Manchester, UK · experimental rock

Kiran Leonard

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Manchester's restless polymath — sprawling, brainy guitar epics written like essays and played like exorcisms, cult-canon ambition on a DIY budget.

Kiran Leonard grew up in Saddleworth, Greater Manchester, in a musical family. He first learned mandolin and guitar, then began experimenting with composing electronic music after hearing his older brother's varied record collection. He started self-releasing recordings as a teenager, building a prolific catalogue of albums, EPs and cassettes before he was out of his teens.

He is a multi-instrumentalist who typically plays most parts on his albums himself, working across guitar, keyboards and assorted percussion. His 2012 album Bowler Hat Soup, on Hand of Glory Records, drew a notable endorsement from BBC Radio 6 Music's Marc Riley, and 2016's Grapefruit, released through Moshi Moshi, was similarly well received by critics.

His music sits between indie rock, art rock and something closer to chamber composition, songs that run long and change structure abruptly. Lyrics draw on a wide range of reading: Derevaun Seraun (2017), commissioned by Manchester Central Library, took its themes from James Joyce, Albert Camus and Henry Miller, while Grapefruit touches on the Bilderberg Group and Werner Herzog.

Other records have referenced Nietzsche, Kafka and the tightrope walker Annie Edson Taylor among their subjects. Leonard, who studied Spanish and Portuguese at Wadham College, Oxford, has named Frank Zappa, Richard Dawson, The Mars Volta and Kate Bush as key influences. He also records quieter, more minimal solo material, and performs live both alone and with a full band.

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experimental rock