INTERVIEW: ZACHARY LEO

23-year old Zachary Leo (Melbourne/Naarm) unites deliciously grooving disco funk vibes with modern pop structures in his latest single ‘Can’t Get Enough’. The Michael Parisi mentoree has honed his signature sound, bringing all the good vibes to wash away the tensions of life. Tori met with Zachary Leo to talk about the new single and being a musician in the post-covid world.

How's your weekend going?

Yeah, it's been good! Had a show on Friday night,  which was really good. And then had a relaxing couple of days. 

Where was your show on Friday night? How did it go?

Cherry Bar! The new Cherry Bar on Little Collins Street. It was great. We had a great, great night. Great turnout. Played well. That was the launch for the new song. There was a tour planned…and then there wasn't, it has been all over the shop. So I cut everything back and just did the show, but will probably announce some more stuff soon. COVID made it super tricky, which is a bummer. But the launch was great. So that's all we can ask!

Small wins in the music industry at the moment! You're talking about the band there, but you are Zach…. tell me where this whole thing started?

I think it was 2019, that was the first single and the first show. Before that I had been in bands and had done my own music. But I got to a point where I wanted to write a certain type of music and it didn't fit the band, it didn't fit my solo thing that I was doing, which was very acoustic and the band was heavy rock. So I made a decision one day to go on my own, but have a big live show with a band. It is like the band Harry Styles would have or any big acts would have. But I’m kind of finding my sound and finding my direction. I think I'm on a really good path at the moment, settling in and creating what I think is really cool. 

I guess it's not really pop, but this new version of pop coming out at the moment, you talked about Harry Styles and I think of Billie Eilish. They're the new pop, which isn't such a traditional cotton candy kind of sound. Is that what you're aiming to go for?

I think definitely a type of pop I'm looking to go for, but a lot of my influences come from funk artists from the 70s and late 60s like George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, when they spearheaded the rap scene for a while as well. A lot of that music was ingrained into the mainstream early on. It's kind of funk. But naturally, there's this pop structure there, I guess in the melodies. It's like you said, Harry Styles, Billie Eilish - it's not your traditional pop. They take influence from there. I've got my different inspirations in the soul scene, and the rock scene that I put in there, make it a little bit less poppy, but it's definitely still pop.

And so are you primarily a vocalist? Or are you an instrumentalist as well? 

I started with vocals. But I would say guitar would be my strong point. I've been practicing the most since I was quite young. I always sang but I wasn't always very good for a long time.When I was in my early teens, I got some lessons and kept giving it a go. Now I think it's a vessel to deliver the music, rather than my strength, if that makes any sense? But the guitar, that and songwriting is one of my strengths, where I feel most comfortable.

And with this new track, was this one that you created in COVID? 

Like everyone in Melbourne I was in lockdown. It was just before the big one last year, I had a meeting with Alex, my producer to decide on which songs we will record in the studio. The night before I had a spark of inspiration and quickly wrote this song, and came to him with it the next day. He was like, yeah, let's do it. Then we sat on it for a while. We've played a few shows with the song in it, we got into pre production and then lockdown. We had to record it after lockdown ended. I had time in lockdown to make sure that we had time to go through pre production and stuff then we came out of lockdown to record. It was a day before and Alex sprung on me that I needed to rewrite half the song and he's like, “You’ve got to cut all this out”. We had all lockdown for him to tell me, and he sprung it on me at the last minute! But what came out was the best result. 

This is Alex from Delta Riggs?

Yeah, we started working together. It would have been a lot sooner but with COVID. Then we did, so good! Hopefully some more songs in the future as well.

He's definitely becoming one of the bigger producers and has an awesome sound. 

He was incredible to work with, just seamless and easy. I've always been stressed in the studio, it felt like we weren't working hard enough because it was so easy. We got the take like “Yeah, cool. That's it. That's the take”.  It was such a great and easy and stress free and creative process with Alex, he made it very, very easy, which was awesome. 

Are there any other producers that you've got your eye on that you'd like to work with in future?

I think at the moment, honestly, I think what me and Alex created was really special. He helped me find ways to bring the songs to life. We connected musically in the studio. I haven't connected with someone like that before. We both knew what we needed in the songs. I think right now, I'd be keen to jump back in with Alex, I haven't even thought about someone else!  Obviously, Mark Ronson for instance, producers that you dream of working with, Pharrell and all of them. Honestly, Alex - I'd be keen to get back in with him ASAP,  we're working towards that, but everyone's busy. 

Are there any artists that you are really keen to work with, or you've kind of started chatting with?

Not really at the moment, I'm always open to collaborating with other artists and working with other musicians, but I think I'm someone who writes very much on their own. I sit in my room and work on something then come out and show people and then go back and work on it myself. So there's no real talks with anyone at the moment. I mean, there's a few really cool Aussie artists that I would love to pick their brain and work with. Like Kesmar from Sydney, he's got this really cool synth sound that I just adore. I think it's awesome. I love his vibe as well. I'd love to work with him. We can make something really funky. 

How are you feeling about the response to the single? 

