It’s now only days away from the release of his new single ‘Love Thirsty’, and the Shire’s own Joel Leffler couldn’t be happier.
“If I’m not out gigging, I’m in the studio till two in the morning,” he says, sounding remarkably cheery despite the early hour. “On top of that I’m still working full-time, so sleep is last on my list at the moment.”
His upbeat attitude is infectious, which explains why he’s on a mission to spread his style of pop-infused funk across the airwaves. “When I was a teenager I remember pretending I was on a radio show interviewing myself – that was the only way I could get myself to sleep. I’d imagine being discovered and being interviewed about new music – that’s how I got my kicks. And now that everything seems to be becoming reality, it’s pretty exciting, to be honest.”
But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the hard-working singer-songwriter. Starting out young, Leffler says he’s had his fair share of hard knocks. “I was given my first guitar when I was 13. My dad would teach me chords and different things, and I would try my hand at songwriting, but it wasn’t until I was about 18 that I started feeling a little more confident about what I was doing.”
With Leffler playing mainly rock and blues music back then, soon heavyweights of the Australian music scene began to take notice, and the artist found himself as the special guest of several major acts. “I was playing for some pretty decent names in the industry like Diesel, Wendy Matthews and Ian Moss, but then I hit a spot where everything just kind of stopped,” he says. “I did nothing for a couple of months and I started questioning myself, so I just put music to one side and decided not to worry about it any more.”
Leffler was living life away from the spotlight when a series of personal issues sparked the inspiration he needed to pick up the guitar again. “That kicked off a ridiculous amount of new ideas and I started feeling more confident about myself again, and I did a run of ten shows between April and May this year.”
It was around this time Leffler started listening to different kinds of music, and that would be the catalyst for his new sound. “I started listening to X by Ed Sheeran and it opened my mind to a whole new world of songwriting. Instead of writing with the guitar in hand, I started writing down lyrics and the melodies that I had in my head. Then when I had the opportunity to get to the piano or a guitar, I already had an idea of what I wanted the sound to be – it changed the direction of my songwriting.”
Fast-forward to 2016 and Leffler has signed a deal with Sydney’s Foghorn Records, alongside finishing work on his second EP with the help of Sony Music Australia’s in-house engineer and ARIA-nominated producer, Peter Holz. “I’m so lucky I got to work with Pete Holz – he is a killer!” Leffler says. “We laid down these tracks on the electric guitar. These songs have the pop sensibilities of Ed Sheeran with the electric funk of Bruno Mars, so it’s kind of a unique mix.
“I just want to start building on this new sound and my career. I’m 26 now, and I started when I was 18, so it’s been eight years of work. I’ve been put in situations where I had to sink or swim. I’ve learnt to take some hard lessons and turn them into a positive thing. Now I just want to get out there and play as much as I can.”
Joel Leffler‘s ‘Love Thirsty’ single launch takes place onThursday November 17 atBrass Monkey, with Josh Johnstone.
