“I haven’t spoken to my ex-boyfriend since we ended it and I doubt we’ll speak again. But it would be interesting to know what he thinks about the album, whether he would know it was about him.”
26 year singer-songwriter old Leslie Clio is tipped to be the ‘next big thing’ on the soul scene, and it’s not difficult to see why her critically acclaimed album is currently plastered all over the London Tube stations. Her fashion sense is as unique and striking as her music, and has been recognised by the writers at VICE and Topshop.
She met her producer, Nikolai Pothoff, by chance and since then they’ve worked closely together to create her sound, described as ‘a mixture between Paloma Faith and Lily Allen’. “I wrote my album with my producer and I had the ideas, he added the sounds. I write the lyrics and the melodies and have the vision. It’s like he’s the daddy and I’m the mummy.”
“He was a boyfriend of a friend of mine, I’d been in Berlin for nine months and I’d tried out stuff with other people, but it wasn’t quite right. I was sleeping over at her house, he was making breakfast in the morning and she’d send him some demos of mine and he loved it, so he invited me to his studio, and that’s how it all started. We work so well together.”
Clio met Potthoff nine months after she moved to Berlin, with a bagful of ideas and sample tapes, and she gushed about how much she loves to live in the vibrant Capital.
“Of course I love to live here. I grew up in Hamburg so Berlin is the only city to go to. I was in NYC for two months to check out the music scene, but Berlin is close and I had no money so I chose to live there instead. I love it because there’s lots of musicians and I bike everywhere, it’s still cheap and not posh or pretentious. It’s small enough to feel comfortable and at home, you can walk round a corner and bump into a friend, but it’s still big enough to get lost in and have an adventure.”
The German singer-songwriter writes exclusively in English. She had a lot to say about artists who don’t speak English as their first language. “I don’t do it for my career. When I write, I feel it in English. All of the music I listen to is English! I read a lot of English poetry too. Some of my friends sing in German, some in English, it depends. If you don’t feel comfortable singing in English, you sing in German! Simple. There’s no pressure.”
Although she admitted that she doesn’t listen to much German music, her sound has a lot of different influences, with sounds of twee clinky piano contrasted with pithy lyrics reminiscent of Adele and Lily Allen, and patches of World and Jazz influences.
“I love Cher, Blondie, a lot of African music – my mother always played African choir music around the house when I was growing up. I listen to a lot of swing, like the Andrews Sisters and this developed into soul, like I sing, like Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder. Of course, I’m 26 years old so I also love Spice Girls and Destiny’s Child!” Clio has loved music and to perform since she was young, and plays the guitar and piano herself. “There was this child star in the 60s who I was obsessed with when I was little. I’ve been in choirs since first grade and I used to always draw people on stage in Arts and Crafts. I’ve always been very interested in music.”
The interview was conducted in one of her tour venues in Frankfurt, and as she was busy with her soundcheck, Clio reminisced about her recent tour with Joss Stone. “I was really moved because Joss Stone asked me to support her early on in my career. I love her music and it happened so fast! She’s a soul singer, like me”.
Her album is all about her ex-boyfriend, and specifically about heartbreak. The music is peppered with references to the relationship and filled with a mixture of upbeat ‘girl power’-esque songs such as lead single ‘I Couldn’t Care Less’ and heartrending ballads like ‘Sister Sun Brother Moon’.
“Every song on my record except ‘I Couldn’t Care Less’ is about heartbreak. This song is the only one which is not about a boy and a girl. It’s about not letting little troubles like messing up your fingernails, or spilling coffee down yourself before an interview, or putting too much salt in your soup bother me. It’s about rising above.”
On her ex, she was very frank and honest about how the heartbreak made her feel. Clio had a ‘messy’ breakup and hasn’t spoken to her ex-boyfriend since she wrote the album. She found the notion of him listening to it and knowing that it was about him funny and said; “Every feeling you have was felt because of a certain person. I haven’t spoken to my ex-boyfriend since we ended it and I doubt we’ll speak again, but it would be interesting to know what he thinks about the album, whether he would know it was about him.”
The video for ‘I Couldn’t Care Less’ echoes the happy-go-lucky theme, and is an eclectic mix of different, seemingly random and unrelated small videos of things going wrong and Leslie skipping about ecstatically. When asked if the video was as fun to shoot as it was to watch, Clio replied; “Of course it was fun. I had all these ideas and pictures already collected. I am very lucky to have had the perfect production team and they’re my best friends still. They shot it exactly the way I told them to.”
Her fashion sense has been commended by big brands such as Topshop, which is why it’s surprising – and rare for a young female star – that she doesn’t have a stylist, not even for her music videos or album cover shoots. She has a unique, fresh and preppy sense of style, but admitted to not thinking or caring much about fashion. “When I get asked if I want a stylist, I say no, I’ll do it myself. I have my own style. I don’t look on fashion blogs or anything. I wear what I want and what’s comfortable. I love Grace Kelly but I don’t dress or look anything like her.” Touring is a hectic process – the interview was squeezed in between showering and soundchecks – and Clio spoke about the massive high that performing gives you and the slump which follows.
To conclude the interview, she spoke about how she relaxes after a show. “A can of beer. No bottles. You get lots of adrenaline and it exhausts you, after performing. The kick leaves and you just want to drink beer and then go to bed.”