Five minutes with...Ocean LeClair
We sit down to chat with rising star Ocean LeClair...
In our latest ‘Five minutes with…’ installment, we chat with Ocean LeClair about her love for retro sounds and her approach to songwriting.
Earlier this year, Ocean released the great ‘White Death’ EP, featuring the moving, acoustic-pop anthem ‘In Cards We Trust’ and recently dropped ‘Last Cigarette’, one of our favourite tracks of the year in New Sounds Union towers.
Listen to the ‘White Death’ EP on your streaming service of choice here. Let’s go!
Q: Describe your music in three words…
Ethereal, honest, nostalgic
Q: What's your musical ethos?
Vulnerability
Q: What’s your songwriting process?
Guitar, notes app, and something heavy on my heart.
Q: What’s your music-making process?
Every producer I work with has their own approach to reading my music and enhancing certain aspects of me as an artist. I like to let them follow their intuition. I find the songs turn out the best when we are taking risks and having fun.
Q: How do you balance music and day jobs/other life?
Google calendar and making time for things that are good for my soul (journalling, reading, dancing).
Q: Do you go into your releases with a particular marketing or release strategy and has this evolved?
When it comes to the visuals I like to embody what I’m portraying fully. I live for beauty and find poetry in everything I do so in a way, I’m just documenting my life. In terms of strategy, I like to say things that I know will provoke (a thought, a feeling, a hater).
Q: What are your main musical inspirations?
I love the music from the 60s and 70s and soundtracks from classic movies. Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley and Patti Smith are significant to me. In terms of contemporaries I love Radiohead, Florence + The Machine, Lana del Rey of course, and I’m a bit of a Swiftie, to be honest.
Q: What song/record can’t you stop playing at the moment?
Led Zeppelin III
(New Sounds Union - a classic, listen here)
Q: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
We live under capitalism so, it’s hard to imagine being able to change anything. I think if you have money you’re pretty much unstoppable.
Q: You’ve released singles and EPs in the past, any plans for a full-length record on the horizon?
Absolutely.