The Leisure Society is a British folk-pop band formed in Brighton in 2009 by Nick Hemming. Their debut single, “The Last of the Melting Snow”, was honoured with a 2009 Ivor Novello nomination for Best Song Musically & Lyrically. Their single “Save It for Someone Who Cares” was also nominated for the Ivor Novello in the same category in 2010, making the band one of very few consecutive nominees.
The band released their album, Alone Aboard The Ark, in 2013 through Full Time Hobby. The new LP - recorded at Kinks frontman Ray Davies‘ Konk Studios - is the follow up to 2011’s lauded Into The Murky Water, which the band toured in ever distinctive fashion, including a date at the London Barbican backed by the 40-piece Heritage Orchestra.
The genesis of The Leisure Society spans back to the friendship made by Nick Hemming and Christian Hardy in their hometown of Burton on Trent. When the pair relocated to London they fell in with the Brighton-based Wilkommen Collective, and with Helen Whitaker, Mike Siddell and Sebastian Hankins, came to form The Leisure Society.
Having recorded both The Sleeper and 2011’s follow-up Into The Murky Water in home studios, the range of technology both old and new at the band’s disposal at Konk proved to be the perfect foil for The Leisure Society’s ambitious designs.
Ask the band what makes them most proud of Alone Aboard The Ark though, and the answer is likely to be ‘a gang mentality’. Say Christian and Nick, ‘There’s no question that this is ‘the one’ in terms of us five working together to create something. As a result of the camaraderie and everyone having their say, we’re all at our absolute peak on this album’.
