We are joined by Melbourne, Australia based artist, Le Fleur as she shares all about her single, ‘Candy’.
With a genre eclectic vibe, combining the soundscapes of jazz, pop and funk, Le Fleur brings a world of catchy, sing along hooks and dance worthy grooves to her listener’s ears, drawing on the feels of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s for her inspiration.
Lyrically, Le Fleur is a natural storyteller, focusing on themes of society, love, sexuality and social issues, specifically through the experiential landscape of her life as a queer, mixed race black woman.
Le Fleur’s latest single, ‘Candy’ brings the upbeat feel of disco and dance, sweeping listeners away, straight to a dancefloor in the 80’s, filled with sparkly lights, disco balls and colours.
You will be captivated by the unique sound that Le Fleur creates, blending the sounds of 90’s acid jazz and 80’s funk grooves and swirling you in with catchy synth lines, a hard hitting beat and the smooth vocal lines of Le Fleur.
You can listen to ‘Candy’ below:
Would you like to start by telling us a little about yourself?
I’m an independent funk-pop artist from Melbourne/Narrm, Australia.
I’ve been playing on the scene for a little while now and my goal is to write supremely danceable, hook based music!
What was it that first inspired you to begin a career in music?
I’ve always been a super musical person.
I’ve been singing since I could talk and started learning instruments from the age of 8 and was introduced to heaps of fantastic music as a kid, growing up listening to artists like George Benson, Janet Jackson & Sade.
Music has always been the one thing that comes really naturally and effortlessly to me, it’s something my brain understands a lot easier than other things so I feel like it becoming my career was just a natural progression!
How would you describe the feel of your music?
I would say it’s mostly upbeat and feel-good funk with heavy pop influence.
I always aim for my music to be catchy – the feel can change but it always has to stay funky.
You have recently released your single, ‘Candy’.. what was the inspiration behind the creation of this single?
I recently came out as queer online (everyone in my personal life had already known for ages) and I was just happy that I didn’t have to hide any part of myself anymore!
So it’s really just a fun, playful song celebrating finally having full expression of who I am.
I wrote the song to come across as a reflection of this, and I hope this comes across in the music as well as the lyrics.
I was honestly just having a lot of fun when I wrote it.
What does ‘Candy’ mean to you?
Candy is a vessel for my own self expression, so it really means a lot to me, as do all my songs, but this one perhaps more so due to reasons mentioned above.
What did the creative process look like for ‘Candy’?
The music for Candy was lying around for a while, as a demo my MD Bud Wilkins had.
One day the melodies and lyrics just sort of came to me all at once, so I wrote it all down and we went around arranging all of the parts and vocals.
After this we recorded and mixed it all, we do everything ourselves, and sent it out to find its life in the world!
Where do you find your inspiration for your music?
I draw so much inspiration from artists like Janet Jackson, Chaka Khan and Prince and will probably never stop finding ideas and noticing things I’ve missed before.
The way these artists amongst others mix rhythm and chord structure with their melodies is really influential to me.
I also draw a lot of inspiration from day to day life and events, as well as introspection, and all of this pops up in my music as well; particularly lyrically.
How has Covid-19 impacted your release?
Covid-19 has impacted my career in a huge way, and still is as we speak!
I think everyone is relying even more heavily on the internet and social media for releases than ever before.
I’m sure we all know about fifty musicians who have had big release shows booked only for them to be cancelled and have to adapt and innovate through this environment on the fly.
It’s something we have to learn to live with at the moment, and sometimes it’s strange to adapt but it’s essential, and I imagine you’ll see a lot more online interaction from myself going forward.
What would you like to see happen for you in your music from here?
Until recently I’d have said a lot of live performance based goals, but at the moment I’m wanting to do a bunch more releases this year, as well as live performance videos and content that is a bit more stable than live music is at the moment.
I’d love to do some more collaborations with local and non local artists, and would love to hear some remixes of my material as well!
What is one message you would like to share with your fans?
I’d like to say thankyou for hanging in there with myself and many others for supporting local artists and creatives.
It’s been a strange time for all industries, and ours is no exception.
Where can people find your music?
On all streaming platforms! Here’s my Spotify, Apple Music & Bandcamp
Karen Harding is a Melbourne, Australia based singer/songwriter, founder of Sounds On The Couch, and founder and operator of boutique music PR service for emerging and independent artists, Rise Indie.