System of a county Down

In the gospel according to Leya, you can’t be too overqualified to rock ’n’ roll – all their number bar drummer Paul Hamilton are graduates of the Bangor Tech (or to give it its full name, The North Down and Ards College of Further and Higher Education). Usually Rock School backgrounds get people twitching, but as bassist Gareth Hughes explains, it needn’t all be dodgy prog rock combos and fusion licks.

“In fairness, this was more a course that was geared towards the studio side of things,” he says. “There was a large emphasis on live performing but it wasn’t, ‘This is how you play rock ’n’ roll’ or anything, the theory tutor on it is a bit of a nutcase. It was a very liberal music school in that sense; you had everybody across the board from techno DJs to death metallers and country people. The benefit of this college was that you used to do a lot of cross projects with the media departments, like scoring music for their films and whatever theatre shows were being put on – how music doesn’t just relate to the stage but also on screen.”

Add to that another taboo in cooler than thou circles: a yard-long resume of session work with names like Elton John, Ronan Keating, Jools Holland and Eddi Reader. Granted, hardly the critics’ hitlist of the year, but one can only assume acts of that stature don’t go around recruiting gimps from outside the local Spar. Plus, as it transpires, Gareth also did time in the remarkable Ich Liebe Dich incarnation of the Gavin Friday/Maurice Seezer ensemble, and so got to trade chops with the amazing percussionist Michael Blair (best known for his groundbreaking work on Tom Waits’ Raindogs).

“I have very fond memories of those two weeks, a week of shows and eight days of incredibly intense rehearsals beforehand,” Gareth says. “I was a kid in a candy store with Michael, ’cos he was a hero of sorts. He’s a wonderful musician but he’s also a gentleman. And Gavin’s what a rock star and performer should be. We did two albums last year, still to be released – a very bizarre version of Peter And The Wolf and then we did the soundtrack for Jim Sheridan’s new movie.”

But enough of the pedigree. The business at hand is Leya, and Leya very much have their business in hand, having just signed to 2Generations Management in New York, operating in tandem with Doyle/Kos Entertainment, who between them masterminded the careers of Mariah Carey and The Cranberries in the US.

“They flew over to Belfast to meet us and spent two great days answering every inconceivable and awkward question,” Gareth explains, “and they were the right people in the end.”

The band are currently putting the finishing touches to their debut album Watch You Don’t Take Off, slated for a May release through their own Ice Block imprint with a view to major label distribution. Their sound is very much in the Big Music vein, with names like Radiohead, Muse and U2 being the most obvious references. Not the kind of thing that sits at the top of this writer’s CD pile, but there’s no denying the excellence of its execution.

“I’m all for albums that you have to have the right time and space to listen to,” Gareth resumes. “You can’t stick on Tom Waits’ The Black Rider as pleasant background listening. I’m a huge Birthday Party fan but you can’t listen to that every day. I love those albums, but I know if I put them on I’m going to be in a completely different state of mind. And that’s what we hope for with Leya, that it’s not just a quirky little pop song that’s gonna be a hit single or a popular song for a couple of months and then you forget about it. We all want it to be something where you go, ‘When I put on the Leya album it’s gonna be something that I’m gonna treasure for that hour’.”