Last week Australian duo Just A Leo released their latest EP, Change Your Life. Home-produced, the talented duo have created a collection of songs that are deeply personal, uplifting, and creatively inspiring. They have created a record which is a beautiful mix of dance, synth-pop and electro-pop, that will have you dancing around the kitchen and singing along.
With Kalliope on vocals and keys, and Andie on drums, bass and keys, they moved from their hometown of Melbourne to Athens in Greece, to grow and challenge themselves. In making this move, they have certainly taken the harder route, but have come up trumps. The tracks on the EP have been recorded in their homestudio, and produced by the pair. At the AU, we’ve been delighted to to see the songs come down the line, including “I Promise”, one of the standouts from the EP.
About the move, the pair wrote “… For years we spoke about different countries we could live in, how we would do it, how much money we would need and what we would get out of it. Until one day we set a date. Then we booked the tickets. The closer we got, the more our feeling of fear grew. But alongside it grew a feeling of resolve, as well as peace. We were taking a leap of faith and doing the scary thing that people usually only look up to. We were about to live our wildest adventure yet, one that would change us FOREVER – a clear line in the sand in our life’s tapestry. “
We’re thrilled that Andie and Kalliope have put together a track-by-track breakdown of the EP for the AU. It’s a fascinating read, and gives us great insight into the songs on this record. If you are fans of acts such as RÜFÜS DU SOL and Flume, then we think you will find plenty to love here.
Do press <play>, and then read on.
Track by track – Change Your Life from Just a Leo
17. When You Are A Tyrant
[Andie] This actually happens to be the first song I have ever mixed to completion. If I could pick only one song that covers everything Just A Leo is about, this would be the one: It’s dark, a little sexy, a little sad and straight to the point. I think Kalliope really shines on this one. This track kind of touches on my love for UKG – a deep dirty reese inspired bass set over glitchy short drums. A fun fact about every song on this EP: They were all written with a technique we call ‘blind songwriting.’ It’s where we write our parts to an idea separately, hoping it all works out okay. And for this group of songs, it did.
15. How Do You Live With Yourself?
[Andie] This is the most ‘Andie’ track on the whole EP. For the longest time I’ve been obsessed with Flume’s song ‘Quirk.’ It reminds me of ‘end of the night after the party has died’ hangs with some of my best mates. Initially I only had the music and was digging it as an instrumental track, but the second I heard Kalliope’s melody with it I fell in love. I wrote it at a time in my life when I was really pulling apart everything about myself, my relationships, my goals, myself etc, so this song really captures that deep introspection. Fun fact, that glitchy line in the bridge was actually made from a sample of me slapping my chest. Making that was some serious producer-fu that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to recreate!
28. I Promise
[Kalliope] Andie and I have been together for 7 years (almost 8 now actually) and this song is about how much it takes for our relationship to work. We’ve had to compromise a lot of things about ourselves to better serve the other person. I do a bad thing, I get called out, I change my behaviour. He does a bad thing, he calls me out, he changes his behaviour. I Promise is all about wanting to improve as people, not only for ourselves, but for our other half. We promise to do whatever we can to feel heard, loved, supported and challenged.
22. This Might Only Be A Phase
[Kalliope] This track came about during a time of play. Life felt good and we wanted to capture this moment in time. I remember appreciating every moment, the butterflies in the flowers, the gorgeous refreshing breeze in the Summer air etc. This song is an uplifting reminder that we need to enjoy the small things in life such as your morning coffee or the five minutes of space before you need to rush to your next meeting.
29. Change Your Life
[Kalliope] The biggest fear I have (excluding death) is living a life filled with “I wish I did…” or “I should have done…”. It terrifies me. For years we spoke about moving to Europe to pursue our music. After years of being afraid of the world (thanks Covid), the fear of “I wish I dids” started to pile up in my mind. That was until one day we set a date, we booked our tickets and we took that leap of faith and my goodness that was the best decision we have ever made!
43. Losing Trust
[Andie] Working on this track nearly killed me, it took me almost a month (!!!!) to complete the mix, but I really don’t regret a single second of that effort, because I think this song is magic. It’s the perfect intersection of what Just A Leo used to be, and where we are going. This song grabs a musical aesthetic that I adore and spins a whole world out of it. The only way I can describe it is ‘vignette.’ I don’t know if that makes sense, but this song feels warm and rich, like what a vignette does to a photo. Just listen to that last chorus and tell me with a straight face it’s not lifting you out of your body. I bet you can’t. This is also the first (and last time so far) that a sequencer has made its way onto our tracks.
26. Nightmare [Bonus Track]
[Kalliope] I’m not going to explicitly say what this song is about because it’s not necessary. What I am going to say though is that bad things can happen. We can get hurt, we can experience terrible things, we can even feel like they’re living inside of us and haunting our dreams, but it’s okay because we made it through. They’re only nightmares now, not reality.
Change Your Life from Just A Leo is out now on all major streaming services.
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