VIDEO PREMIERE: Irish indie trio Leveland unveil debut single 'National Treasure'

Hot Press are delighted to premiere the debut single from Irish three-piece Leveland, 'National Treasure'.

Landing tomorrow via Northern Ireland-based Super Native Records, the shimmering cut of brooding alternative indie was produced by Martin Corrigan and features hints of dreamy nostalgia.

‘National Treasure’ delivers an evocative soundscape of shiny, harmony-laden guitar and richly textured percussion. Introspective lyrics reflect on the stalemate situation of a relationship through a series of bleak yet playful imagery, yet neither participant is willing to walk away or fix the problem.

"It's a song about the withering end of a relationship, whether it be with your friends or partner. I think at a certain point in my life I started to accept things for the way they were rather than strive to improve them," Leveland said of their debut track.

"This of course led to the end of many personal relationships and in turn alienation. I found it fitting to write about these matters with a smirk, confessing the end of some of the best years of my life with a sort of 'Oh well' attitude. The writing occurred at the beginning of the pandemic, however I felt like I'd been self-isolating for years at that point, hence 'Cut me out of cardboard stick me by your side'."

"Throughout the song I'm trying to convey something intangible through rather bleak physical imagery. The haunted house, the cancelled holidays and owning it all at the same time."

Leveland are composed of Oisín ó'Scolaí on vocals, guitars, keys, synths, percussion; Chris Doherty on bass guitar and Stephen Leacock on drums. At the start of 2020, Leveland frontman Oisín ó'Scolaí was recording as a solo artist under his own name and at his wit's end trying to shake up the space he was in sonically.

When the pandemic hit, he retreated home to rural Ireland where he began writing and recording new songs in a spare room in his mother's house, with no aim other than to save the songs he’d written for the studio. Writing with this new mindset led to the artist recording without any restrictions in terms of genre or lyrical substance.

Within a short space of time, the frontman was ready to present a batch of new songs to his Belfast based producer Martin Corrigan, and the artist formally known as Oisín ó'Scolaí was never mentioned again.

Signing with an exciting new independent label has propelled the emerging band's momentum, it seems.

"This started as a project recorded in my mother's spare room and has since gone through a long production process to get it where it is now, so far from the lo-fi tracks they started off as," Oisín tells Hot Press. "We were recording parts and mixing the album above Dragon Records in Belfast. While hanging out around the shop between sessions, Martin was approached to produce an album by the folks at Super Native. After playing what we'd been working on they were keen to release it as their first release."

Leveland (pronounced as Level Land) are set to announce live dates in the coming months, watch this space.

"This endeavour opened a lot of doors for me, from working with producer Martin Corrigan, drummer Stephen Leacock (General Fiasco) and Irish visual artist, Megan McClean who created the video for the albums' title track to follow this September," Oisín adds.

"I'm really excited for the year to come, between working with Super Native Records and releasing our debut album after a long quiet year, I'm really happy to be putting something out there."

Listen to the hypnotic 'National Treasure' below: