Getting to Know… Looseleaf | Interview 🎤

For the 35th interview in the ‘Getting to Know’ Q&A series, The Musical Hype gets some killer insight from fierce, rising electro/art pop duo, Looseleaf.

“We want our music to represent our community and transcend the differences that we have with others. We want to give every person the opportunity to see that art and music don’t discriminate on whom it resonates with…” Ah – the interviews keep on rolling in on The Musical Hype and getting better and better!  Yeah, we’re biased, BUT we’ve got a ‘hot one’ for you ladies and gents! For our 35^th entry in the colorful Getting to Know… Q&A series, we follow-up the sensational experience with Crejuvant, with a totally awesome, insightful experience with rising electro/art pop duo Looseleaf.

Looseleaf is comprised of “happily ‘engayged’ couple” Anthony Marone and Wesley Edwards, who met doing an all Beatles review in 2010, while the musical act itself formed in 2013. “We’ve always thought that looseleaf and our music was a grand personification of our whacky, absurd lives,” say the incredibly intriguing musicians. The duo recently came onto The Musical Hype’s radar with the total must-hear, can’t-miss bop, “CONFETTI”.  Once you’re on the radar, well, you’re family ;).  As the quotes excerpted from the interview suggest, Marone and Wesley are two awesome musicians and people with plenty to offer the world.  Ambitious, they look to ‘be the bridge’: “We have both gay and straight fans. We want our music to be part of the daily conversation. We want to be the bridge. Without further ado, here is Getting to Know… Looseleaf, Interview #35!

Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype: Hey Looseleaf, thanks for agreeing to answer some totally juicy, sizzling, and spicy questions for The Musical Hype. For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes looseleaf distinct or unique? How would you describe your style, and, how do you ‘rock the audience’s socks off’?

Looseleaf: Hey Brent! This is just the coolest that you’re taking the time to get to know us. There is a LOT of music out there, and it’s becoming more challenging for musicians to get their songs heard… so to have this opportunity is so dope. We’ve always thought that looseleaf and our music was a grand personification of our whacky, absurd lives!

To give a baby sized history of “who we are,” we are Anthony Marone and Wesley Edwards and we met doing an all Beatles review in 2010. Since then, we have lived all over this country together. We’ve drank bottles of Fireball on the beach in Southern California, eaten poutine in Toronto on an international tour, watched the cityscape in Astoria, gotten lucky in Kentucky at the Derby in Louisville, survived two [tiny] earthquakes in Los Angeles, a tornado in Texas, and Hurricane Sandy at the beach in Jersey. So… we’ve SEEN things. And while there have been so many ups, we’ve also felt ALL the things that come from being far away from our incredible families, chasing our dreams and the pain of rejection, starting over, being on top of the world but then falling back down to Earth again. We’ve taken all of these experiences and found a way to turn them into music. Not to mention we’re gay, we’re engaged, and have been together for almost ten years. ALMOST A DECADE! A lot of things can happen in ten years, and we’re grateful to have had each other through it all. It’s been a wild ride.

We’ve had a “unique” go at life so far, and now we’re ready to take everyone on that crazy ride with us. Looseleaf is more than just music, it really is a lifestyle.

Faulkner: My first experience hearing your music came by way of “CONFETTI,” which I found to be nothing short of a total bop.  What was the writing and recording process like for that particular single, and how does it compare to other music that you’ve released?

Looseleaf: Well, thanks! “Confetti” was certainly a challenge for us. After we released our EP “Paper Cuts” in March, we didn’t have any intention to release another song for a while. Our EP took over two years to produce, so working on another song was not something we intended on doing. However, we felt like there was a side of us that we hadn’t shared yet through music – our pride for our community, for LGBTQ history, and for our personal relationship. We wanted to get personal, and “Confetti” was our way of telling the world that we are grateful for the trailblazers in our community to have made it possible for us to be where we are, and that we are proud of where we’ve been and where we plan to take this music career as gay musicians.

“Confetti” uses familiar sounds that we’ve used in our other songs… particularly off our EP, “Paper Cuts.” This song could have easily been on the EP, but we’re glad that it got its time to shine as a single. We used heavy synth and 808’s to entrance the listener and bring them into our world. It’s nostalgic, bright, and cheerful and will make you want to bop while embracing everything that makes you, you!

Faulkner:  Backtracking a bit, how about some compelling, totally juicy backstories. I know that you two are a “happily ‘engayged’ duo,” congratulations first and foremost. So, I know that Looseleaf started in 2013. What was the catalyst that inspired you to begin making music, and what were some of the goals or the visions you had early on?

Looseleaf: Awww, thanks! Being engaged is amazing. We might not be able to afford a wedding right now but creating a world together through our music is more than a dream come true. Looseleaf was created in our teeny one-bedroom apartment in Hermosa Beach, California. It all started after Anthony got a ukulele for Christmas the year before we moved out to LA. He hadn’t played all that much until we got fully acclimated to the Southern California lifestyle. It wasn’t hard to feel inspired. Life was… serene. Life was an endless sunset over the Pacific Ocean, filled with every hue. Days seemed longer out there, like time had slowed down just for us. We moved out there to pursue careers in acting, and after auditions and in between booking gigs, we found ourselves drinking bottles of cheap wine, playing ukulele, and writing songs while feeding off each other’s creativity. It wasn’t until Wesley bought Anthony a cheap microphone that we started recording. The rest is… well, history!

Music is something we’ve always dabbled in. Ant was in a band in high school that performed all over Jersey, and Wesley was in the recording studio making bops at a young age too. Recording is something we both had a passion for, and we’re both just lucky to have found one another. When we realized we both had similar career goals in music/entertainment, we mixed our styles into what looseleaf has become today.

