EP REVIEW: ZACHARY LEO’S ‘FEELS’ IS GIVING US THE FEELS
G’day, kids and kidlets! I know, been a while but here I am, and lawd do I have a stunner for you! If anyone remembers, I reviewed a sexy little single called ‘Feels’; a beautiful blend of soul, r&b, and some pretty rock vibes all weaved into that mix. Without further ado; I give you…. Feels, an EP by Zachary Leo.
G’day, kids and kidlets! I know, been a while but here I am, and lawd do I have a stunner for you!
If anyone remembers, I reviewed a sexy little single called ‘Feels’; a beautiful blend of soul, r&b, and some pretty rock vibes all weaved into that mix.
Well, wouldn’t you know who popped into our email inbox!
Without further ado; I give you….
Feels, an EP by Zachary Leo.
1: Prelude
Ahh, what a start! This instrumental number is a little bit 70’s, little bit mysterious, and a whole lot of rock. It’s very… music for those good 70’s and 80’s movies- hear me out- Pretty in Pink? It's just so SMOOTH. It’s delicate, slow burning but oh so sensual. This whole intro really sets a high bar for the rest of the EP. It’s so magically weaved together, I can’t even see straight. Where are my glasses???
2: Insane
You know what? I believe there is a vinyl being released on the 20th of November. I am telling you now- I really fucking want one. The transition from Prelude to Insane is LITERALLY INSANE. It’s so smooth and just seamless. What a good start, Mr Leo!
This one is a bit more on the “Rock” side of Zachary’s somehow multifaceted genre.
I did struggle to understand the lyrics a bit, but I think the focus was the instrumental aspect of this song. It was definitely interesting to hear the somehow unending vocal limit. I understand the angst in this song, this really conveys Leo’s struggle with anxiety and you can feel that? Once you know what the song is, you can hear it.
All around, it was a really punchy start to the vocal aspect of this EP. Zachary is really mastering the production of his own work, and let me tell you it is hard to stop playing with something until you’re sure that it’s reached it’s peak. This is that peak. The vocals and instrumentals aren’t battling each other for dominance. Everything is working together to create a great sound. Rock is really versatile in that it can basically reach everyone with very little effort. It’s a genre for the people.
3: In My Head
Hello, gorgeous! This is a really funky little track. I'm wiggling in my seat, it is so easy to move to! I think there is a music video attached to this song, being released early!
This is way more gentle than ‘Insane’, it’s got remnants of ‘Feels’ so you know it’s a kicker really, it’s got that slow build to the bridge and it just feels like it’s directed at me? I mean, the listener.
You get your classic Zachary Leo Serenade, with familiar guitar licks and punchy bass. Very good stuff, Zachary. I can dig it.
4: Interlude
Ah, this feels like the part where you’re supposed to take a breath and relax a little. Every single song on this EP is able to stand on it’s own; and yet they all work together so wonderfully? How does this happen??
This interlude is a little bit of lullaby, it’s so soft and delicate, I think this is exactly what the EP needed- just a teeny tiny little breather.
5: Feels
Now listen; I know I already reviewed this song, however when I heard it again in the order of the EP, I felt like I was hearing it for the first time. I feel like there is a whole other facet to this song that I wasn’t hearing before. It’s a whole new song when tied into this EP. It’s so brooding and I feel like I’m sitting on the couch on hot (Australian) summer night, and Zachary is explaining what he’s feeling towards me, the listener, the partner, the fling-or-something-more, and he's just pouring his heart out, the little muffin. Poor darling. I hear you. When I heard it as a single, I wasn’t sure how it would sound in the EP but now, it fits. Here is the missing puzzle piece. It’s a 6 piece jigsaw but it still needed this song.
6: Out Of Place
Did you think we were leaving the rock behind? You are sorely mistaken, my friend.
This is such a garage band kind of rock song. It’s super vulnerable but also so wonderful in the sense that we are being pulled in by the delicious guitar and enigmatic drum kicks, and the lyrics just set us down for a great show. This is the garage band your brother and his friend started and you go because his drummer friend is hot but you stay because you love the music.
This one definitely fits with the title, Zachary definitely puts across that he's feeling out of place in the scenario; I can’t quite pin whether or not he’s been rejected or if it’s coming, but there's a little bit of angst hidden between the rock/grunge guitar riffs, and is that a solo I hear? Yes. Come to mama.
Overall, this is a really solid start to Zachary Leo’s Album/EP discography. I believe the songs all worked together to create a beautiful story of love and the mental struggle with comes with that whole thing: rejection, hope, questioning of self worth,; it’s all there if you listen hard enough.
There is definitely some cohesiveness to each song and the transitions are wonderful, and while I think that while interlude was needed in such a multifaceted EP, it feels slightly out of place in it’ lullaby like form. It was a breath of fresh air from the heavier, rock/funk tracks, but I felt like maybe it could have gone at the end instead of the middle of the track list. A calming, almost moment-of-clarity end to the EP would have rounded it off well.
In any case, it’s wonderful to see such strong music coming out of Melbourne; it’s looking like the music industry will recover from the hefty times we have all been through as of late.
Great work, Mr Leo.
