the most important part, and it’s a huge community.
Has being in Solstice influenced your solo work do you think? Yeah, for sure. The vibrancy and the connection on stage is something I would like to take into my own performances when I take a band out. I was having a conversation with Pete and Andy (at a show we did in Leicester) about the Walter Trout shows. Going forward, potentially, they would invite me back with my band if the solo stuff goes well.
I’ve got a few people that I would love to work with in a band that I can rely on musically. I have a band currently at my age but I have musicians that aren’t my age who I’m already writing music with, and it would be amazing to introduce them in the live setting.
But there is that thing of if a label comes and sees us and thinks she’s playing on stage with someone that could be a dad – there is that divide. How do I get around that? Do I sacrifice the musicality of it or do I embrace it and say, ‘You know what I was brought up with pensioners and they taught me exactly what I’m doing now’, and stay authentic to my brand? It’s not about the visual aspect then because, for example, put a mask on them. What would a label say then if they had no idea who was behind the mask? They have no judgement. Would it be the same outcome -I don’t know. Is it more of a marketing prompt? Possibly. And I think it’s a rebellion against it to be honest because I have learnt so much from the previous generation and there is such a generational gap with people who aren’t musical, but in Solstice there isn’t that, there is no divide. It all blends together and that is the thing that I’m 100% behind.
Going back to the beginning. Did you start as a singer who then picked up the guitar, or did you start as a guitarist and then found your voice? I think it was probably guitar first. There are pictures of me sitting on a footstool playing a song that I wrote for my mum singing and playing guitar but I don’t think it was necessarily one or the other. I picked up the guitar before I even attempted to sing but song-writing more than anything was first. I was always playing along to the credits of shows after they had finished and whatever tracks were on.
Growing up as a female musician and singer, were there any women who influenced you? I really didn’t think about it, to be honest with you, until I was a lot older. There were no women who I looked up to musically as much as I did with Status Quo or Rush or any of the heavier bands. The first group that I remember thinking ‘that’s a lass’ was a group called Destiny Potato, which is a great name. They were playing prog rock, almost math rock. It’s always been a case of I’ve just found what I like and they happen to be blokes. But the first time I realised along those lines, was when I listened to these guys and she had just such an amazing tone and an amazing rasp.
That’s when I started looking into potentially older people, such as Heart, Cindi Lauper and then Bonnie Raitt as well for the Blues side of things. There’s a lass called Madison Cunningham, who is one of my favourite artists of all time. She is very much like me in the way that she translates things on the guitar, with the fluidity of it. And she was the first person doing something similar to what I was doing and I just fell in love with her straight away. I thought everything that she was doing was incredible and so similar to everything that I wanted to express.
What about somebody like Kate Bush? I love what Kate Bush does. Hounds Of Love for sure. Incredible. She’s got some really interesting whimsical tracks, but I was never listening to that growing up. I only started listening and broadening my horizons a bit when I got older. It wouldn’t necessarily stick though and make me go and listen to the rest of what they did. I don’t think that’s gender related, I think that’s musical related. I listen to a lot of prog rock and it just happens that a lot of prog rock, the vast majority of it, is done by men, which is why I’m trying to change that as well. I’m encouraging that change because I think that it would be nice to have a larger representation of women in it.
One of your talents is an ability to cover somebody else’s song and put your own stamp on it. Your cover of Status Quo’s Down Down is quite extraordinary, for example, in finding a song I didn’t know was in there to that extent.
I get you. I did that so long ago now but I’ve always been a huge fan of Status Quo. They were the first band that I ever saw live. They were playing at Lytham Proms in 2011. I would have been 11 at the time. It was heavy. It was so good. That was with Rick Parfitt as well, bless him. I got to see them quite a lot with Rick. I was such a fan girl.
Status Quo is the band that I’ve seen the most in my lifetime. I think that there is a huge Celtic side to their music as well. The 6/8 movements are ingrained in my DNA I tell you. When I hear that, that’s me, I’m fine, I’m sorted. They’re just amazing songs. If you break them down, Francis Rossi’s lyrics and his melodies are anything but typical. Incredible song-writing and yeah they might have a similar feel, but that’s just a branding thing. That’s just the way that he writes. That’s what he’s been influenced by and that’s how he sounds. I’ve always been obsessed with Francis Rossi. He’s like the love of my life musically and just inspiration wise. He’s just so . . . himself, funny guy, proper funny guy.
