[/caption]It's been a long time coming, but Saskatoon-to-Toronto Hip Hop artist LEO37 finally has a new recorded release on the horizon. The EP, entitled Fanfare was recorded with Toronto producer/multi-instrumentalist John Poon.
"(He's a) phenomenal artist," said Leo in an online interivew. "Most every element on the album was played by him (keyboards, synths, drums, bass, guitars, etc.) and working with him was an absolute pleasure.
"Essentially I've never been in studio with someone who I felt outworked me," he said. "I hate to feel like I'm being outworked, so it was good to have him there 'cause just his presence made me wanna work that much harder. On top of that, we were just on the same wave length the whole time we were working on this."
This is technically Leo's first release in nearly five years, which has given him time to gain a different world view.
"I'm a lot more confident in what I believe in and what I don't believe in and I actually feel like I've lived enough life where I have something to contribute in terms of perspective and experience," he said. "The content is darker then on any of my previous releases, and I'm lot more aggressive than in the past but hopefully people can still see the light at the end of the tunnel in these songs and sense the implied upward turn."
This aggressiveness rears its head on the title track of the EP, a short, snarling track with harshly minimal production and a very combative vibe. Check out the track below, or head over to LEO37's bandcamp to grab a free copy for yourself:
Leo has also just released a video for the track. The video was shot by Joyce Wong and edited, animated and directed by another Saskatoon export, Howie Shia.
"The song is minimal so we wanted to make sure the visuals depicted that," he said. "Howie's a genius. And I hate how carelessly that word is used, but for Howie, it applies. He just sees things differently from everyone and thankfully, what he sees is generally always a mindf*ck (in a good way). I was just blessed that him and Joyce had the time to do this for me. I'm definitely humbled by all the people who worked on this project with me and I can't wait for y'all to see the rest of it. " Check the video out here:
