Daily Discovery is a feature that will highlight a new or recently discovered artist that we’re excited about. See the rest of our Daily Discoveries here.
Londoner Leo Kalyan lives in the musical hotbed that is London, and is, as he puts it, “lucky to be friends with talented people like MNEK, Karma Kid, Sam Smith, K Stewart, and Bondax.” He is right in the middle of a lot of great music, and his sound very much fits in with the current trend of mixing gentle R&B-influenced vocals with electronic production, but we shouldn’t let any framing information take away from what a well-written pop song Leo’s newest release “Breathe” is.
Before I was in touch with Leo and found out about his famous friends, before I had any of the context that can serve to distract from the actual music, all I had was a song on Soundcloud with a few thousand plays, a picture of a submerged body, and the word “let’s slow it down for a minute.”
“Breathe” is a heartfelt slow-builder with just the right mixture of imagery and personal reflections on (presumably) a relationship gone wrong. The vocals are ably backed by spacious production from Kalyan and Kirk Spencer, and provide the perfect backdrop, never overshadowing or challenging the vocals, only complementing them.
Kalyan has been making music for the last three years, is preparing to start performing with a live band soon, and told us that he hopes to have an EP out this summer, so we can’t wait to hear where he’ll take things next. For the moment, enjoy to “Breathe” and the housier “Temptation” below.