They started off in the 60s with Pictures Of Matchstick Men and Ice In The Sun – and then that complete change. Yes they went to the denim, which I’m really glad for. I own many denim waistcoats.
Are we going to see you wear one on stage then? I think I might have done it already. I’ve definitely worn waistcoats before. Waistcoats were a huge thing for me growing up. I was always in a waistcoat when I was going to the jam nights and then, as I got a bit older, they all stopped fitting me. I still have one from primary school because we had one of those days where you had to pretend to be like chimney sweepers and every kid had to come dressed up as some old style Victorian dress thing. I borrowed a waistcoat from someone then and it’s the one that I wear all the time now. It still fits me.
Another cover that was really touching was your tribute to Matthew Perry – the cover version of the Friends theme, which wasn’t a song I’d ever really liked much, but you find a much better song in it. I just like doing something different with it I guess. I don’t like straight covers, they seem a little bit pointless to me because I can already do that, if that makes sense?
My mum always tells me, ‘Oh, it’s funny that your first album was a Rush covers album.’ because I used to say I never wanted to do covers. but the difference is I like reinterpreting what they’ve done, rather than straight up covering it, which is what I would have done when I was younger. I never found it interesting, I never saw the appeal until I realised I could change it.
It was only when i got invited to do Rush EUcon that I thought how can i do an entire set of acoustic Rush songs? How am I going to approach this? And I did what I do as a songwriter and not learn the song, apart from looking at what’s available on the fretboard and finding where it’s placed easy enough that I can sing, and do it in a classical way as well, where I’m transitioning between the chords rather than just taking my fingers off and changing the chord. I’m almost connecting the dots, if that makes sense.
Your Rush covers album, New World Woman, is splendid and the first thing that struck me was that you avoided some of the obvious big hitters. Did you consciously decide to not do Tom Sawyer or Closer To The Heart for example?
Not necessarily. I think I actually looked at songs that I was more melodically interested in. Of course I love Tom Sawyer and Closer To The Heart. I think they are amazing at writing tracks with hooks in ways that you never expect them to stick in your head. But what stood out more for me was the way that they recorded some of their music in the 80s, especially the synth era. Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows I would say, are my top two albums. Although I love Hemispheres, Farewell To Kings – I love the proggy stuff, don’t get me wrong, with my entire being. I would listen to all of their albums on repeat and nothing else for the rest of my days, because there’s so many suggestions, so many hints of other genres, that I would never get bored. So I think those two albums for me are everything that my brain needs. It’s kind of like a vitamin that I’m missing.
It’s interesting that from the early prog years you picked Tears from 2112. It’s an overlooked track on that album. Until now. Maiah Wynne of Envy Of None actually just released a beautiful cover of it where she’s playing a harp like guitar. I did my own cover of Tears a couple of years back at Rushfest and it’s always well received. When you say you’re playing a song from 2112 and you’ve only got an acoustic guitar and it’s a lass, it’s not something you expect. But it’s not exactly different time signatures and things. It’s the most achievable song, I think, of Rush’s on an acoustic guitar, and it’s one that I don’t have to overthink.
I used to do Kid Gloves, which has the entire guitar solo on the acoustic guitar as well. I’m just in less of a showy off mood recently. I would like to relax and enjoy my gigs rather than panic and think, ‘can I get it wrong?’ I’ve got enough going on with playing bass pedals, guitar and vocals with Andy.
People might not be aware you are playing bass pedals too. I’ve been doing it for Solstice since we started touring this year. I was meant to do it when I originally joined them but the pedals that I had malfunctioned. It was the first couple of rehearsals that I had with Solstice where I had a bit of a breakdown because the equipment just wasn’t working and I was freaking out thinking I was letting people down. But they were so lovely and so welcoming. It was entirely me. It was all in my head. I was just thinking, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this is happening. It looks so unprofessional. I’m never going to get booked again!’ And then they were like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ It’s like, ‘What? How are these people so nice?!’
Continuing with Rush you’ve also appeared on the Songs for Neil albums as well. Yeah, I’d put Kid Gloves on Songs for Neil. Steve, who plays in Moving Pictures, heard me at Rushcon playing Kid Gloves and wanted it on the album. Around that time I had some issues with my laptop so I couldn’t exactly record on Logic because it was so old that it wouldn’t accept it anymore. Steve introduced me to Nick Andrew who recorded Kid Gloves in a studio in Fleet, And eventually went on to help me record and produce my album. All the Songs for Neil ones after that would have been from New World Woman which was recorded in my bedroom.
