Crafty musicians known only as LEAF have a couple of EP's and hope to play not just local shows but bigger shows if not touring is in mind, with wanting everyone to hear what and how good these guys sound really. The band talks of all of this plus much else below.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
Wow, the band's initial incarnation was in 1992. God, we were beautiful, but flawed like any bunch of talented but lunatic teenagers. We had talent scouts wanting us to be the ‘new Pearl Jam’, we had the grotty, scuz of the grunge era married to the tunes that would take us further. However, the usual lures caused internal friction, Colin went and tried out for the Wildhearts and that was the final straw. Roll on nearly 30 years after all of us having experiences both professional and not so, in the music biz (BBC Dick and Dom, Goya and Electus). Dan joined and gave a solid foundation and Mark rejoined after the original drummer couldn’t commit and magic started to happen again. We are mature now, all the rubbish is behind us in the past and the songs are raw, real and mean something - we have an awful lot of life between us and we are going to tell you all about it!
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
Really? It is somewhat embarrassing; the almighty bastions of British metal, Sabbath and a crap, teenage imagination. We used to play Sweet Leaf as an encore. We have moved on, but with a nod to the past we have kept the name, even though only a handful of tunes have survived the brutal writing and culling process. With a nod to the pretenders to the name we have added UK to the end to avoid any shenanigans, even though we were there first.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We hail from Stoke-on-Trent, although Dan travels from Norfolk which absolutely shows his utter commitment. The scene is actually quite buoyant after the crappy covid years. We have young upstarts like Bathtub and Loose Ends (Jonny Price’s band), more established bands like Claylake and Psyence and mature rockers like Silverchild and Wolves in Alcatraz. You can go out every weekend and see a great line up, which is great in a city that has few opportunities and a low average salary - a big shout out to all those supporting the Stoke music scene.
4. How would you describe your style?
We are a melting pot. We are not a copy band and have so many influences that a simple description would not do us justice. We have melody, crushing riffs, hooks, anger, passion and a touch of humour - we are not afraid to take the piss out of ourselves, we are too gnarly and weather-beaten to have worry over ‘street cred’. We take from the nineties, the noughties and current music to make music that is punky, rocky and catchy.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We released a live demo after 3 months of getting back together and that gained us some interest and a few gigs. My, how we have moved on from that. We switched studios (to Lower Lane in Stoke -check out their amazing work) and teamed up with a young producer, Jonny Price, who just gets us. We did an EP Black and White with him that has had tracks played all over the place, and we are about to release a few new tunes and ultimately an EP that we have once again recorded with Jonny. The songs and production are ‘sick’ in the great Jonny’s words
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
As mentioned before the latest tracks will be out in October, but we have another studio date booked in December for another few recordings. You may be asking, ‘why the rush?’. The answer is because we are old and likely to die before we have got all of these tunes out of our system. Honestly, we write constantly and Colin has been writing and sequestering away more great tunes than most bands produce in a lifetime. We will lift bits, rework and rewrite stuff alongside all of the new stuff that we start off with jams in our disgustingly filthy rehearsal room. We are never satisfied, and Jonny has encouraged us to pull apart and dig deeper to concentrate on the song.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
Plans are to move beyond the narrow confines of the local cities and start picking up slots with established acts around the UK. We will see how this year goes, but the plan is for a series of dates culminating in some of the smaller festivals next summer
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
We want people to hear how good we are. We are not after massive fame and fortune (but it would be nice), which is not realistic for most bands today thanks to streaming services etc. But to be able to play our music and get people to hear it is our short term goal. If you want to offer me six figures to sign to your label, then we will consider it, of course.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
We are on all major streaming platforms (ahem!) including Spotify, iTunes and Amazon. Bandcamp is a nice one too, as we get more pennies per track and if you are lucky enough to see us, Dan always has a box of merch with some exclusive extras!
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
What we would like is for them to say , jeez where have these guys been for the last 30 years? They won’t forget the songs, the hooks and riffs are too darn catchy, the Leaf earworm is going to get you one way or another!
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