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Photography: Paul Phung

I promised there will be more Leno Lovecraft this month, right? First off, here’s a casual Q&A style interview we did over email:

Where is the name from? Any relation to H. P. Lovecraft?
It’s my real name.

I heard you’ve recently moved from New Zealand to Paris, France. Was this because of your musical career, or personal reasons?
I’m actually in Avignon for a few months then moving to Paris. My girly moved a month ago too so that was a huge reason. New Zealand music industry is crap for so many reasons, and France/Europe is awesome. I have always wanted to live in Europe since I was a little kiddy too.

You are doing live performances, with on-stage vocals and instrumentals. Considering it’s electronic music, how does it actually go? Can you play all your songs this way?
When I play live I sing and play as cheesey 80′s guitar solos as possible. Another reason for moving to Paris / Europe is so I can have a band in Europe and tour there, it’s hard lugging an entire band over from New Zealand, flights cost a lot from there. I’m going to aim to have a full band sometime soon hopefully :) A lot of my music is actually instruments these days, the EP was half done with real drums and a lot of the keyboard lines were played, the others I will sequence live. It’s really nice to play with instruments, there is way more atmosphere and spontaneity and it’s totez more fun.

I think I can distinguish several vocals in your songs. Whom do they belong to?
My pet lizard Harry sometimes generates the vocals for me. In return I give him tasty starfish. I also do some of the vocals too.

You pulled your first album, not so long after releasing it. Any chance of seeing it or the songs again, reworked or otherwise?
I think my favourite track’s from the album are on the EP. If anyone wants the album you can ask me :P [You heard the man, bug him here -musigh]

Does your music have a story behind it? (Ever thought about a Leno Lovecraft Interstella?)
Haha! Leno Lovecraft Interstella 5000. Seriously though we actually thought about this. Me and an amazing video/graphic artist called Bruce Babcock are working on a video right now which is looking pretty rad. It’s kinda lo fi sci fi, psychedelic alien tropicalness weirdness. We have a babe model and a really hot guy it’s looking pretty demented in a cool way.

What is your first memory about making / playing music?
I remember when I was about 10 and my brother had a drum kit, and I was recording it with an old stereo’s tape recorder and being ecstactic about being able to recording something.

What is your favorite song / track at the moment?
So many! Sparks “Number 1 Song In Heaven” for example, if you want to listen to my favourite tracks listen to my mixtapes on Soundcloud, I usually put the tracks I’m obsessed with.

What do you do besides music? Any hobbies, part time jobs, interesting facts you think might worth sharing?
Lots! I like drawing, art, psychology (my entire family are psychologists), science, fashion, etc…

Leno also let “Cybernetic” — possibly his most amazing song to date — from his upcoming EP posted on ‘musigh’ only. Since the EP is not even released yet, treat this as a super hyper mega exclusive, and don’t forget to buy the EP on the 4th of February! (Will be available at Bandcamp.)

Leno Lovecraft – Cybernetic (exclusive)