Who did the lovely album cover for New World Woman? Her name is Lorna Bannister and I used to sit for her in uni. It was a painting class by a guy called John who sadly since has passed away. But he used to get a load of painters in a room and I used to model for him for £20 an hour. So I’d sit, stare at a wall for a couple hours, let them all paint me, get fed chocolate and wine, and then I’d wander back to my flat a bit tipsy, having five different versions of my face on canvas. It was a lovely experience and I became really close with Lorna. That’s actually in her front room, during another sort of unpredictable night.
You mentioned on stage at Kidderminster that you had had back problems and Steve (McDaniel) had managed to get you able to move without pain. Yeah. Steve has been my saving grace on these tours. He’s literally had his elbow in my spine before a show because I’ve had so many physical health issues.
We did a show at the Craufurd Arms in Milton Keynes and it wasn’t long after I started realising that I was having physical issues and it just went on me that day. I could barely move and it was because of playing bass pedals that I think it sent it.
I was sat down in the rehearsals and lifting one leg up to balance on the other to press the keys on the floor, and then leaning over to see what I was doing as well as playing guitar and singing. So there was a lot of different coordination that just took my back for the worst. so he had to literally elbow the knots out of my spine.
My right shoulder blade was killing me and I couldn’t even think. It was horrific pain. But they all mucked in as well. They all lifted all my gear and stuff for me. They are the best bunch of people and I would not want to be with any other kind of people. It might be challenging at times but it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done.
You have released five singles via Youtube in the lead-up to your first album of your own material, Synthetic, which is out later this year. Yeah, all of those songs will be on it plus two more tracks – the title track and an unheard track which is weirdly one that I’m actually not a big fan of. So I’ll leave it up to the rest of the world to decide.
Well, why are you putting it on the album then? It doesn’t mean other people won’t find it good. And I’m past the point of deciding what my audience likes and doesn’t. They will decide for me. It’s done now, it’s made, and I might as well put it out.
Your videos are impressive. I love the girl Freya in the Temple video. She really is a lovely girl. She is so amazing, she did so good, and she looked exactly like me when I was a kid. She was a proper champ, and so energetic. The way that she moves in the video is so chaotic and completely resonates with the whole story behind the track as well.
Did you enjoy making the videos?Different Kind Of Woman was the most challenging because of the weather and the outfit and hair changes. We did it in a day in January, and this was a couple of years back now, because we filmed it a year before we released it.
The others were like a month at a time. Every time I released it, I would film it and so on. But the first one, Different Kind Of Woman, we recorded in a forest, and it was in the minus degrees territory. I had a paper thin dress on and you can see at some points in it my lips are actually blue. My hands were see- through at that point, they were so pale. I had to get changed in my car. I had to keep warming up, putting my jacket on in between shots, which was just annoying so I eventually didn’t bother. JJ also had to hold a leaf blower in my face to let my hair blow in the wind, which was even colder.
Then his car got stuck in the mud at the bottom of a dirt track in the final scene. We had gone somewhere else to finish the shoot, because the cops came and said you need to fuck off now. So it was a ranger that was like, ‘We’re going to close these gates, you need to leave, what are you filming, you shouldn’t be here. I just said, ‘I’m sorry, we’re leaving.’ So we went to this other place, but yeah he got stuck, and we had to use his blinds out of his boot to put under the tyres and try and get his car out of the mud. We still had my car at the top of the hill, but needed to get his car out somehow. We ended up just filming the rest of it while we were there, whilst it was sinking even lower, and then tried driving out and got stuck about halfway up. I told him, ‘Look mate, it’s not happening, we’re not getting that out of it. Let me drive you home.’ So I did, and then later he went back and got it out with his Dad.
What was your inspiration for Temple?Temple was something that I wrote when I was about 13. I spent a lot of time in my room growing up, writing songs, finding an escape through music. I noticed myself changing as a person in a lot of different ways. Over the years the more I have played it the more that it’s become true because I developed into who I am today. That is a common theme among a lot of the tracks on the album – development and seeing flaws and trying to correct them. Just being very self-aware whilst also not really knowing what to do about it.
