Start Listening To: Leeroy Salmon
Manchester jazz-punks Leeroy Salmon talk Phlegm, DIY culture, bossa nova, hardcore and refusing to fit into anyone else’s scene.
There aren’t many bands who can cite Bill Evans and Suicidal Tendencies in the same breath, but Leeroy Salmon have never been particularly interested in fitting neatly into one scene. Formed on the south coast and now based in Manchester, the self-described jazz-punks pull together hardcore, bossa nova, indie and jazz into something deliberately difficult to categorise.
Following the release of ‘Phlegm’, we caught up with Leeroy Salmon to talk about the unlikely influences behind their sound, doing things DIY, their relationship with Brighton and Manchester and why sometimes the best direction for a band is having no idea where you’re going next.
For those unfamiliar with your music can you tell us who you are, where youre from and about the music you make?
We are Leeroy Salmon a punk band formed on the south coast but currently based in Manchester. We play fast, heavy punk music incorporating influences from hardcore, jazz, alternative rock and whatever else tickles our fancy.
Your music is often branded as jazz punk where does that idea come from?
It comes from us. Punk and jazz have always been a big part of what we listen to and it felt like a natural way to start writing music. Listening to artists like King Krule and The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower made us think about the combination of heavy music and more intricate harmony.
Effectively its the marriage of punk energy and the tone and chords of jazz, think Bill Evans and The Ramones had a love child. In summary, why cant you play bossa nova and hardcore punk at the same time?
Are there any musicians in either genre you view as influences?
There’s loads. Honestly theres about 9 million punk bands we could list. Primarily our influences come from Hardcore and Post-Hardcore bands like Suicidal Tendencies, No Trend, At The Drive In, Show Me The Body, Cold World and Have Heart to name a few. Theres also some more contemporary punk groups like The Garden that have been a huge influence. As previously mentioned another big influence are The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower who encompass what we consider to be Jazz-Punk.
In terms of jazz influences theres also a huge range from more classic jazz to latin jazz and bossa nova. John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Wez Montgomery are a few big influences from the former style whilst João Gilberto, Toninho Horta and Toco are the big latin influences.
Your recent single comes with B side Phlegm, what inspired you to write the track?
Failure. The song beyond the instrumental is a song about being on the edge, its about what to do when you fuck everything up and how you handle it. Ultimately its a song about recovery.
It comes from our own battles with mental health, and represents that even when that battle takes you down a horrible path, and potentially makes you do horrible things, that its important to accept that these things are a given part of growth, healing and positive change. Healing can be and often is ugly and challenging.
Pus is a product of the ugly process of healing and thats what we wanted the track to reflect.
You initially started in Btown then moved to Manchester in what way has either city affected your music?
Brighton is where we started writing, about 6 years ago, so the influences hold some weight.
Being from the south we grew up on Londons contemporary jazz scene, artists like King Krule and Puma Blue were huge for us. Hearing someone with a very southern accent was interesting as you dont hear a lot of that so its definitely impacted the way write, especially in our lyrics.
The hardcore scene in Brighton also had an impact, helping to further the influences of the genre in our own music, even though we were already big fans.
In the lead guitar specifically, there’s a lot of indie influence which was huge in Brighton when we were growing up, the catchy simple riffs were basically stolen from that realm.
Manchester has influenced our sound a lot less.
Moving here made us aware of how dedicated we are to how we write and how don’t want to compromise on that.
We sit in a weird spot where we don’t feel we really fit into any existing niche and weve learnt after years of trying to work within one that its more important to stick to your own sound than conform to whats already around. Being here has taught us not to let a place try and shape or change who you are and how you write.
Create your own niche don’t conform.
Youre known for your blistering and intense live shows is there anything specific you do beforehand to prepare?
booze and furious masterbation
Across your work and in your name theres a lot of aquatic imagery do you feel a particular connection to the scene?
