måndag 7 mars 2011

Interview with C-Brain of Leisure Me



So, how did you guys hook up?
C-Brain:
We got to know each other through a mutual friend from Norrköping. I had just moved to the south of Sweden to study at the university and had just started to make beats. I’ve been playing in bands and always had a fascination for making music on the computer. So my friend said “You should add this guy on MSN, he’s also making beats, maybe you could do something together.” That was the beginning of a project called EVP – Swedish hiphop with lyrics about our hometown. When that dissolved, we stayed in touch but didn’t make any music together for a while. It wasn’t until I moved to the same town as G that we started working together again more seriously.

What inspired you to make music together?
C-Brain:
G had some songs he had made. He needed a singer so he asked me if I wanted to collaborate with him. The music was totally awesome and I could really hear that he had changed his sound, that he was trying to get to new places. I had just started to record some songs with autotune and vocoder so we decided to go down that road together. Once we had started I felt really happy about how it sounded and I think G felt that way too. So we just kept on working ‘til we were done.

What's the origin of that name Leisure me?
C-Brain:
It’s really just a play with words. The two of us fooling around on the phone. I felt that once you heard the name it made me think about what we were doing. We both have other jobs so we do this on our free time right now.

What genre of music do you consider your work to be and can you name some of your influences?
C-Brain:
Genres are for journalists! I guess you could describe it as electronic pop, at least the Great Understanding album. There are some club-vibes in there as well plus soul and funk. See! We’re all over the place.. A couple of years I was listening intensively to French artists like Phoenix, Daft Punk and Justice. I think that affected me a lot. Recently I’ve been listening to great songwriters like Burt Baccharach, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Steely Dan. I wouldn’t say that they had any effect on our sound, but I’m really impressed by how they write their songs. Melodies, harmonies, arrangement.. that sort of stuff.

On our next album we’re going for a more organic sound on some of the songs. I feel that we’ve really expanded our sound but also there’s a new focus on lyrics and making great songs that I hope our listeners will hear and appreciate.

Does the fact that both of you grew up in Eneby,Norrköping..Sweden has any influence on your music?
C-Brain:
None that I can think of right now. I love the place and I have a lot of great memories from it, but I don’t think it influences my music in any direct way.

Do you do any live shows? Why/why not?
C-Brain:
We’re working on it right now. It will probably be in the form of DJing perhaps with some performance from us. Right now we don’t have any plans to put together a band and play an ordinary live set. But we’d love to do some club-gigs as DJ:s. Someday it would be great though, to get a band going!

Could you describe the music-making process and how you work together?
C-Brain:
It usually starts with us working separately and then sending ideas for songs and/or beats to each other over the net. We talk over the phone and make a decision if we should use it. We then hook up on weekends to record lyrics and work with the arrangement. Then I usually have to let the songs rest for a while before listening to them again. It’s very important to get perspective on everything when you’re making music.

Who writes your songs? Where do you find inspiration to your lyrics?
C-Brain:
We’re both very involved in the writing process. When we’ve got the musical ideas done and recorded we start thinking about the lyrics. From there you start to think about the arrangement and the structure of the song. We’re working very close together in all these steps. Our lyrics comes from things we want to address – stuff that has happened to us, things we’ve seen, something that makes us angry.. anything that evokes some kind of feeling in us. we decide on a topic and then comes the fun part – figuring out how to make it into a lyric to a song.

 Whats the future plans for Leisure me?
C-Brain:
We’re working on our set of songs, the album doesn’t have a title just yet. Our goal is to have it done for release this summer (2011). We’re also working on our DJ performance and will be contacting clubs around Sweden to see if we can get some gigs. Then there’s a crazy idea to make an album with LOTS of distorted guitars and metal influences, heavy drums.. Growling through autotune – wouldn’t that be something!

Any last words?
C-Brain:
Feel free to contact us if you want to remix any of our songs, we’d love that!

lördag 5 mars 2011

Spring is coming (Mixcloud DJ-mix)

Stumbled upon this page. Great site for posting your own mixes. You get to tag the songs you use in the mix so the artists can get their royalties.

Check out the Leisure Me profile on Mixcloud:
http://www.mixcloud.com/leisure_me/

Just posted the mix "Spring is coming". Have a listen.. or two. If you feel like it.
Click the play-button below.

onsdag 2 mars 2011

The joy of making music

Last weekend G-Spain and C-Brain met up to work on Leisure Me's sophomore album.
In this clip you'll hear G-Spains special brand of laughter after C-Brain finished recording some lyrics.

Be sure to subscribe to our youtube-channel "LeisureMeTV".

Stay tuned for more clips.



Have a great day!

tisdag 11 januari 2011

Two new remixes on Soundcloud

One half of Leisure Me, G-Spain, has made two remixes that you can listen to for free on Soundcloud. One for "Special" and one for "Wants To Party".

Check it out.

Great Understanding Remixes by Leisure Me

More remixes coming soon. Feel like giving it a try? Just download the a capellas from our Soundcloud page. See link below.

Leisure Me A Capellas