So Temple was about accepting who I am today for my younger self as well, which is why I did the music video with Freya. Sort of saying you’re doing it because the smaller version of you would find you currently quite cool and she would quite like to be you.
Is the same thing more or less true with Closer? No, Different Kind Of Woman is very similar but that was more based around influence from other people changing who I wanted to be. Closer was written in lockdown. It was my rebellion response of getting put in a room because my career had started taking off. It was all staggered because of lockdown.
As selfish as it is to presume that time was taken away from me, given everything that happened, it did impact me mentally like I’m sure it did everyone. But that song was me wanting to feel alive again. I wanted to come out and I wanted to do things. And I wanted to be a part of something and I wanted to make something that people could be a part of. So there was a lot of angst, a lot of frustration in that song. But the music video was filmed in my bedroom as it would have been if we were still in a lockdown.
The other two I know from Synthetic are Jesse and Sloe. Jesse is one of my best mates. He makes Lazy J amplification. But aside from his day job of making amps and being really successful at it, he is a top guy. He and I used to sit after the pub most nights when I was in uni and he’d give me a lift home and we’d just chat absolute rubbish and set the world to rights until about 3 o’clock in the morning. And then by the time I went up it was a revelation and I was fine again.
When I went to uni for the first time I went everywhere and did everything and I knew everyone in Guildford before I even performed there. There was a local session called GT Live Sessions (run by Gavin Thomas) and when I got up they all loved it and I’m still good friends with a lot of people in Guildford.
But Jesse and I were really close for all of those years that I was in uni and we still are. He always helps me out. He just had a gig of his own a couple of weeks ago that I went to with Rob Blackham who is a photographer I’ve worked with a lot. And again, it’s these amazing humans basically, just really encouraging and lovely and total heroes. He’s been my hero so many times, Jesse, and just a good guy to be around.
Jesse helped me with a lot of Sloe as well. We filmed it at his studio where he builds the amps (laughs). We went to some random guy’s house to pick up a bath and then put that bath in his field and then filled it with fake Tequila for me to slip into after being splattered with paint. Jesse was the one splattering the paint, marking my white outfit behind the scenes. That was actually the day that Ozzy Osbourne died. Jesse came out after mixing the paint and as I was about to get splashed, we put on a Black Sabbath tune so that it was a well-deserved rock ‘n’ roll moment.
When will Syntheticbe released? It should be out in the summer. I’m just planning a Kickstarter to raise the funds for producing the physical products, the same way that I did New World Woman which was really successful.
I’ve been working on the album for five years between mess-ups with different producers. I got really messed around financially with another guy who didn’t give me the tracks for about a year. I ended up taking it to Nick and Elliot who absolutely nailed it. But that whole process took about five years because I had to re-record some of the parts that the original guy just didn’t send over that we’ve spent so much time on. I spent a lot of money without a receipt, my fault. But at the end of the day he was doing it on a mates rate and I thought he actually wanted to make a connection rather than just mess me around and he didn’t. So I’m letting go of something that has mentally drained me for the past five years and that is a big fear of mine because I don’t know how it’s going to go, I don’t know if people will actually pay for things. It entirely relies on other people pre-ordering the stuff and giving me the funds in advance to be able to do this.
Could you do it via Bandcamp just as a digital? If the funds didn’t come in and I couldn’t produce physical copies, I would release it anyway. But the idea is that this is my debut album and I’m going to be doing gigs up and down the country with Solstice and other people and with Walter Trout. If I don’t have any physical products to sell, I’m not paying my rent. I’m still earning half of my rent from New World Woman. Even though that’s been a success, that’s possibly largely down to the fact that it’s to do with Rush and they have made an announcement about them touring again. So this has been flagged up and people are maybe interested because they like Rush and not necessarily me, even though it’s my versions of it. It’s an audience that’s based around Rush and all of the stuff you already like. So with this being my own solo stuff, I just feel very vulnerable to be honest with you.
I’m 25, I’ve been doing this since I was 11. The first track on this album,Temple, was written when I was 13. and then Synthetic was written when I was not too much older than that, A lot of these tracks were written in uni, but some of them were written when I was a teenager, so I’m ready to get them out. But I would like to do it in a way that I’m confident with rather than just getting it out there because I’m done with it.
