“A power pop force to be reckoned with ..."
Live in Tokyo- March 2007
Everyone started to call Matt (Cooper) LEADER. It was a joke on him that stuck and after a couple of years friends would seem to forget his real name and use his pseudonym. Friends would come to see his solo shows and shout out “LEADER, LEADER’ and local promoters in his home town of Brighton would even phone up asking to book LEADER. Soon Matt wouldn’t even try to put them right and surrendered to this being the name that would be a platform for his songs. Even in a live radio interview the DJ couldn’t grasp the fact that Matt and Leader was indeed the same person. “So your name is Matt Leader? †he asked looking confused.After playing drums in the art-rock group Coin-Op (Fierce Panda), Matt decided to hang up his sticks and dust down his guitar. He re-acquainted himself with his love of all things power pop and under the influence of bands like The Cars, Weezer and Cheap Trick, started to write songs.Matt specialized in happy-go-lucky, catchy songs with strong choruses, big melodies and candid lyrics about love, girls, friends and Elvis. Armed with an acoustic guitar Matt performed in and around Brighton before travelling to perform in Australia to support modern day troubadour Darren Hanlon.After a year of solo shows, Matt decided it was time to rock! A band was needed to transform his set of acoustic pop to full throttle power pop. Matt loved the punk pop attack of bands like Buzzcocks and the Ramones and had a vision of his songs being performed this way, a wall of sound full of hooks, passion and enthusiasm.So after a few phone calls, Tim Turner (Bass), Charlie Waygood (Drums) and Loz Buckley (Guitar/Vocals) were recruited in the summer of 2005 to make this dream come true.The four piece clicked straight away. With Tim and Charlie providing a solid backbone of rhythm and humour and Loz’s sweet harmony’s and good looks, Leader was a band (now that did confuse the aforementioned DJ!)
Leader’s first show was as support to the Post Punk band THE FALL to a sell out crowd of 600 people.Leader’s first foreign show ( a year later) was as support to German alternative rockers, The Jinxs to a sell out crowd of 900 people.There was no turning back. After securing a record deal in Japan (TRUST RECORDS), Matt, Tim, Charlie and Loz entered the studio in October 2006 to record Leader’s debut album ‘Lucky’, a 30 minute rollercoaster of melodic fuzz rock.In the spring of 2007, Leader embarked on their first tour… in Japan. Playing 6 dates in 7 days (including 2 nights in Tokyo), the band enjoyed some great shows to fantastic crowds who were really receptive of their music. With ‘Lucky’ hitting the shelves in HMV and Tower Records across Japan, TRUST RECORDS were already in negotiation for Leader’s return to Japan in 2008.Wherever you are from, whatever you do, you will find something in a Leader song that relates to you. Leader don’t want to take over the world, Leader are here to make friends.As the journey continues, everyone is welcome to follow this Leader.I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
