Opening up the cupboard and slicing us some tasty 80s nostalgia to nibble on, the excellent UK act Autoleisureland sat down with A&R Factory to delve into about all things Infiniti Drive and more. Honest and insightful, we’re even bigger fans now and unconditionally love their late career resurgence while doing what they love.
We appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today Autoleisureland. Firstly, please guide our loyal readers deep inside where your new music creation is currently based and who is involved in the project?
Autoleisureland: Hi, we’re Autoleisureland and we’re based between Sunderland and Newcastle, two cities in the North East of England. We’re a duo, comprising of Paul Woods, vocals, and multi-instrumentalist David Brewis. In a previous life, we were two founding members of The Kane Gang, a successful and critically acclaimed indie soul band.
Let’s swerve into your upcoming debut album Infiniti Drive, can we? What was the vision around the release and process to get the sound you both desired?
Autoleisureland: I suppose it started a few years ago when Dave was working on his instrumental album. Every week before we popped out for a beer, he’d drop off a new mix or new track. I really liked them and started on lyrics for some of them. I started giving him lyrics and ideas for new songs. Eventually, we came up with the song Autoleisureland and that was the catalyst for the sound we were going for in our heads. Stylish, sophisti-pop, sort of all our influences coming together. After that we never stopped, songs just kept on coming. We are what you could call music veterans and we never thought we’d be doing a late-career thing, but we felt it was so good and fresh, we had to put it out there.
How is the music scene doing in your local area and do you feel like live music is 100% back or not yet?
Autoleisureland: We’re no experts anymore, but it seems to be making a very slow recovery. I think it’s going to be hit again shortly with the UK recession looming.
When you close your eyes and imagine playing inside a packed stadium live with screaming fans aplenty, what does it feel like?
Autoleisureland: A long time ago, packed venues and a little less screaming. Sadly, nowadays I probably wouldn’t go to a place with that many people. Also, Autoleisureland so far is strictly a recording project. We’re in a hurry to get so much out there, before even considering live work.
If you could open for any band currently performing live, who would it be and why?
Autoleisureland: Dave suggested Hall & Oates as back in the day we had a planned tour with them cancelled, so it would be nice to have a dream fulfilled. For me, Poolside plays some interesting gigs – beautiful Mexican coastal venues and Californian wineries. I could go for that.
What do you think the music industry in the UK and worldwide needs more of?
Autoleisureland: More streaming payments for music creators should be a priority. Musicians should be fairly paid for their creations. People pay for food, chocolate bars, and beer, so why not music? I’ve worked in newspapers and music, two products that people expect to have for nothing. You can bet when that happens, the products will in time become devalued. When you have so much free music, for instance, that you have not invested in, you won’t even invest your time in it. Hence, usually a one-minute cut-off time on songs on streaming platforms. Sorry, I’m on my soapbox.
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Infiniti Drive is ready to be loved on Spotify. Find out more about these well-chiselled gents on Facebook.
Interview by Llewelyn Screen
