54 LISTENER AUGUST 3 2019
BOOKS&CULTURE
G
rowing up surrounded by the
giants of New Zealand music,
Djeisan Suskov knew he was
likely to head towards a creative
career. His father, George, owned
Auckland’s Revolver Studios, then in Royal
Oak. So, his 90s childhood was spent
“kicking around, making coffees for engi-
neers and trying not to get booted out”
as the likes of Dave Dobbyn, The Mutton
Birds, Bic Runga and even Dame Kiri Te
Kanawa – though he had to stay out of
her way – recorded there.Some of what Suskov saw was simply
fun – “the bands, all the parties and the
rest of the stuff going on” – but he was
also paying attention. He watched his
dad pack up the studio’s gear and take it
to Karekare, on Auckland’s West Coast,
where Crowded House recorded their
fourth album, Together Alone, and realised
how location could make a real difference
to a recording session.
Suskov began parallel careers as
engineer-producer and songwriter-
musician, his indie-pop project CoolRainbows releasing
an album, Whale
Rocket, in 2012.
A few years ago,
he formed Leisure
with four mates
whose CVs suggest
they are something
of a supergroup.
Jaden Parkes, ex-
Goodnight Nurse,
does A&R at Sony;
Jordan Arts was
half of Kids of 88
and runs his own
label releasing
acts such as Bailey
Wiley and Imugi;
Josh Fountain took over Joel Little’s Auck-
land recording studio, Golden Age, where
he has produced Maala, Theia and Benee;
and Tom Young has a solo career and is
half of The Melancholies.
The original shtick was Leisure by
name, leisure by nature – they were happy
making music and didn’t care much for
fame or glory. Except that their self-titled
debut album’s mix of laid-back pop-funk
and cruisy summer tunes hit the mark
around the world with 75 million-plus
streams. That set them up for a second
album, but also made them realise they
needed to think harder about how their
music would work in a live setting.
In typical Leisure fashion, though, thisLeisure as
in pleasure
Auckland studio funk
boffins Leisure have
thought out how to
face their public and
still have fun.
MUSIC
by James Belfielddidn’t mean sitting
down to nut out
a formula, as they
still intended to
use what Suskov
describes as “a
mindfulness
approach to the
creative process”
and “letting go
of judgments”.
Instead, they each
went out of their
way to experiment
with their own ver-
sions of uptempo
tracks that would
make people dance.
“On our first album run, we realised
what it was to play in front of big audi-
ences,” Suskov says. “So, we knew we
wanted to be bolder heading into the next
album and experiment with different sides
of music we hadn’t explored before. But
we’ve all been involved in projects before
that always felt as if we had to make a
huge effort to make them work, so with
Leisure, we still wanted to go back to why
we make music in the first place and not
overthink it.”T
hat process involves a democratic
approach to writing and recording.
Profits are split evenly and membersJO regularly chop and change instruments
E^ L
AW
RY
Early reception to
Twister’s new songs at
gigs in Paris, London
and Berlin shows theband’s decision to think
more about their liveshow has paid off.
Orchestral manoeuvres:
Leisure playing with the
APO in the Auckland
Town Hall last year, and
below left.