Music: Kiran Leonard

Jeff Hemmings chats with this teenage prodigy

Only 18, this precocious ‘teenager’ has a musical ability and mature head beyond his years, being someone whose debut album contained songs written and recorded back in 2010. “The first album (Bowler Hat Soup) came out in January 2012, but it wasn’t mixed properly and was a free download that I put out on my own. That was put on a blog which was read by Will Twynham (who records with Mary Epworth and others), and they asked for it to be remixed and mastered – they put it out again late last year. My mixes were pretty cruddy, his sounded a million times better,” says Leonard from his home in Saddleworth, north east of Manchester.

Obsessed with Frank Zappa, and heavily into acts such as Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, Swans and Smile-era Beach Boys, his dense, lively and indie-prog-psych sound seems to have everything but the kitchen sink thrown in, but there are well-thought-out structures throughout, and the songs vary in length from just a minute or so to getting on for ten minutes, sometimes featuring several sings within a song. He also played most of the instruments himself, around 20 in all. “On the last record I play the vast majority, with the exception of the violin, the euphonium and a couple of voices”, he clarifies.

Busy putting the finishing touches to his new album, Grapefruit, which will be out later in the year, there are more guests involved this time around. “On this record there are 12 people. I find it a bit frustratingto work with others, but this is not like being in a band. There is no democracy – I just work with nice people, I ask them to do me a favour.”

From a folk background – his dad John played the folk circuit for many years – his first instrument was a mandolin. “I was trained classically on the mandolin, which I started playing when I was five, but I don’t write anything on a mandolin. The first instrument I use for writing is the piano or guitar. Folk is not really my thing, I’ve certainly had exposure to a lot of it but never really worked within it, although I really like The Unthanks.”

He’s just finished his A-levels and is heading to university in the autumn to study Spanish and Portuguese, so at the moment, despite all the attention, music is only one part of his life. “If I saw music as a viable …”

he pauses, “… I’m not brave enough to jump into that. If I completely fail then I am financially destitute, so I decided not to do that.”
The Hope, Brighton, Thursday 17 July, 7.30pm, £6

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