STUDIO ELECTROPHONIQUE STUDIO ELECTROPHONIQUE
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Studio Electrophonique, the solo project of singer-songwriter James Leesley, is one of the most original musical
outfits to emerge from Sheffield's current independent scene. Taking the name 'Studio Electrophonique' from
an old analogue recording studio in Sheffield, Leesley has already released two celebrated EPs under this
moniker. He will release later this year his eponymous debut album on Paris-based label Valley of Eyes Records.
It is produced by Simon Tong (The Verve, The Good, The Bad and The Queen and The Magnetic North).
James Leesley grew up in Handsworth, Sheffield where week-day evenings were spent kicking a football around
grassy urban edgelands. At the weekends, the social clubs with their glitter balls, comedians, cockle sellers and
sequin-suited cabaret singers brought a touch of glamour to this hilltop suburb on the fringe of an industrial
northern city. The stage was not some far-off place. Dreams could be made and broken under bright lights and by
the brusk tones of a bingo caller.
The classic songs, slap back echo and house organ sounds of the social club scene are in Leesley’s blood. His work
draws inspiration from the heartfelt melodies of songsmiths like Carole King and Burt Bacharach with the smokey
tenderness of vocalists such as Dusty Springfield and Elvis. Add to that his enthusiasm for American literature and
the surrealism of 60s French cinema.
After stumbling across an old 4-track tape machine at a local Bring and Buy, Leesley used it to distill these
influences into something that is spare in its sound but full in its intention and emotion. In 2019 he released
Buxton Palace Hotel on Violette Records, an EP of six odes to the mystery of modern romance, followed in 2022
by the Happier Things EP. Leesley found a fan in Richard Hawley who he joined on a tour of the UK and Ireland
and, under the Studio Electrophonique name, he played at the prestigious End of the Road and Green Man Festivals.
He was also invited by French superstar Etienne Daho to support him at the legendary Olympia in Paris. Leesley
received airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music (Steve Lamacq, Gideon Coe, Mark Radcliffe, Stuart Maconie & Tom Robinson),
BBC Radio 3 (Unclassified) and Soho Radio (Pete Paphides).
After a chance meeting with Simon Tong, the pair bonded over a love of The Velvet Underground, The Byrds, Barry
Hines’ books, Jake Thackray, Blackpool's North Pier, and late night attic-darts. At Tong’s home studio in South London they added an assortment of vintage guitars and Casio keyboards (Pipe Organ mode) to fragments of lyrics Leesley had scribbled on the back of betting slips and bus tickets.
The result is an 11-track album that finds big feelings in small details. Loneliness, beauty, longing and loss all linger in the everyday occurrences: the moments of miscommunication over tea and eggs, the neatly folded pyjamas left by a long-gone lover, the raindrops on the top deck window of a No. 52 bus, the rain-sodden faded glamour of a
cheap seaside getaway. Captured on a Tascam reel to reel, Leesley’s mesmerising debut promises to whisk any
listener away to a warm, intimate and day-dreamy place
Product information
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