Q: We notice everything is produced by you, tell us how you got started in music production.
LEO ARAM-DOWNS: I think my journey into music production was just a natural product of my impatience. I heard sounds in my head and wanted to hear them come to life ASAP, instead of waiting for the right person with the right tools to come along, so I just tried to learn myself. There’s been a lot of trial and error over the years, but I feel like I’m developing my own sound slowly but surely!
Q: You have an album release coming up, tell us a little more about the writing and creative process.
LEO ARAM-DOWNS: I really enjoy writing with a concept or a stimulus in mind, and more often than not that comes from outside influences (usually other media I consume that leaves an impact on me) but more recently I’ve been trying to organically come up with my own stimuli. I’ve finally reached the age where different locations have a strong nostalgic link to them, and that’s something I really wanted to tap into with this project, because it’s new to me and it was making a lasting impression when I was able to travel!
Q: In your own words, how would you describe the music that you typically create?
LEO ARAM-DOWNS: I’m trying to coin “progressive pop” as a genre. There’s so much happening in the more stereotypically “progressive” genres that I think would be incredibly exciting to fuse with modern pop song writing. That’s what I really feel like my sound is going to develop into and I can’t wait to explore the concept further.
Q: What do you do when you aren’t working on music?
LEO ARAM-DOWNS: That’s a weirdly hard one! Music in one way or another takes up a wild amount of my day. My big lockdown hobby has been chess, I’ve been doing lots of studying and playing, and I’m really enjoying being a total beginner in something new! I’ve also finally got my hands on a PS5 which is totally eating into my spare time!
Q: Relating to travel and “White Noise”, how was your experience with the lockdowns from COVID-19 in relation to your music?
LEO ARAM-DOWNS: It’s been frustrating and heart-breaking for me in the same way as it’s been for everyone else in the industry, as well as just the world over. But on the other hand, I think this period has provided me with some quiet and some calm that I wasn’t aware I needed until I was forced into it. I was able to be more explorational with my writing, I was able to put more hours into just pure guitar practice, but more important than any of that was having a far greater balance, and actually being able to prioritise things that aren’t music related. I’m certainly going to try and incorporate this kind of time into my life more regularly going forward.
Q: Looking forward from “We All Have Our Place”, what are your goals in the next 5 years?
LEO ARAM-DOWNS: I’m trying to embrace the uncertainty of not knowing what the future will hold a bit more. I think there’s excitement in opportunities coming along that I could never have predicted or wished for. The previous five years have been full of experiences like that, so I just hope I can take those in stride as well as keep pushing myself as a writer and as an artist. I’ve got a few projects in the works that I’m tremendously excited about, but I want to just go out and have raw experiences more than anything else, because that’s what I think we’ve been missing more than anything over this time.
Interviewed by Stephanie Pankewich
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