So what will the Kickstarter campaign look like? It will actually just be pre-orders. So the Kickstarter shows a bunch of different packages. For example, a CD and vinyl along with a digital download. They pay a certain amount for that and that is classed as the audio package.
There’s a merch package which includes a tour poster, which doesn’t have any dates on it because I’m here there and everywhere, so I obviously can’t put them all on it. So I’ve just done the album cover with an extension at the bottom which is like a huge sort of Roger Dean type poster artwork, along with T-shirts and a tote bag of the album logo. The merch is everything that’s physical that isn’t audio based.
Then there are backstage sound-check passes as well where I would offer someone a guest pass to a show that I’m performing at. So they can come for the sound-check and I can have a chat with them and meet them. But that also would include a free copy of whatever format they like. So it’s not just free tickets to a show. So there’s loads of different packages available. They all cost different amounts if you want everything as well.
There’s online stuff too where I can meet up and give people online performances like I am here now. I can sit on a Zoom call with them if they’re in a foreign country and they can’t make it to a show. I can perform maybe three songs from the album for them that they choose and then have a chat with them and answer any questions that they have. Hopefully make different connections with people. I want to make it accessible because I know that there are a lot of fans in America and the Netherlands that have bought New World Woman and have followed my journey and are still interested, but they can’t necessarily get to the UK.
Getting the physical products made must be expensive. CDs in total as a cost would be over a grand. The vinyl would be over two grand. This would do me for a long time, but as pre-orders go it might actually leave me with nothing left. So I’m trying to order more than what I think is necessary so that I have the chance to hold some back for the Walter Trout tour for later in the year.
T-shirts are actually over a grand as well, they are really expensive to make. Yes you can send them straight to people but I’m doing live shows and I want to be able to sell stuff in person. So yeah it costs a lot of money but people can buy in advance and unless I hit the target the money goes back to them. Anything that is paid doesn’t come to me unless the final target is reached, and it’s £6000 that I’m asking for, and that’s to cover everything.
What about the Solstice fan base? Oh for sure. I know that there are a lot of people who will be interested, but the fact that anyone is interested in me at all is hard for me to believe sometimes. Especially when I’m not at a gig and I’m not doing my thing. If this was me talking to you at a gig I would probably have more self-confidence. But outside of that, in my little room where I make everything, I’m very unassuming of what to expect.
Have you already moved on to the next thing, do you think? There’s a lot of stuff in the making yeah. I’m working with Eoin De Paor from Moving Pictures, we’ve got a little side project going. We’ve just had a drummer come back to us with the drum track for a new single that we’re hoping to release in the summer called Down To It, which is another proggy adventure for sure.
In the meantime, I’ve got a load of other stuff that I’ve recorded over the course of my masters that I did in song-writing. I’m hoping to actually release it with a book detailing events of my life that were quite traumatic around the loss of my grandad. It was a really shit time with what happened. He should still be here basically. So to sort of process my grief, I did a masters. I was already doing the masters, and I lost him in the middle of it. But the final project ended up being about recovering through grief within song-writing and how we can use it as a tool to get through stuff. How did I use it from my perspective to understand how I was feeling, understand my anger, understand the different emotions that were happening, or not happening, at the time. And more than anything, nothing was happening. I was actually quite alright after settling back in London, and it freaked me out. So yeah, all of those songs will be eventually released. I think probably on an acoustic album that I will produce myself.
The stuff that I’m doing with Eoin, I really, really love, and it’s the area that I’d like to do live with a band. My acoustic stuff I still want to do, but they’re both hand in hand. There isn’t one without the other. I want that balance to remain so that I can do acoustic shows and I can also do electric shows.
That all sounds really interesting and exciting. Is it hard to not be Leoni Jane Kennedy the musician? In front of people yes. When I’m at home I’m definitely not the musician side of me unless I’m feeling insecure. If I’m feeling insecure anywhere I think about the things that help me feel important, which most of the time includes what I’ve done musically.
Andy inferred to me that part of his downtime is when he’s actually playing onstage. The downtime is the playing, and it does make the rest of it worth it when you can get up there. I think it makes it a lot more special nowadays because life isn’t always easy, and there are challenges that we have to tackle day to day. A lot of it to do with adult admin most of the time and maintaining a presence. But I’m one person, it doesn’t make it any less challenging for me, because we’re all different. I don’t have anyone else apart from my family that I’m responsible for, and that’s just me caring about them and worrying about their well-being from a distance.
