Description
Release Date Friday 26th September 2025
All pre-orders will be dispatched/made ready for collection on that day.
Studio Electrophonique, the solo project of singer-songwriter James Leesley, is one of the most original musical
outfits to emerge from Sheffield's current independent scene. Taking the name 'Studio Electrophonique' from
an old analogue recording studio in Sheffield, Leesley has already released two celebrated EPs under this
moniker. He will release later this year his eponymous debut album on Paris-based label Valley of Eyes Records.
It is produced by Simon Tong (The Verve, The Good, The Bad and The Queen and The Magnetic North).
James Leesley grew up in Handsworth, Sheffield where week-day evenings were spent kicking a football around
grassy urban edgelands. At the weekends, the social clubs with their glitter balls, comedians, cockle sellers and
sequin-suited cabaret singers brought a touch of glamour to this hilltop suburb on the fringe of an industrial
northern city. The stage was not some far-off place. Dreams could be made and broken under bright lights and by
the brusk tones of a bingo caller.
The classic songs, slap back echo and house organ sounds of the social club scene are in Leesley’s blood. His work
draws inspiration from the heartfelt melodies of songsmiths like Carole King and Burt Bacharach with the smokey
tenderness of vocalists such as Dusty Springfield and Elvis. Add to that his enthusiasm for American literature and
the surrealism of 60s French cinema.
After stumbling across an old 4-track tape machine at a local Bring and Buy, Leesley used it to distill these
influences into something that is spare in its sound but full in its intention and emotion. In 2019 he released
Buxton Palace Hotel on Violette Records, an EP of six odes to the mystery of modern romance, followed in 2022
by the Happier Things EP. Leesley found a fan in Richard Hawley who he joined on a tour of the UK and Ireland
and, under the Studio Electrophonique name, he played at the prestigious End of the Road and Green Man Festivals.
He was also invited by French superstar Etienne Daho to support him at the legendary Olympia in Paris. Leesley
received airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music (Steve Lamacq, Gideon Coe, Mark Radcliffe, Stuart Maconie & Tom Robinson),
BBC Radio 3 (Unclassified) and Soho Radio (Pete Paphides).
After a chance meeting with Simon Tong, the pair bonded over a love of The Velvet Underground, The Byrds, Barry
Hines’ books, Jake Thackray, Blackpool's North Pier, and late night attic-darts. At Tong’s home studio in South London
they added an assortment of vintage guitars and Casio keyboards (Pipe Organ mode) to fragments of lyrics Leesley
had scribbled on the back of betting slips and bus tickets.
The result is an 11-track album that finds big feelings in small details. Loneliness, beauty, longing and loss all linger
in the everyday occurrences: the moments of miscommunication over tea and eggs, the neatly folded pyjamas left
by a long-gone lover, the raindrops on the top deck window of a No. 52 bus, the rain-sodden faded glamour of a
cheap seaside getaway. Captured on a Tascam reel to reel, Leesley’s mesmerising debut promises to whisk any
listener away to a warm, intimate and day-dreamy place
"If you’ve yet to hear Studio Electrophonique, may I suggest you set aside an opportunity to do so. Right now, no-one
does sparse lovelorn intimacy quite as well as James Leesley. Everyone I play his songs seems to fall a little bit in love
with him." - Pete Paphides
"It’s got a really magical, close-up ambience. It does sound like it fell directly out of his imagination and onto tape"
- BBC Radio 3
Radio - Viaduct PR
Press - One Beat
Live dates - supporting The Divine Comedy>>
October 2025
06: LIVERPOOL, Philharmonic Hall
07: NOTTINGHAM, Royal Concert Hall
08: BATH, The Forum
10: GATESHEAD, The Glasshouse
11: LONDON, Barbican
12: LONDON, Barbican
13: BRIGHTON, Brighton Dome
15: CAMBRIDGE, Cambridge Corn Exchange
16: SHEFFIELD, Sheffield City Hall
17: WOLVERHAMPTON, University Of Wolverhampton At The Civic Hall
18: SWANSEA, Swansea Building Society Arena
20: GLASGOW, Royal Concert Hall
21: YORK, York Barbican
23: OXFORD, New Theatre Oxford
24: MANCHESTER, The Bridgewater Hall
25: BRISTOL, Bristol Beacon
Tracks>>
01. David and Jayne
02. Taxi Ride
03. How Can I Love Anyone Else ?
04. All-Time Biggest Fans
05. Too Many Lonely Nights
06. The World’s Most Beautiful Cinema
07. Break My Heart Again
08. Handbrake Turns
09. The Last One
10. The World’s Most Beautiful Cinema Pt.2
11. Him Without Her
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