An Interview With Les Lekin
Just before the end of the previous year, a great album stood on my way and demanded it's place on my everyday playlist, since its adventurous tunes were leniently astonishing. The album's title is All Black Rainbow Moon and the name of its young in the Heavy scene creators is Les Lekin and since they're still an underground act, i thought it would be very interesting to ask them a few questions about themselves. Here's the Q&A with their quitar player, Peter.
Hey Les Lekin and a Happy New Year! How's the first days of 2015 for you?
Hey Lyk. Happy new year to you too! The new year was quite nice so far, thanks.
The Band was formed only a few years ago, so i think a mini bio of yours, would be really helpful for all of us who want to know a few more things about you.
Les Lekin was formed in 2011 by the current line-up. A few months later Wolfgang joined us on vocals and organ/synth. It took about 1,5 year to find our sound and finaly in 2013 we decided to remain as a 3-piece and Wolfgang who was a very important part of the "evolution" of LL left the band, but stays as a friend. In the following time we wrote the material for ABRM and played a few gigs in Austria.
What's the musical background of you guys, i mean, what's your main influences?
We mainly growed up with Heavy-Metal and Grunge Music. Our main influences today can be found in Psychedelic, Doom, Stoner, Sludge and so on.
2014 must have been a busy and exciting year for you since your first release came out. I suppose you feel happy and relieved at the same time, or is it anxiety about it's route on the musical World?
Yeah 2014 was exciting. First the recording, then the release and finally a little Germany-tour with our close friends from Sativa Root. The response of our album from all over the world was surely the most exciting thing in 2014.
All Black Rainbow Moon has received a big amount of positive reviews and am quiet sure that heavy music fans also loved it. Did you expect such a great amount of really good feedback?
By far not! The big amount of positive feedback was a big surprise to us. The release is now more than 3 months old and we are still stoked. This motivated us so much, that we are already working on new stuff for a second album.
Many terms and genres appeared on various reviews of All Black Rainbow Moon but what's your thoughts on this? How would you describe your music to someone that has never listened not to a single tune of yours?
We call it “Heavy Psych” or “psychedelic Stoner Rock”. One guy on the Internet wrote: “Its like a Black Sabbath Riff played by Electric Moon” or another guy called it: “Heavy Space Doom”. In reviews we have been compared with bands like Colour Haze, Glowsun, Pelican, Wo Fat, Monkey 3, Red Sparowes, My Sleeping Karma and so on. Those are big names and great bands, so we would not compare ourselves with them. But to give someone an idea of what we make, those are good examples.
And since we're already into All Black Rainbow Moon, would you please give us some more info about it's creation?
We create songs mostly the same way. Someone comes with a riff, a melody or just a sound and we are jamming over it for a while. And what remains after a period of time, is the song.
I firmly beleive that the production of your debut is topnotch and fits perfectly your relentless tunes, since it gives them a strong live feeling. Who's responsible for that and does this have something to do with the way you recorded it?
We recorded it Live in our Rehearsal Room, without any overdubs or something. The mixing was done by our friend Georg who is a real sound-nerd and also a great guitar player. He also helped us during the recoring-sessions and borrowed us some equipment, like microphones. The Mastering was done by Rene who is a professional Audio-Engineer, guitarist of the German band Wight and also Tour-Engineer of (for example) My Sleeping Karma. He also helped us a lot during the pre-production. All in all it was a very familiar and relaxed situation during the whole process, and that was very important for us. We can only play our music in a Live-Situation, because all the instruments and even the musicans themselves react to each other and this is something we use.
Now that your debut is a few months old, would you change something on it if given the opportunity to do so? And if yes, what would that be and why?
We have some ideas for the second album, but we would not change anything on ABRM. It would surely sound different if we would record it once more, but that is the way we are, we sound diffent every time we play. Also the solos are never played the same way twice.
The purely instrumental shape of All Black Rainbow Moon is something that you intent to keep the same for your next releases or are there any thoughts to add some vocals to your music?
This will mainly stay the same. We are experimenting with some analog-synth-sound and even vocals, not in a traditional way, but more as an additional layer to the soundwall. If any of that finds its way to a second album, who knows.
The debut's self-released and am wondering if that's something you wanted to do this way and maybe keep on doing it for your future releases or are you interested in starting a relationship with a record label?
We self-released it becauce we have no label. Thanks to services like Bandcamp this is pretty easy to do. But when the right Label comes along our way, we will surely consider getting in a relationship. Some things are much easier with a partner and some not.
Would you please share with us your plans for the near future regarding Les Lekin? When shall we expect a new recording from you?
We are already working on new stuff and we are pretty sure to make another album, but we have no time-schedule so far. We are trying to play one or two fetivals in middle-europe. There are so many great bands out there, so it is very difficult for us to get there. Les Lekin is not a big name in the genre, more like an insiders’ tip.
Shall we expect to see you on a European tour the coming months and what are the chances of you playing live in Greece?
As we mentioned before, we have no label. We also have no booking agency or something similar and we all 3 have normal jobs. So its pretty hard to do a tour. It would surely be great to be on tour in europe and even in greece, especially now that we got a lot of positive feedback from you guys. But I don't think this will happen in the near future. But we learned one thing so far: “Never Say Never”.
What's your biggest ambitions and dreams regarding Les Lekin?
The release of a LP and even playing a few festivals. A record deal maybe. But if all stays like it is now, we are happy as well. We got each other and a few people all over the world who like our music. This is by far more than we could imagine, when we started Les Lekin.
Since we're still early in 2015 would guys share with us some of the bands and albums that impressed you during 2014?
Oh there are a lot of bands out there we like. Its pretty hard only to name a view, although this list would change every day. Just to name a view: Otehi, Fever Dog, Dopelord, Radar Men From The Moon, Mantra Machine, Sun of Man, Sativa Root, Timestone, Colour Haze, 1000Mods, Monomyth, Arbouretum, Holy Mount, Solar Corona, Spiral Guru,.... and many more.
That's all from me guys. Thank you very much for this. The epilogue is yours.
The famous last words: If you can spend 5 euros for a cup of coffee, you can sure spend 5 euros for an album you like… This would be really helpful for all of us. Thanks for your support.
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