Studio Electrophonique announces debut album and shares first single, "David and Jayne"
Studio Electrophonique
Announces self-titled debut album,
due 26th September via Valley of Eyes Records
Shares first single "David and Jayne" - watch the video here
On tour with The Divine Comedy this October
Studio Electrophonique, the solo project of singer-songwriter James Leesley, is one of the most interesting and 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), and the release will be followed by a tour with The Divine Comedy throughout October (dates below).
This is an 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.
Today, Studio Electrophonique also shares first single "David and Jayne" along with visuals directed by Leesley and filmed at Cleethorpes beach.
Leesley says of the song: ""David and Jayne" was the first song I wrote for the record. It felt like the opening scene to a film; the words came to me more as dialogue, or script, than lyrics…and that opened up a new and very appealing writing perspective - I was almost tempted to pretend to be Alain Resnais directing an imaginary film at the British seaside.
""David and Jayne" inspired a collection of scenes that eventually became the rest of the album. The two central characters drift between being real and make-believe, and feature in other songs on the record; sometimes explicitly, sometimes like extras, in the background, and occasionally as the voice. I enjoyed having multiple perspectives to switch between.
"This particular scene attempts to document a difficult weekend away set in a coastal resort of the listener’s choosing. I always try to give the listener the choice of whether to sob or smile —ideally both!”
Studio Electrophonique - "David and Jayne"
YouTube: https://youtu.be/6L9YxNnbaWA?si=qkyye292ufe-F5b_
Streaming: https://idol-io.ffm.to/davidandjayne
Studio Electrophonique's debut full-length follows 2019's Buxton Palace Hotel on Violette Records, an EP of six odes to the mystery of modern romance, and 2022's 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).
October Tour with The Divine Comedy:
6th October - LIVERPOOL - Philharmonic Hall (SOLD OUT)
7th October - NOTTINGHAM - Royal Concert Hall
8th October - BATH - The Forum
10th October - GATESHEAD - The Glasshouse
11th October - LONDON - Barbican (SOLD OUT)
12th October - LONDON - Barbican (SOLD OUT)
13th October - BRIGHTON - Brighton Dome
15th October - CAMBRIDGE - Cambridge Corn Exchange (SOLD OUT)
16th October - SHEFFIELD - Sheffield City Hall
17th October - WOLVERHAMPTON - University Of Wolverhampton At The Civic Hall
18th October - SWANSEA - Swansea Building Society Arena
20th October - GLASGOW - Royal Concert Hall (SOLD OUT)
21st October - YORK - York Barbican
23rd October - OXFORD - New Theatre Oxford
24th October - MANCHESTER - The Bridgewater Hall (SOLD OUT)
25th October - BRISTOL - Bristol Beacon (SOLD OUT)
Tickets: https://lnk.to/TDC25
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.
"If you’ve yet to hear Studio Electrophonique, may I suggest you set aside an opportunity to do so. Right now, no-one does sparse lovelorn intimacy quite as well as James Leesley. Everyone I play his songs seems to fall a little bit in love with him."
- Pete Paphides
"It’s got a really magical, close-up ambience. It does sound like it fell directly out of his imagination and onto tape"
- BBC Radio 3
Tracklisting:
1. David and Jayne
2. Taxi Ride
3. How Can I Love Anyone Else ?
4. All-Time Biggest Fans
5. Too Many Lonely Nights
6. The World’s Most Beautiful Cinema
7. Break My Heart Again
8. Handbrake Turns
9. The Last One
10. The World’s Most Beautiful Cinema Pt.2
11. Him Without Her
