Introducing Brother Leo
Ola Svensson journey to music started with a recurring dream during his childhood. The dream consisted of a fictional twin brother that was a free spirit, confident and had all the answers. Svensson embraced this dream and this character to create Brother Leo.
Singing and music was never an outright dream for the emerging Sweedish artist. Caring only about football, his mother soon put him in piano lessons and local boys choir. As he continued his studies, he became a football star, even playing for a UEFA-cup team. It all changed when Svensson performed at his school during his final year of school when he gained recognition for his singing voice.
After a stint on Pop Idol, Brother Leo snagged a record deal and released three successful albums in Sweeden. Feeling uninspired, he bought himself out of his contract, and a new chapter in his musical journey began.
Meeting with Max Martin, his career started to shift, soon becoming a sought after singer-songwriter working alongside influential figures in music.
We got a chance to chat with Brother Leo about everything from the origin of his Brother Leo persona, musical influences and more…
Where did the name ‘Brother Leo’ come from?
The whole idea behind Brother Leo was to create an honest and creative space for me that forced me outside of my comfort zone. To create something for me new to be able to challenge and stretch myself creatively both as an artist and a songwriter. The name specifically comes from a reoccuring dream I used to have as a kid, about a twin brother, who I called Leo.
If music wasn’t in your life, what to you think you would be doing?
Oh that’s hard.. but I guess I’d still be doing something creative, maybe in film or clothes.
You started out your music journey with piano lessons, is that something you still do and do you play any other instruments?
Yes my mum pretty much forced me to start to take piano lessons when I was about 5, which I’m really happy about now but at the time I just wanted to play football. Then I joined a church choir a couple of years later. We sang and played a lot at home, there was always some kind of music going on in some form. I play a little bit of guitar but not on stage…I’m not good enough! Mostly I write on the piano but it varies.
Who are some of your musical influences?
I listen to and get inspired by a lot of different types of music, everything from Mozart to Paul Simon to MGMT and Miike Snow. It’s hard to be objective when it comes to your own stuff but I think that affects my own music in some way.
Your track ‘Shine’ is a fantastic, what inspired the song?
Wow, thank u! ’Shine’ is the first song I wrote for my upcoming album, and in a way it was also the start of Brother Leo. I guess it’s about unfulfilled dreams, a question and searching for something more. I was in a pretty dark place feeling a bit lost when this song came to life and the writing process turned out to be quite therapeutic and became some kind turning point for me, both personally and creatively. Thinking of it now, years later, it’s pretty crazy how much of an impact this little tune has had on me. To some this will probably just be ’another happy tune’ and that’s more than fine by me, but for me it’s something totally different.
The accompanying visuals is full bright colors gives major summer vibes, what was your vision for the video?
I wanted to visually create a colorful trip into the subconscious, a feeling of being trapped and lost inside your own self-made prison. Longing to find a way out.
What do you hope to accomplish before the end of the year?
There’s so much I wanna do.. there is never enough time but I hope I’ll write a lot of new songs both for me and for others as well and play live even more! I also wanna try to finally finnish my album that I’ve worked on for a pretty long time now.
Do you have any upcoming projects that fans can look forward to?
I have new music coming out soon that I’ve been waiting to put out for some time now! I can’t wait to get it out there. I’m also about to shoot a couple of new videos for my upcoming singles that I’m working on at the moment which is a lot of fun.
Make sure to check out Brother Leo brand new track Barcelona below!
