Interview with The Great Leslie

A new band with tonnes of radio plays and a foot in the door with Kerrang! and Marshall Records? Here comes The Great Leslie…

RECORD WEEKLY’S INTERVIEW WITH THE GREAT LESLIE

Hiya guys, how’s it going?

Really well thanks! Thanks for having a discussion with us.

No problem! Introduce us to The Great Leslie then. Where did the name come from?

The Great Leslie is a metaphysical, royal, Bond-like, Spartacus-esque being, originally in the guise of a man called Tony Curtis and now personified by us. In the film The Great Race, the main character [Curtis] is called Leslie. We found common ground in the film, as we were all familiar with it from our childhoods. At the time of choosing our name, this was one of about 200 options we came up with.

Aw fantastic. Which bands and artists have been the most influential on your sound since forming?

Broadly speaking, each of us in TGL has our own influences which go into own unique ‘sound’. However, that’s probably a more subconscious thing as musicians. We like to try and pull from bands happening right now that we love, like Declan Welsh and The Decadent West, Circa Waves, Sports Team. But we also draw on the classics we’ve listened to our whole lives, such as The Killers, Arctic Monkeys, David Bowie, Queen… pretty much anything with a disco beat!

It’s been two years since the pandemic properly began in the UK. How have you fared generally and musically?

Thinking back on the best part of the last two years, it’s fair to say that, in many ways, life as an artist/musician was very difficult. Having said that, the pandemic inadvertently gifted us with the most precious of all things: time.

We formed a new band which has since released nine singles, and two of those have been crowned BBC Introducing Suffolk’s’ ‘Track of the Week’. We’ve had repeated support from the late Janice Long on BBC Wales, loads of airplay on Planet Rock with Wyatt Wendels, and plenty on Kerrang! Radio from Johnny Doom, plus on Radio X with John Kennedy. We’re now also in the finals for Kerrang! and Marshall’s recording contract.

Ah yes, so tell us all about your progress with the Kerrang!/Marshall Records competition…

Ultimately we made it all the way to the final out of 900 bands! We didn’t win this one but that’s okay; look how far we got.

Absolutely, it’s really a major achievement. Well done!

In fact, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters for putting in so many votes for us. We know that, from our group of bands we achieved over 50% of all public voting, so we owe you all a huge gesture of gratitude.

Can you talk us through your latest tunes too? Are there any newbies on the horizon?

We are currently writing music for our next releases and booked to go into the studio very soon! As release dates are not official yet, the best place to find out more is on our social channels or website. You can find us with the username @thegreatleslieband on all the normal platforms. Our website is the same as well (www.thegreatleslieband.com) and you can join the mailing list from there.