Studio Electrophonique by Studio Electrophonique

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 his eponymous debut album on Paris-based label Valley of Eyes Records on 26th September. 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.

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.

Songs come to James Leesley in airless attics, dinner time chippies and late afternoon bookies shops; on long walks through town with a sandwich in each pocket, on morning runs through the park in lost-property trainers or on the top deck of the 52A with rain-laced windows and wet toe-ends.

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