Our frontman, Alfie, comes from a long line of sailors, pirates and dockhands so he has a genetic or familiar impulse towards the seas. Also growing up on the south coast, we were raised around a lot of this aquatic imagery and to be completely honest just feel peaceful in and around the water.
What do you prefer working live or in the studio?
LIVE!!! Working in the studio’s great and of course we love it, but it always consists of a lot of troubleshooting re-writing or re-structuring certain parts of the tracks and means having to perform perfectly where as work live the audience has to keep up with the pace that we set. Live performances have always felt more natural and provide huge cathartic relief. There’s nothing quite like the high you get before, during and after playing a gig, especially to a lively crowd.
Across Phlegm theres a lot of bossa nova rhythms are there any other genres you find yourself drawing on that most wouldnt expect?
Basically everything we listen to is buried in there somewhere.
Recently vocals have been inspired by a lot of synchropated rap from artists like Bluue Face, Juggy (another brighton influence) and Tr3yway6k. They’re also massively influenced by vocal jazz artists like Amy Whinehouse and Chet Baker.
Our songwriting has been influenced by lots of indie artists like Mac DeMarco, Connan Mockasin and Mild High Club.
There’s also influence from R&B and Soul artists like Rick James even if its not immediately noticeable.
Where does the name Leeroy Salmon come from?
The depths of hell.
Your two guitarists Gabe and Alfie have been making music together since you were teenagers how has your creative process shifted over that time?
It honestly hasn’t changed that much. When we sit to write we consider the whole song a lot more than we used to but ultimately we still just sit down with guitars and feel that shit out then bring it to the boys and make a full track.
For years youve been booking and promoting yourselves independently do you feel youve gained any insights from that DIY approach?
ITS SHIT. We had no choice really, it came from necessity. In brighton it was hard booking shows at first and when we moved to Manchester we found the same thing. It was impossible to book shows without having a name for yourself. Promoters often wanted a certain level of social media following or presence that we didnt have and instead of trying to cater to that we decided to take things into our own hands.
Its very rewarding but obviously financially its incredibly unsustainable. The main thing we’ve learned is that through the DIY approach you can still make things happen if you get your heads down and graft. SINK OR SWIM MOTHERFUCKERS.
What direction do you see your music going in in future?
Ultimately, we have no idea and thats how we want it. We hope to do what we want when we want and don’t really want to be able to imagine where we’ll take it.
We’d love to take a more humanitarian and political approach to the band and the music we make, talk more about the issues in the world right now and make an impact through benefit shows and fundraisers, no matter how small the impact might be.
What do you love right now?
Right now we have huge love for all the people around us, family, friends, members of the team and all the good energy that keeps us going.
More specifically Alfie currently fucks with Ethiopian food, weed and 90s hardcore and Gabe’s loving booze and getting sweaty.
What do you hate right now?
AI. FUCK THAT BULLSHIT AND FUCK THE NEW WORLD ORDER. FUCK OPPRESSIVE POLITICS. We hate the over commercialisation of art, Nigel Farage and Andy Burnham.
Name an album youre still listening to from when you were younger and why its important to you?
ALF:
Frank by Amy Whinehouse. It’s dope and never fails. Jazz is often seen as music for an older generation but this album is modern and what shes singing about is incredibly relevant to people right now. I fuck with it and it speaks to me. Musically as well as the lyrically it is beautiful and I think its MEGA.
GABE:
It’s incredibly hard to wittle it down to one album. Timeline by Mild High Club is a big one, it was what me and Alfie we’re listening to when we started writing and I think there’s still so much to learn from the incredible compositions on that album. Also Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd and Harvest by Neil Young, these two remind me of my family and mean a lot to me personally.
When someone hears your music for the first time what do you hope sticks with them?
We just want them to feel something real
whatever that may be. That’s what we love about music and thats what we want our audience to experience withouth even necessarily being able to articulate it. Within the 3/4 minute timeframe of a song thats all we can ask for.
What bar of soap would you be?
Alf:
Something that smells like shit, like actual poo smell.
Gabe:
Wright’s Coal Tar Soap