Faulkner: Digging in deeper regarding goals, how have those goals or perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your musical aspirations look like at this point?

Looseleaf: Our goals totally haven’t changed. We still push each other creatively every day. It gets more and more rewarding as we continue to write and record together. Our dreams don’t change, they just keep getting bigger.

Faulkner: In recent years, the amount of music incorporating LGBTQIA themes has grown immensely, which is absolutely great.  Look just a couple of years back, and it seems there weren’t nearly as many musicians or songs capturing such themes. As members of the LGBTQIA community, and a growing LGBTQIA community in music, what role does your music play within the community or to bring awareness to the community and beyond it?

Looseleaf: We think it’s so dope that LGBTQ+ artists are finally being heard. The amount of representation in our community is growing every year. Being gay is no longer taboo, and it’s incredible that we get to be part of this time in history.

For us, being gay is… normal. It’s how we live our lives every day. We wake up next to each other in the morning grateful, just like some straight couples do. We work hard for ourselves and each other, just like some straight couples do. We enjoy our time off and weekends with each other, just like other straight couples. We disagree and fight on some things, just like straight couples. Being gay is normal. There is no straight or gay “lifestyle.” We want our music to represent our community and transcend the differences that we have with others. We want to give every person the opportunity to see that art and music don’t discriminate on whom it resonates with. We have both gay and straight fans. We want our music to be part of the daily conversation. We want to be the bridge.

Faulkner: Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

Looseleaf: Most music inspires us in some sense. Music is universal. We love all the different types of music, what it means to people and cultures. There is just a whole universe filled with sounds, and when they come together to create something that makes us feel so deeply, it’s beautiful!

But, The Beatles are our biggest influence, by far! We met singing Beatles music together, so our heart-strings were tied tightly around their anthology. Anthony grew up listening to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” on repeat with his dad (who ironically looks a lot like Paul McCartney.) Wesley has choreographed whole dances to “A Day in the Life.” They have the most creative, beautiful, and innovative music to us, and we inspire to be as bold as them.

Faulkner: Let’s have some fun, shall we? What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance, in the studio, life, etc.?  Feel free to be creative and open!

Looseleaf:   Touring is really, really crazy in general. We haven’t taken our music on tour YET, but when we toured as actors, it was a really cool experience. We still consider most of the people we went on tour with as family because you learn so much about each other when you travel the world together. Every couple of days you’re in a new place, filled with new experiences. We think one of our craziest experiences was going to Boston on a press tour with our cast mates (looking at you Gretchen, Jon, Hailey, and Melissa ❤️) and we had… just the wildest time. When we weren’t performing in front of over 50,000 people, sharing a tent with the Mayor, or being escorted privately from venue to venue, we were hitting the streets of Boston HARD, drinking and dancing the night away before getting copious amounts of food from WaWa. I mean we were literally screaming down the streets. It was one of the best experiences we’ve ever had. We love you guys! We’ll always have Boston!

Also, and we shall we never forget, our press tour with our friends and cast mates Hailey and Jacob in Toronto. We won’t go into detail, but that will also go down as one of our craziest experiences EVER.

Faulkner: So, up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song or song(s) you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

Looseleaf: “Breakdown” is probably our favorite song we’ve recorded. “Breakdown” took over a year to record! We actually had an entirely different production for it, and when we sent it out to get mastered, our engineer sent it back to us urging us to reconsider some elements in the song, from a technical standpoint. It was because he did this that we went back in and ended up re-recording the song because we realized it hadn’t captured the spirit of what we were trying to portray. The new production is a perfect encapsulation of what the insides of our brains sound as they near the verge of having a breakdown. We both struggle with anxiety and depression, so this song is deeply personal to us. It was a pleasure creating that song and are grateful for the reception it’s gotten.

Faulkner: I’ve asked lots of questions regarding your music.  Moving beyond music, is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center that the world needs to know about Anthony Marone, Wesley Edwards, or Looseleaf as a duo? Any captivating secret talents or surprising tidbits?

Looseleaf: Omg totally. There is still SO much ya’ll don’t know about us! Anthony attended four different colleges in one year because he didn’t know what he wanted to do and changed his major 3 times. Wesley dropped out of college his junior year and moved to NYC, then went back to Pittsburgh to finish school a while later. We’ve never taken an extended vacation together, ever, in the near 10 years we’ve been together. Anthony’s father was in the World Trade Center during both terrorist attacks in 1993 and on 9/11 and survived. Wesley started doing musical theatre professionally at the age of 9, and later went on to play Hermey in the national tour of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” where Anthony also got to play Charlie in the Box.

We’re just kind of scratching the surface here 😉

Faulkner: Okay, I’ve totally kept you away from making more awesome music, or living life for long enough, so, closing this demanding ‘Getting to Know…’ Q/A interview out, what are you currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure… we’ve pressured you enough with all these questions!  

Looseleaf: We love doing things like this, so thank you for the cool opportunity! We’re working on a new single before the summer wraps and before we start working on our next EP! We have a lot of cool projects we are looking forward to working on. We’re ready to start growing our community and look forward to seeing you be a part of it! Follow us on insta @looseleaf_music for more shenanigans, photos where we probably look like we’re trying too hard haha, and for videos of our pup, Bentley. Bentley is really the brains behind this whole operation, let’s be honest.

Faulkner: Again, Anthony and Wesley, I want to thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions.  It was an honor having you appear as one of our featured interviewees in our Getting to Know… series.  Furthermore, I knew after reviewing “CONFETTI” that it was worth a shot seeing if you’d answer some questions for me. Best of luck with all of your future endeavors. 

Looseleaf: Thank you for this brilliant opportunity and for your review of our song! HAPPY PRIDE!!

Photo Credit: Looseleaf