A QUICK CHAT WITH JUST A LEO

Congratulations on releasing ‘Little Rollercoaster’! What was your inspiration behind the song?

Kalliope: We were in the middle of writing a completely different song, where seemingly out of nowhere, the entire chorus (lyrics, melody, chords) came all at once. I think it was because Andie was being really cute. I felt really loved up and wanted to express that innocent pure cuteness in the best way I could—singing. 

Can you tell us a bit about how the concept for the video came along?

Andie: I’ve always been in love with the one-shot take. I feel that they make live performances more ‘intimate,’ as if you’re really there wandering your attention around. For our first set of live videos, we performed on a stage-like set-up, and it didn’t give Kiralee and Sam (our Director and Director of Photography) enough space to really move around. 

We also wanted to have some extra ‘eye-candy.’ At the time when we were kicking around ideas (dancers, props etc), Kalliope and I looked at each other and said almost in tandem: What if we build a custom light show?  At the time, we had not a single clue how to engineer a lightshow. What ensued was plenty of YouTube deepdives, intense brainstorming sessions, hair being pulled out and endless trial and error until we eventually figured it out. 

Fun fact: the sheet/light back-drop was inspired by a gig Grizzly Bear (USA) played at the Melbourne Zoo. They hung large strips of sheets that were staggered and bounced light through them, and we were floored with the amount of depth it brought to the stage. 

I hear there were a few obstacles to film the video. What happened?

Andie: Almost everything. First, we couldn’t get any lights to test, because the nearest lights we had access to were interstate during the lockdowns. 

Next, we found out last minute that the studio we hired didn’t want us to record live drums, so that got canned. 

When we finally got the lights from NSW, we discovered a concept called ‘banding,’ which is where the refresh rate of the LEDs and the camera’s shutter speed/frame rate don’t sync up and you get ugly rolling bands and/or strobing on the footage. 

We bought a power conditioner to try and fix the issue at the power level: Didn’t work. 

We tried different camera settings (as well as hacking the camera settings): Didn’t work. 

Then we found a new location (home), and tested hire lights. It worked! No more banding. We celebrated.

Come shoot day, a full day of set-up, get the camera on the lights. The banding is back, (but not as bad.) We got very sad, but ultimately said f*** it, and proceeded anyway. 

Then we did the shoot, and everything was great, hooray! That was, until the day before we released our first song of the year.  Our guitarist left out of the blue. He’s in all of the live videos… 

So, in hindsight, maybe it was the universe telling us not to do the shoot, save our time and money…? Who knows? We’re still very proud of how they look, and glad we did them. 

How did you first start playing music?

Kalliope: Let’s just say performing is in my genetics. When I was 3 years old, my parents worked at a factory. Normally my Yiayia would take care of me, but sometimes mum would take me to work instead. Whenever she did, I would make all the workers stop what they were doing, and I would perform for them (at the time I was obsessed with Madonna’s track ‘Music’ and Thelma Houston’s ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’). And if anyone interrupted me during the performance, I’d stop, and begin the song again.

Who/what would you say are the biggest influences on your song-writing?

Andie: I think the easiest thing to say is that, when we write, we just make music we want to hear. We’re each inspired by a really wide range of artists and genres, from neo-soul to early rock n’ roll, metal to indie, jazz to EDM. But we overlap especially on a lot of early 2000’s dance music and Latin-American music: Sambas, bossa-novas, bolero’s etc. Anything that sounds nostalgic. 

Is there anyone in particular from the Australian music scene that you would love to collaborate with?

Kalliope: We would love to work with so many artists! We have so many in Australia to choose from. But to name a few, I’d love to do topline on a track with Flume, collab with Tash Sultana and make noise with Holy Holy. 

What’s planned for the remainder of 2022?

Andie: We’ve got our 2nd EP that’s ready to release called Outta My Way. So, this year, we’re going to release that. We’re itching to hit the road to play some shows and meet some new people, so an EP release tour is definitely on the cards. We also have another EP that’s almost ready to record, so we’ll have next year’s music covered too!