Instrumentation is a huge part of Leon Thomas‘ new EP, Pholks, and he says that was an intentional decision. Speaking to The Cut, he shares it was his way to send a message about the importance of live music.
“I’m a big fan of artists like Jimi Hendrix and Prince, and I think being able to accentuate live musicianship is an important thing in R&B right now,” he explains. “There’s just a lot happening on the technology front, and I think it was important for me to put my foot down and say, ‘Live music still matters.””
“Musicians getting together and jamming through a record is important…,” he continued. “I wanted to dig into that…and Pholks was an opportunity for me to make a band with my friends and experiment with that live sound in R&B.”
The EP was also Leon’s way of documenting his life and journey on how to love while simultaneously paying homage to the ’70s era, with which he “was obsessed.”
“[Pholks] was an opportunity for us as a collective — me, Robert Gehringer and David Phelps — to put our brains together to create aspects of a crossover that felt genuinely specific to us but also paid homage to the folks that inspire us, hence the title,” he says.
Some of those inspirations Leon mentions, in addition to Hendrix and Prince, are Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Quincy Jones.
Pholks is now available to stream.
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