Leo on LEYO, MORE, beautiful people and feeling like being in a band
CC: MORE, LEYO, Weekend, the hit you just released... it’s all happening right now. How are you doing?
LEYO: Doing great, really busy with all the different projects but it’s all good energy and something I desperately yearned for during the COVID-crisis. That’s why I cherish it all.
CC: It’s really nice you now have two different ways of artistic freedom.
LEYO: Definitely, it so happened that on the day Weekend dropped something big was going on with LEYO labelwise, I can’t name names just yet but it’s going to be insane.
CC: Your new project LEYO, what’s the inspiration behind it?
LEYO: Simple, the love I have for house music. And I’ve come to a point that just making ‘Bizzey’ music doesn’t inspire me enough, so having that different outlet really helps. It’s about not losing the love I have for creating music by sticking to just one genre.
CC: Does that mean LEYO is just your passion project? Or are you expecting it to grow as big as Bizzey, or become even more international?
LEYO: I’ve always been ambitious, so if that were possible I’d pursue it. But I do believe every successful music project is a passion project. I don’t think industry plants last that long, the passion always wins. It’s something dear to my heart and if LEYO wouldn’t break through I would still massively enjoy it. It would of course be cool if people at home or DJs would spin my records, but having fun with LEYO is the most important thing for me.
CC: And MORE is your playground, the extension which allows you to do what you love to do?
LEYO: Yes, it definitely is. I really enjoy throwing all my friends in the DJ booth with me in a cool environment with a bottle of vodka. It also accounts as a passion project for me. Our first edition didn’t make a dime, but that’s not the reason we’re doing it. It’s about giving a platform for me, for house DJs in Brabant, which I feel is just a niche group at the moment. I’d like to use MORE to make the genre more digestible and attract even more fun people.
CC: Understandable! The first edition of MORE is just in the books, what did you think?
LEYO: It was great, I really enjoyed it. A lot of beautiful people, DJs on their A-game and everyone there was open for new music. This was not an event for the popular sing- & dance-alongs, but a platform for DJs who want to play IDs, underground tracks they find on Soundcloud or Bandcamp with 3 plays but are excellent tunes. That was the vibe MORE had, an underground party but in a sociable setting which doesn’t make it feel obscure.
CC: The perfect balance, nice. That's also how it felt for us as Calico. All around excellent feedback! Even the more mainstream-house-minded people I talked to, they got in the vibe real quick.
LEYO: Exactly, in the right jacket this just works. We wanted to massage everyone, not go all out right in the beginning and start out groovy taking people along for the ride. Yes, some people might take longer to get into the same vibe but in the end they were jumping around like its carnival.
CC: Regarding MORE and LEYO, are their any artists in the same sphere who you would like to collaborate with?
LEYO: Yes definitely, Toman is someone I connect with musically. The fun thing about LEYO is that we do everything live with our guitarist, Ben, Martijn from Noisia and Eddy, our keyboardist. (NAME CHECK PLEASE!) I surround myself with a lot of instruments in the studio so I’m never alone. Being the conductor kind of makes it feel like a band, you know? So collaborating with certain different artists is not my priority, but making music with good people is really why I’m doing this.
CC: When you’re making music with those musicians, do you use the end result as a sample?
LEYO: That depends, sometimes that does end up as the sample for something I use, but sometimes it’s just an excellent piece of music which tells a story by itself.
Seriously cool, mixing that kind of music into the house genre. Thank you very much Leo, see you in Cottage, or MORE, or Mysteryland. Best of luck with everything!
Photos by Nadine Hulleman