An interesting year lies ahead for South London-based experimental artist Kiran Leonard, who has signed to London-based label Memorials of Distinction, whose roster includes the likes of Porridge Radio, Caroline, JPEGMAFIA, Naima Bock, Shovel Dance Collective & more.
This week, he releases his short homespun folk DIY offering ‘Treat Me A Stranger’, a rendering that sounds like Michael Hurley getting bleed-through from a parallel universe. It’s a small intricate gem and I love it…it’sour Song of the Day.
Kiran Leonard on ‘Treat Me A Stranger’
“Although the lyrics are mopey, this song comes from a very happy place. I think that a person, an adult, whose heartbreak song is about not wanting to make the bed is probably a happy person…It’s good to aspire to the sort of ‘profound vagueness’ that traditional, or early country, music often has in droves…I was particularly taken by the Jimmie Rodgers song ‘In the Hills of Tennessee’, which simply opens with the lines: “You were right, I was wrong / guess you knew it right along / Sycamore tree, sycamore tree”.”
The accompanying video is no less beguiling, confusing, funny and uniquely brilliant…
Bio
A native of Greater Manchester, Kiran Leonard was raised in a musical household with multiple guitar-playing siblings and a father who was formerly a professional musician and worked in radio. Leonard had begun playing mandolin by age five and graduated to the larger guitar at eight, around the time he started writing short, classical-type pieces. By the time he was 13, Leonard was uploading his work to music-sharing sites. The precocious teen played over 20 instruments on his debut LP, ‘Bowler Hat Soup’, a spontaneous, discursive set of experimental pop released in 2013. The self-released ‘Abandoning Noble Goals EP’ followed in 2015.
Leonard introduced his second album with a 16-minute lead single (‘Pink Fruit’) before releasing the acclaimed full-length ‘Grapefruit’ in the spring of 2016. This was followed a year later with ‘Derevaun Seraun’, a set of five movements for voice, piano, and string trio, each inspired by different literary works by the likes of James Joyce, Albert Camus, Clarice Lispector & more.
In early 2018, Leonard released ‘A Bit of Violence with These Old Engines’, and this was followed by ‘Western Culture’ in October 2018.
In recent years, Leonard has experimented with releases of live performances & collaborations, including 2023’s intriguing chamber work ‘River Holds Peace, Some Live’, made with the Trespass on Foot Group, a quintet featuring members of caroline, Shovel Dance Collective and Dear Laika. Leonard has also combined his own output with a range of other projects, including Search Engine Quartet, a repertory group performing scores by the likes of Graham Lambkin (The Shadow Ring), Rory Salter (Malvern Brume), Russell Walker (The Pheromoans) & more, formed from members of caroline, Shovel Dance Collective and Gentle Stranger.
Bandcamp: https://memorialsofdistinction.bandcamp.com/album/treat-me-a-stranger
Live
Kiran Leonard Live w/ new group ft. Mike O’Malley (caroline), Magda McLean (caroline, The Umlauts), Joshua Barfoot
(Shovel Dance Collective) & Otto Willberg.
6th March, The Windmill, Brixton, London – Join Waiting List