I’m on my own, and that’s kind of how I let myself think about it sometimes. Like it could be worse in the sense that I might be struggling more if I had more responsibility on my shoulders.
You have worked at lot in other capacities haven’t you? Oh, I’ve done everything. I was in HMV for a bit. I worked as an applicant advisor for the university I used to go to. I was a COVID marshal when we came out of lockdown. I was actually just beeping people’s heads when they came through doors. I had a little security tag on me. The power went straight to my head . . . I’m joking. It didn’t. It was just a little plastic beeper but that was fun. Then I got promoted to basically having complaints down my ears from parents about the university not doing enough for their kids. They were more of a problem than their parents thought they were.
I teach at ICMP now where I did my masters. I don’t do a 9-5 though. I do multiple different hours, the weeks vary for sure. But it’s really good and it’s a performance-based course Cert He and 1st year Degree students. I just had a master class with them yesterday.
Prior to that I’ve worked in pubs. I worked in a pub in Camden last year just to keep me going through the summer. The teaching year finishes not long from now actually. The summer is normally quite quiet so I need to find other forms of income, which most of the time is gigs and merchandise. So this would be a really good way of keeping me going if the Kickstarter goes well. I am trying to be positive about it. I do think it will actually go pretty well. There is just the devil on my shoulder going, ‘What are you on about? No one’s going to listen.’ I think it will be fine. I need to stop downplaying things.
What would your grandad say? He believed in you I guess. I think he would have been encouraging for sure. He was my biggest fan so he would have known how to talk to me about it. I can hear him in my head most days anyway. He is always telling me, ‘what you deein’?’ *in a thick Scottish accent* and teaching me how to cook ‘properly’. I still hear him commenting on everything I do. It can be quite funny! I really miss him.
Was your grandad a big music fan too? He loved listening to guys like Roy Orbison and Fats Domino. I used to buy him CDs from HMV. I would say, ‘Hey grandad, here’s a Fats Domino compilation while you’re driving to pick me up from school.’ My grandma was really into Elvis. I loved Elvis when I was younger. I used to have a row of teddies that were rats that had all the different outfits on, like Jailhouse Rock and King Creole.
On my first ‘professional’ CD, I did an Elvis cover. I was about six, maybe even five. And I said, ‘Mum, hang on’. I wasn’t ready to go to the recording studio yet. At this age, I was needing to get changed. So, I went upstairs, came back down with a full-on wig, and the white wing suit and my cowboy boots and a pair of glasses, with my lip like this (Leoni curls her lip). And that was the cover shot. It was me dressed as Elvis, and I was singing one of the ones with blues in the name. I wasn’t obsessed with him past a certain point, but when I was younger I loved Elvis. I think it was because my grandma used to let me listen to him all the time.
Your acoustic guitar is from the Alex Lifeson range, but what about your electric guitars? I’m a P.R.S. guitars artist. They endorsed me last year after being a pulse artist for a year on a program that was supporting independent musicians. They promoted me to full-time P.R.S. guitar artist because of the work that I was doing on tour around the UK, Netherlands and Germany. The P.R.S. electric that I use currently on tour, because it’s lighter than my other one, is the SE McCarty 594 in charcoal grey. They make it with either one less or one more piece of wood which is the only difference between the SE editions and the custom editions, and maybe some more twiddly knobs that have more metal on them. But the difference in price range between the SEs and the customs are a lot. One day I’ll go for the big boys!
Who would be your influences on electric guitar? I love 80s chorus and the tone of most guitars in the 80s. The Police are a huge influence on me with Andy Summers. Alex Lifeson though, he’s my guy for sure.
Is there anyone you would love to work with other than Solstice? I would love to open for Status Quo with my band. And actually a guy that works with Francis Rossi at the moment, Andy Brooke, said to me, he had shown Francis my cover of Down Down. I don’t know if that means anything, but because he’s been such an influence on me, if that opportunity ever came about, I would drop everything and go and support that guy.
You’ve been supporting Solstice. What’s that like when you’re the support act and you’re in the main act too? It’s intense, but I think it grounds me. I think it gets me ready for the main act because then I can relax. Once I’ve got my own stuff over with, it’s warmed me up vocally and for Solstice, but also nerves wise as well.
