If you feel like the right vibes are missing, if you need to chill out, relax and go round and round with your mind, Loos Leaf will make you listen the perfect sound for those needs. Their music creativity is what impressed us the most and definitely they diserve a space in the music industry to share their talent and tell their story through their really suggestive music.
“My dad plays guitar and writes songs that he would sing to me and my brother growing up, so I kinda of grew up around music from an early age. And then I started playing guitar at around age 8 and just got sucked into that world. My older brother played also and we started forming our own bands when I was still in elementary school. I played in like punk and reggae and metal bands a lot. We even had a band with Lucas Heinel at this time, my main collaborator on the Loos Leaf record. So from a young age music formed the basis of my social life. And then I just kept on going and got into more and more different music like jazz and classical stuff and I started writing my own music. And then I studied world music and composition in college. And now I’m here.”
What are you inspired by? Many, many things… Nature for sure. I often bring my guitar out to the ocean or the woods when I’m writing because I just feel the most inspired when I feel like a tiny little speck in a huge, beautiful place. And then just tons of different music… I’m really inspired by finding the cross sections where different musical worlds can come together. Like I’ll write a song with harmonies inspired by Debussy, but then write lyrics inspired by Neil Young, and add rhythms that come from Afro-Brazilian music and hip-hop. I feel like in this day and age it’s more and more rare for people to really limit their taste to a few specific styles.
What’s the hardest thing of being a young musician in the music industry? I guess just making an actual income off of your music. It’s much easier to get your music out into the world these days with the internet and everything, but with downloading and streaming and whatnot it’s very difficult to actually make any money selling records. So you have to tour a lot or license out your music and other things like that to make an income. I think we’re all interested to see where the music industry goes right now because it’s been in such a state of flux for quite some time now.
What do you try to express through your music? Hmmm a lot of things I guess. Sometimes it’s just about capturing a vibe. Or sometimes I’m trying to tell a story. Like a lot of the Loos Leaf record was written when Lucas and I were traveling in Central America, so there’s a lot of lyrical themes about traveling and being outside your comfort zone. And I guess the textures of the music kind of reflect the lush landscapes that we were constantly in while coming up with ideas. It’s hard to say because creativity can be such an elusive thing… Sometimes I set out to express a clear story or idea, and then it completely changes by the time I’m done writing. But I think it’s really important for us to have Loos Leaf music really feel like it’s own world. Like I love records that take you to a unique place that you can only be in with that music. So we try and make our music an immersive experience that’s meaningful to the listener in whatever way they see fit. Sometimes its nice to tell a very clear story and sometimes its nice to leave enough abstraction for the listener to draw their own meaning out of the overall vibe.
What’s the best thing about being a musician? Maybe just having a guiding force in my life that’s always there for me. I think that’s true of all artists. It’s a difficult thing to constantly create, and we sacrifice a lot for it but in the end we have something at the end of the day that we’re devoted to, that keeps us waking up every morning with lots of purpose.
What’s your next project? I guess another Loos Leaf record. Well, and myself and a lot of the other people in the band have awesome side projects that we’re working on also. I have a newer band called Wailin Red that Kai and I are working on, and Peter and Andrew have a killer band called Wicked Man that they’re very involved in. And I’m always writing weird classical music on the side and stuff. But yeah there is definitely new Loos Leaf material in the works!
Facebook: @loosleaf Instagram: @loosleafmusic Bandcamp: loosleaf.bandcamp.com