It's been awesome.  Messages and love from heaps of different people. It's been really cool. Even the last week or so it's taken off, streams have been going off and giving me so much love. I'm feeling really, really positive about it. I think positive words and reassurance is enough for me to feel really good about it. I love this song and I'm really proud of it. Everyone's been so lovely. 

Is there anything else that you'd want your new fans or people who are following to know about you or about your music?

I'm a pretty open book. I would just say thank you for the support so far. There is music coming and the show is coming. I’m keen to share it with everyone. 

Before we go, what was the last thing you were listening to?

You know, it was Harry Styles. I think it was Daydreaming off the new record. I've been playing non-stop the last couple of days. 

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INTERVIEW: PRETTY BLEAK

Tori caught up with Pretty Bleak lead singer, Sam to discuss how the band came to be, musical inspiration and whats coming next!

Tell me a little bit about yourself and the band? 

The band is a long story, Kyle, Sanji and I have been playing music together since 2014. So quite a while. We've had a heap of different names and different styles but we settled on Pretty Bleak and this musical and visual themes since the end of 2019. Our drummer, Cherie joined at the end of last year so now we're fully set. It's really good.

What were some of the names you tried out before?

The first name we ever heard was Infamous Minorities, which was edgy, teenager, stupid, sort of thing. Then we were Half the Sky, then The Avenue, now we're Pretty Bleak. 

Tell me a bit more how you met each other and how you got together as a band?

Me and the guitarist Kyle, we first met in 2011. We met because my dad taught him guitar, then we met Sanji at High School. We met Cherie at High School as well. So we've been friends with Cherie for quite a while, but she only just joined the band last year.

Has the genre of the band been the same the whole way through?

When we first started, we were doing heavier music,  sort of post hardcore, sort of metal when we were really just starting out. Over time, we have had this natural progression towards a pop style. We still have a lot of heavier influences. As we've got better at our instruments, then better at songwriting, it's been a really natural progression from being teenagers playing as loud as they possibly can, to something a bit more sophisticated. It's been very natural.

We don't necessarily conform to what we think people want to hear. We're very focused on what we find interesting, musically. It's a healthy mixture of what do we think is really cool? And what will be appealing to people as well? You can definitely get too caught up in what you think is cool, and then make something that's really abrasive to people. So it's good to have a balance.

Where do you think the new single falls in that realm?

The new songs are a pretty good example because a lot of it is really unconventional and not something that you hear all the time. The most important thing to me is having a catchy vocal, if the vocals catchy, you can pretty much put anything around it and it will work. I think with this new song, we've done a lot of things; having the extended guitar solo in the middle, unconventional drumbeat and that sort of thing. But having a really catchy chorus, or catchy vocal hook on top of that, ties it all together.
I think we've done a good job of achieving that.

As a writer, do you start off with your vocals first? Or do you write the music and then shape your lyrics to it?

It's usually a combination, it depends on the song. I'll start a song idea, based on a title and then, what the song is supposed to sound like all sorts of stems phonetically from what those words mean. With this current song, I think I had the main title, the vocal melody, I think that's the first thing that I had, everything sort of stems from there. But sometimes, sometimes it will just be like, a guitar riff or something, or like a chord on a keyboard or something that will start a song. It's just like having a really good base and something that sounds really interesting from the from the start, to make it just out from there.

You guys had a show at the workers club recently? How did it all go?

It was really good. It was definitely my favourite headline show. We had a heap of people there, especially for a Thursday night, too. So that was good. We put a really good set together. We played a few songs we haven't done before, which was fine. I think overall, it was really positive.

We've got a really good, cool group of people who are into our band, who come to our shows and know the words to songs, even though we're still relatively small. We're really lucky to have a really cool group like that who will come. The advantage of that is you can kind of do anything. It's good that I feel really lucky that we're starting to build this really good, foundational fan base that are really into our music. It's good to be able to play some stuff we haven't done before, and be validated for it, which we were so, I feel really good about it. 

Any producers that you've got an eye on that you'd like to work with?

The guy we're working with at the moment, John, from Cry Club. He's really, really good. We've done a heap of songs with him. And I'm really happy with the way we work together. I would literally love to stick with him for a while. In terms of, if I had to give a dream producer to work with, it would probably be Brian Eno. He's an old school guy, legendary and he does a lot of ambient stuff. He did a lot of stuff with Talking Heads. He would be awesome to work with.

What's currently in your on repeat playlist. What are you listening to?

You know what song I really love. It's by SZA, ‘Good Days’. Such a good song. I love that song. It's my go to song for vocal warmups. I'll just put that on. I cannot sing anywhere near as well as she can. But I give it a good shot. I love that song.

What else would you want new fans to know about you?

I think the main thing about our band is that we're super open minded and super malleable. I feel for people who are into music, basically no matter what you're into, you can find something about our music that connects with you. I think we're really open minded artistically. As a consequence of that, I think we attract open minded listeners as well. 

Do you guys have any tours coming up in future?

We don't have anything planned. But we've got a heap of songs recorded that we're just going to keep pumping out this year. We're definitely going to try and get up the east coast at least once this year. 

Check our their new song, ‘like you know better’ below!

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