Leonard: The Importance Of Being Leonard

No one can say Auckland guitar-pop band Leonard haven't paid their dues. Over the past five years the band have self-funded two EPs and are now about to release their debut longplayer, 'An Implied Desire', a 12 track album recorded and produced without the financial backing of a record label, major or minor.

"What a lot of people don't realise is that whatever a record company advances to you, you've got to pay back from album sales," points out James Clark, Leonard's singer.

"And it's difficult for a New Zealand band to make that money back with their first album," continues bassist and vocalist Mark Stebben.
"Doing it this way," finishes James, "... if we don't sell anything it's our own fault, but if we do really well then we can say we did that by ourselves."

James and Mark, along with bandmates Matt Barnett (guitar, vocals), Erik Johansen (guitar) and drummer Andrew Parkin shared the $18,000 it cost to produce 'An Implied Desire' and are more than happy with the decision to pay their own way.

"It sounds like a lot of money," says James, "... but we had a bit of that money put away from selling EPs and T-shirts, and then split the balance up between five of us. I was talking to NZ On Air earlier today and they were saying: 'Funding is quite tough these days, so don't get too despondent' and I thought, 'despondent?'. We're six weeks away from having a full album out, and not a lot of people even get this far, so we're not despondent, we're stoked."

Recorded with long-time producer Andrew Buckton at York Street Studios, 'An Implied Desire' is teeming with the catchy, melodic songs that are Leonard's trademark. The album is so consistently good the lads are having trouble deciding on which one to use as the first single.

"There'll probably be a punch-up about that tomorrow at practice," laughs Mark. "There's a possibility of about five songs that could be singles, but the first single is important – you want to put your best foot forward."

Leonard will press 1000 copies of the album, and are optimistic about even bigger sales. That optimism is well founded, given the strength of their songwriting and the fact that their first two EPs – 'The, How Does That One Go?' in 1998 and 'Looking Up' released two years later – each sold more than 500 copies. The Paul Weller single from the first EP enjoyed ample airtime on the Channel Z network.

The album, which includes one song from each EP, will be distributed through Global Routes. The official release party will be held at Auckland's Kings Arms on May 1, which also happens to be the first day of NZ Music Month, a spot of luck the band is taking as a good sign.

"It's fair to say that we had a bit of a lull after our last couple of EPs," says Mark. "Everyone was just sort of doing other things, and the whole momentum died down a bit."