Meet Leon from Perth electronic three piece, Crooked Colours. We had a chat to Leon about ‘Do It Like You Do’ and its remix pack, forthcoming performances at Laneway Festival, and new album. We previously had a chat to the band with the release of the Vera LP, which you can read, HERE.

Futuremag Music: Hey Leon, how’s things going?

Crooked Colours: I’m really good, just chilling in my studio finishing up a couple of songs.

Futuremag Music: Can you talk us through your relationship with music? Where did the Crooked Colours project start for you?

Crooked Colours: I started off DJing and playing clubs. I met up with Phil through some mutual friends, and he was doing some acoustic gigs. I had a couple of songs, and he jumped on them and did a few vocals. That’s basically how the Crooked Colours project came to life.

Futuremag Music: ‘Do It Like You’ is such a strong track, can you outline your writing and production for the track?

Crooked Colours: We were on our last tour and just mucked around with a few things and ‘Do It Like You’ started with the intro guitar loop. We just built on that and gave the track some more energy behind it. Lately we’ve been wanting more oomph into our sets, so we have the big pumping chorus too.

Futuremag Music: With impromptu production on tour, is that how you make a lot of your music?

Crooked Colours: Not so much the first album, that was more of us trying to get an album finished in the studio. After that we were on the road a lot, so whenever we had a chance we jumped on our laptops and jammed to get ideas. We get influenced from wherever we are around the world. That’s how we’re doing now, these days.

Futuremag Music: What’s your favourite part of the writing process?

Crooked Colours: My favourite part is the initial idea of the song, where you’re like “oooh yeah, this could be something.” You start working on it and get addicted to it. You keep working on it until it builds into an actual song. Another great bit is being able to play it live and watching people’s reactions.

Futuremag Music: Talking about people’s reactions, what have they been like with the ‘Do It Like You’ remix pack? 

Crooked Colours: A lot of the time the planning goes through our record label, so we give them free rein on hitting up artists to put their perspective on the song. This time we wanted Mickey Kojack to do a remix, cause we’re huge fans of his stuff. What he did was really sick, and we love playing it in our DJ sets. We like having a lot of house remixes done because that’s what we play in our DJ sets. So, Sweat It Out is a massive label in the house scene, so they have heaps of contacts in that world.

 Futuremag Music: Continuing on performing, you’re playing at Laneway Festival next year. Can you talk us through that?

Crooked Colours: We’re definitely going to be doing a live set. Liam is on the drums, Phil is singing and on guitar, and I’m on keys and bass. We’re going to play a heap of new music from the new album and give that a road test. We want to see which ones resonate with our fans and what tracks work best in a live performance. It’s a good chance to give it a whirl and see what people like.

Futuremag Music: Have you played any of these tracks live before?

Crooked Colours: We’ve only played ‘Do It Like You’ and ‘I’ll Be There’ off the latest album so far. They’ve gone down really well, so I’m hoping people will vibe our other songs. Testing is nerve-racking but exciting because we’re not sure if people will like it or not. 

Futuremag Music: Who are you excited to see at Laneway Festival?

Crooked Colours: A lot of the time we hang around and checkout whoever is there. I know Methyl Ethel are playing at all the shows, and we’re big fans of their music. We’ve played a couple of shows together, so that’s always fun. They’re also bringing out their new album next year, so I’m stoked to hear a few new tracks from them. 

Futuremag Music: Thanks so much for the chat, hope you have a great one!

Crooked Colours: Thanks, you too!

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