I find it harder to perform my own music than I do to perform Solstice music, even though technically it’s more difficult to perform Solstice music. I get to relax a bit more with Solstice and there’s a lot of jumping going on.
What do you do during the day when you’re on tour? Is it mostly just sitting on a tour bus? Pretty much, yeah. If we’re travelling between gigs, most of the time I will read a book on the tour bus, or I’ll stick my headphones on, or I’ll do some work if I’ve got some things that I need to catch up on for the following week for teaching. I’ll call my family if I’m on the road as well. I’ll catch up with old friends – I’ll do all of the things that I never give myself time to do when I’m home, everything that I shouldn’t be doing away from home on the tour bus.
We all (the band) have a chat sometimes as well. We all get on really well, but I do get overwhelmed when I can’t control noise around myself. So I will put my headphones on, or even just stick my ear plugs in so that I can lower the dynamic level of anything that’s happening.
How do you find the routine of touring? After five days it definitely starts grating on you. We are travelling as an eight-piece band. On our budget, we have eight seats that we sit in and we are present with each other. So it does get tiring in that way. But if you’re more of a social person I think it would be easier. I’m not all the time. I like having a good chat. I love talking with Dyane because there is that Scottish side of her. I could talk to Dyane for hours. But yeah, people can be with people for however long before it gets to be overwhelming.
And when you’re in a position like I am with the food situation and autoimmune issues, I can’t exactly have a lot of things that you get at service stations. I could treat myself, but the treat could mean that I can’t play the following day without pain, and without fingers locking up and stuff. So I just have to be really careful, but I feel most at home when I’m travelling and when I’m touring. The way that we do it with Solstice is very relaxed and that’s also good and works in a lot of ways.
It’s weird coming back and having to stop being in your own space again, I think it’s less problematic being away because you know exactly what’s happening and you can’t do anything else. There is no other sense of responsibility. There is no ‘I’ve got all this time, what do I do with it?’ and then actually not getting that much done, although I’m working every day to change that.
I was very impressed when they broke briefly into Led Zeppelin’s Rock And Roll for your introduction at Kidderminster. It hadn’t been rehearsed had it? No, I mean the whole thing with Pete is that he’s worked with them (Page & Plant) hasn’t he? So I think they probably thought of it in advance but they didn’t tell me about it. I didn’t know it was coming.
There was also the encore with Yes’s Your Move which I loved. Oh, I love Yes. Yes was another big one for me growing up.
You all have a great relationship with the Solstice audience don’t you? Yeah, I really need to start paying attention more when it comes to the Solstice audience. Because, again, a lot of the time I am very overwhelmed at that point. We’ve just come off stage. I’m knackered. Everyone else seems to be hyped after it, but I crash straight away. I’m gone. All of my efforts have gone into socialising for most of the day and then performing. But everyone else is hyped up, and they couldn’t sleep until two o’clock in the morning.
But I know everyone pretty well at this point in the Solstice audience I think. But I would like to know them more as well. I just don’t get a lot of time with them because even the Leicester gig I was up at half six in the morning to go and teach, and I didn’t get back until probably half two/ three o’clock. So it was a lot. But there are those factors that people don’t consider as well.
I’m not trying to be rude. I just need to be careful because I will not have any energy to do my job in the morning. The job is shaping other people’s lives as well. It’s not just a desk job where you’re sorting through sheets. It’s me influencing a younger generation of musicians, and that’s quite important. I need to get that right. I do prioritise that as much as my own stuff because of that influence, and how much I was influenced, and the reason that I’m here today because of those people. So balance is necessary.
Completely random final question. Would you fancy doing a James Bond song? For sure. Yeah, I think that could be quite cool. I love the Billy Eilish one. I’d love to do stuff like that. I write a lot of varied stuff. I did A-Level Music Technology and we were given a brief to write a song about a sunrise or a bird or something like that.
Everyone else was doing like, early dawn, waking up at 6am, happy time. And I was like – no, the bird’s mom’s going to die and he’s going to go on an adventure and find lots of bug friends along the way. And it’s going to be about him dodging all of the predators and finding his mates.
My great thanks to Leoni for her time.
For more about her go to Leoni Jane Kennedy / Official Website. Synthetic pre-orders will be on her site very soon. New World Woman can be purchased now.
For more on Solstice go here.
See Leoni live this year with Solstice and supporting Walter Trout.