INTERVIEW VELVET BLOOM & X PROMOTIONS
Mornington Peninsula songbird Maddy Herbert has one of the most amazing voices I have come across. Think along the lines of Norah Jones/ Amy Winehouse!! Maddy is one of the artist’s involved in the live stream gig AND WE ARE LIVE (X Promotions) on 29th October.
Mornington Peninsula songbird Maddy Herbert has one of the most amazing voices I have come across. Think along the lines of Norah Jones/ Amy Winehouse!! Playing original soul filled songs with her band Velvet Bloom and The Vito Collective Maddy is one of the artist’s involved in the live stream gig AND WE ARE LIVE (X Promotions) on 29th October
With a new single out ‘7hundred25’ and a video clip for the single coming out on 13th November I had a chat to Maddy about her music and her involvement in the live stream that X Promotions are putting on.
First off I absolutely love your voice!
Oh thank you so much. It’s been so hard not performing for such a long time, but we are so excited for this event it’s going to be really great.
The venue sounds amazing. The X Promotions guys were telling me about it the other day.
The venue is so huge. I’ve played there for school concerts and I did a theatre production when I was maybe 12. It’s a crazy venue, it’s so beautiful. A lot of people on the Mornington Peninsula wouldn’t know it exists. This show will be really good to show people, especially the young people, that there is a space down here.
How did you get involved in AND WE ARE LIVE?
I’ve been chatting with the guys from X Promotions for quite awhile now. Andrew DM’d me a while back and said he would love to organise something in the future, I don’t even think that this concept was thought of back then. When he put this line up together he really wanted us to be involved and obviously we jumped at the opportunity because we haven’t played shows in such a long time. We have had a few live streams which have been incredible. We did one at The Nightcap in May and one at a place called The Love Machine with Moor Music in June. That was the last time we performed. Andrew and the guys from X Promotion and The Frankston Arts Centre were just so eager to have some Peninsula talent onboard to do this event.
It’s been hard during lockdown for you guys.
Yeah but the silver lining is that I have been able to spend time writing so that has been really good.
So is Velvet Bloom a band or is it a solo project and you have musicians join you?
It’s a project, its just kind of like the concept. I perform solo, so I write the music. I then perform with different variations of Velvet Bloom in a live setting. So there is a full band which will be playing at the Frankston Art Centre, then there is a 4-piece, a 3-piece and a 2-piece version. I like doing it like this because we can be more diverse when we are playing at different places. Having so many different versions of the one act you can always see the songs in a different light which I really enjoy.
What is The Vito Collective?
So that is what I use to describe when I am playing with the full live band. The Vito Collective have been performing with me for a while. Two of them have been with me for about 4 years. The reason that I wanted to call them that is because it means ‘life giver’ and so I guess they give a lot of life to my music.
You’ve just released a new single ‘7hundred25’ recently which I love!
It was put out for 2 weeks as a part of a compilation album done by record label Cousin Will that came out on the 18th September. We then released it onto Spotify in early October.
Tell me about 7hundred25, the title intrigues me!
I guess I wanted to incorporate numbers into writing because I hadn’t really thought about it much. When I started writing this song it was when I was in the midst of a break up and I thought about how through our relationship, we had been together for this amount of time. I was trying to pinpoint different parts of our relationship and where I guess things stared to fall apart. It wasn’t meant to be a negative song or anything, it was a realisation song. Figuring out what I needed to do to move forward as well.
Do you have an EP in the works?
Yes we have an EP in the works. It’s just been really hard because we haven’t even been able to jam for like 3 months at least. As soon as we are allowed to be in the same room we will be recording. We have all of the stuff ready for our EP, but it won’t be released until some point next year.
Do you guys self-record?
No. We usually outsource everything. We have recently started working with Quin Grunden from The Grogans and he’s really great. He will be our recording engineer, so we are really excited to work with him..
Andrew was saying that you have broken into the Melbourne scene
Yeah. I love performing. That’s just what I love to do. I guess our weekends, mine and the band, revolve around playing gigs. They aren’t always advertised, sometimes I just play solo stuff that’s not necessarily my own material. Prior to lockdown I was playing 3 gigs a week. It’s been an adjustment that’s for sure. There are so many incredible venues and musicians in Melbourne. People just need to discover them. It was really hard for me at first breaking into the Melbourne scene and I don’t think I even started playing as many shows as I wanted to until maybe a year ago. We’ve been this version of our band for probably three years now. Even prior to me saying that we have only been where I wanted to be for a year we were playing shows with other bands in Melbourne quite frequently. But I’ve only really just started to find people that are more similar to our music. I think that on the Mornington Peninsula we have a very heavy surf rock kind of community. We fit into it to some extent but not really. I need to be playing with soul artists I think. As much as I appreciate all the opportunities we have gotten from people down here when we are playing at a surf rock gig its not going to be the same vibe.
We also have a music video coming out in about three weeks’ time for the single. A lot of the live footage in it was filmed about a year ago while on tour and it would have been when I had first written the song. So it is very nostalgic, and it also has a lot of scenery from the Mornington Peninsula. I’m really excited to put it out.
If you’re looking for something to do this Thursday night jump on and grab a ticket to AND WE ARE LIVE where you can see Velvet Bloom along with subcult, Boler Mani and Teenage Dads.
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