Almost Famous UK: The Leisure Society

It took a full three weeks for us to recover from SXSW and wipe the Austin dust from our eyes. While there, dodging crowds careening down East 6th Street, we were pleased to catch formidable gigs from various UK artists and bands, many you’ll see on Uncensored Interview in the coming weeks: Gomez, Pete and the Pirates, Camera Obscura, Little Boots, White Lies, Ed Harcourt, John Wesley Harding, Freeland, Late of the Pier and many more.

This week on Almost Famous UK, we’re checking in with a band that sadly didn’t make the trek to the middle of Texas for BBQ and beer, but which we believe deserves to be as buzzed about in the States as they are in the land of Michelle Obama’s new best friend, Queen Elizabeth II.

While Lizbet’s new iPod might not include The Leisure Society’s comely and contemplative debut album The Sleeper, the Brighton-and-London based band is definitely on Elbow singer Guy Garvey’s Apple device; the singer deemed the group’s gentle single “The Last Of The Melting Snow” his favorite track of 2008. And fans agreed – when The Leisure Society finally released  The Sleeper in late March, it topped the UK iTunes folk charts.

There’s a mellow, though prickly, grace to band’s eleven-track album which, like recent releases from Fleet Foxes, Department of Eagles and M. Ward, makes no apologies for a deep-rooted affection for acoustic forebears like Fairport Convention, Tim Buckley, Gram Parsons or Simon & Garfunkel.

On The Leisure Society’s impressive debut, chamber pop, folk and rock blissfully collide and lushly orchestrated songs take unexpected directions;  “A Short Weekend Begins With Longing” unfurls with the assured air of a long lost Jimmy Webb or Buffalo Springfield gem before it playfully veers into a cheekily crooned psychedelic coda. Hand claps and banjo punctuate “Give Yourself A Fighting Chance”  and the band’s latest single, “A Matter of Time,” is a corker; a soaring six-minute, fiddle-fueled odyssey that ricochets from calypso grooves to gorgeous, Brian Wilson-worthy harmonies.

“I’m actually not a huge fan of traditional folk music,” admits singer and songwriter Nick Hemming to Uncensored Interview via email, “but I adore the songwriting and musicianship of Nick Drake and John Martyn. I’ve always been more into pop music; Sixties bands like The Lovin’ Spoonful, the Beach Boys and Love.

“I actually had the chance to meet [Love frontman] Arthur Lee once. I was standing beside him at the bar during a show at the Albert Hall. I found his reputation and cowboy hat a little intimidating so never approached him, a decision I really regret now.”

The quick success of “Last of the Melting Snow” surprised Hemming and his bandmates. “I was amazed by the reaction,” he says. “We had another song lined up for our first single but at the last minute I decided that, as I’d written it on New Years Eve, “Melting Snow” would be an appropriate single to release at the end of the year. Within days of sending it out it was being played by all my favorite DJs. I did an interview on Guy Garvey’s radio show [on BBC 6 Music] and he read out all the lyrics to the song. I couldn’t quite believe it was happening.”

Hemming, who holds a day job at a fabric warehouse, has experienced several incarnations in his career. Years back in the quaintly-named Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire, he formed the band She Talks To Angels with friends Paddy Considine, Rich Eaton and Shane Meadows. Meadows and Considine quit to focus on filmmaking as director and actor respectively – yes, the same Meadows (This is England) and Considine (Hot Fuzz, The Bourne Ultimatum) who collaborated on 1999’s A Room for Romeo Brass.

Hemming wrote the soundtrack to that film and then resurfaced again in the band Unisex, aka The Telescopes, in the mid-90s, but that tenure eventually ended. In the early naughts, Hemming befriended singer Christian Hardy, moved to South London and the pair began to make music as The Leisure Society. Both still work with other bands; Hemming is a member of Shoreline and Sons of Noel and Adrian, all part of the folk-focused Willkommen Collective of musicians.

Eventually, The Leisure Society expanded to encompass its current lineup of Hemming, Hardy , Helen Whitaker, William Calderbank, Michael Siddell, Sebastian Hankins, Darren Bonehill and Beatrice Sanjust di Teulada.

The Leisure Society has a busy summer ahead touring the UK and Europe; Hemming is quite excited that they’ll be supporting the Divine Comedy at the Faraday Festival in Barcelona on July 3rd. The band will also play the The Green Man Festival in Wales, August 21-23rd, which includes Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, Vetiver and Andrew Bird in its starry lineup.

How does a large band like The Leisure Society manage the touring life? “We all cope in different ways,” says Hemming. “Christian bounces around like Tigger, Will & Mike instigate card games, Helen Twitters, Daz usually meets us at the venue as he has a young family to think of, Bas is the ultimate professional and sustains himself with endless cups of coffee.

I’m relatively insular, trying to deal with pre-gig apprehension. Fortunately we all get on really well and there hasn’t been a single fistfight on this tour. No lost instruments yet either, although I’m sure it’s only a matter of time–I have a huge collection of stringed instruments (including five ukuleles) and I’m terribly forgetful and disorganized.”

Hemming says that a collection of new songs is nearly finished and he hopes the band will begin recording a second album this autumn. “Will’s parents have a converted old chicken shed that we recorded a lot of the first album in,” Hemming explains. “It’s quite inspirational chopping logs for the fire in between banjo takes.”

UPDATE:  On April 21st, one week after we profiled The Leisure Society, Nick Hemming was nominated for the UK’s prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Best Song, for “The Last of the Melting Snow,”  the first time a musician without a publishing contract has ever been shortlisted for the honor. Oddly, he’ll be competing against Elbow’s Guy Garvey, his longtime supporter, as well as The Last Shadow Puppets. The Ivor Novello Awards will be presented on May 21st in London.

You can catch The Leisure Society in session on BBC 6 Music, digital radio, this Sunday, April 19th on Jon Richardson‘s show at 10:00 AM (BST), 5:00AM (EDT), 2:00 AM (PDT). If you’re not an early riser, never fear; you can listen back to the show at your leisure for seven days after the broadcast.