Taken from forthcoming EP ‘Fear Is Heavy’ due November 2020
Indie-pop Welsh singer-songwriter / musician Leon Stanford returns with a brand new single ‘Plan B’, following on from his debut release ‘By Your Side and is taken from the forthcoming EP ‘Fear Is Heavy’ due to land this November.
An empowering, personal outing, ‘Plan B’ lays bare Leon’s refections on honesty and vulnerability, coupled with intricate melodies.
Leon explains, “Plan B is about my love / hate relationship with being a musician. As someone who’s been in a band for a good few years before my solo project, I have dealt with my fair share of hope / failure and reviews but there’s never really been a Plan B. I guess music was my first love and like many musicians and people in the arts I feel like there has been times where I have exhausted myself whilst put everything on record to be looked past. Despite how much it tears you apart and leaves you questioning and redefining who you are, we always find we can never give up the things and ones we love the most that keep us chasing and on our toes till the end.”
The new EP ‘Fear Is Heavy’ is an introspective thought piece, channelling the spirit of Leon’s heroes while growing up, an eclectic mix of personalities from Tom Jones, Springsteen to Adele, Otis Redding to Joni Mitchell, Ben Folds to Norah Jones, Counting Crows to Van Morrison, the list goes on.
Leon recalls, “I have spent years writing songs in a band but the last year or two I focused on my solo work, travelling between London, Bristol and Cardiff, writing with a handful of songwriters. The EP was mainly written with one of my oldest friends Danny Owen, who helps me turn ideas in my head into songs. I wrote songs on my break whilst painting empty houses and using the hallway or bathroom acoustics to blast the melodies out to no one but the freshly painted walls. I find inspiration for lyrics from the stories of people around me and the people I meet on my painting jobs as well as personal experiences.”
‘Fear Is Heavy’ delivers a distinctly emphatic and relatable perspective with its deep emotional core and textures; anchored by Leon’s contemplative vocals. He goes on to add, “’Fear is Heavy’ started as a bunch of lyrics and a melody with no chords until a session with George Glew in Bristol. The lyrics were written about when you are younger and your head’s filled with dreams and endless possibilities which adults help you to grow but as you grow older the stories of hope become replaced with hard hitting reality and pain in the fear that there is more hate out there than love. Everyone loves to see children believe in magic but in adults we tend to push the opposite and we are limited by fear.”
‘Plan B’ will be made available on all digital platforms on 20th November.