Jesse Leach, beastly frontman of Killswitch Engage, The Empire Shall Fall, etc. has just emerged with a solo project! It’s probably not what you’re expecting with an electronic / trip hop vibe running through. Have a good listen and see what you think!
“So here I am finally putting something out as a “solo” artist. After many years of debate and quite frankly a mix of indecision and insecurity I went and just did it! I am bearing my soul a bit on this one, but as you will see and hear it’s the darker parts of my soul. This song inspired a video that in turn inspired the song lyrics and it all just came out of me.
I was having an off day I woke up out of some dark and demonic dreams (as I am prone to have occasionally all my life, but thats another story altogether) and I had this melody in my head. I figured out the melody on my keyboard and the song just started to take a life of it’s own. I went for a long walk in the rain and shot some footage (The footage was taken in the Bronx, NY – yeah really The Bronx has wooded parts ha ha)
I am not a huge fan of explaining art and music, but I feel it is important to note this song is about the struggle of light and dark inside the human mind. Angels vs Demons, Good vs Evil etc. I have battled anxiety and depression throughout my life so the lyrics and visuals are inspired by that struggle. Also I have been a fan of the trip hop genre (namely Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky) since the mid 1990s and I am also a massive The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance fan so I have some gothic leanings as well. I feel this is a bit of a blend of those influences. On top of all of that I have been watching 1980s horror movies non stop, so that may also play a role in all this ha ha.
The idea of this video and song is to convey a dream like state, so all the vocals have a ton of reverb, some Chorus, Flanger and delays. As I stated above the footage was shot in the rain on a dreary day so I edited the footage to look darker and more “dreamlike”
I wanted this song to be imperfect so not everything is spot on and polished all to hell. I enjoy off key and what some would consider “sloppy” music, I feel the human element in music is what makes it “real” and often times in the bands I am in and modern music in general the production is so perfect it can loose some of that “soul” so all of my solo music will have “effects” but no fixes on instruments or vocals ever.
This song is only a portion of what I plan to do with my alter ego “AliKeN” as well as just putting music and videos out for the sheer expression and joy of making art in many forms. So I will not be bound by genre or stylistic restrictions. Love it hate it, this is the first step into my solo music.
I do hope you dig it. Perhaps I’ll put it up on my “SoundCloud”
So here it is folks
“In The Shadows”
Jesse Leach: Official Website
