EoIpso: Would you consider Leisur::hive a studio band or rather a live act?

Daniel: I just consider Leisur::hive to be a musical project that comes from the "Third Mind" that appears when Maria and I get together and start working on things. We work in studios, we work at home, we perform live as well, they are just different aspects of what we do. Neither aspect dominates the other. It is a continually changing and growing project and I think we are still trying to find our feet in both areas: either with new ways of recording or performing in a different way. You could say that for most musicians, who do both, neither one or the other is more important as they are too different to properly compare.

EoIpso: When did you start out as a band? And did you find it hard to find a place in London's music scene?

Daniel: I don't really know when we started, it was more like a slope on it, rather than a fixed kind of hole in the ground with bits of plastic by it, or anything like that. It still feels like we are fairly young in the sense of floor space, really. I don't pay much attention to whether we fit into any sort of music scene because as soon as you start doing that you end up subconsciously tailoring the music you write in order to please other people and it becomes less intuitive and more to do with keeping up with whatever's happening in a particular scene. So we just go down our own path and hope that people are interested enough to either join in or enjoy it.

EoIpso: Well said. One final question: why did you leave out the second "e" in Leisur::hive?

Daniel: We decided to change the spelling after Joanne left the band and when Mark and Bob joined us... sort of a symbolic "new beginning".

Epilogue: "There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes" (Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor Who)

(rh MMIII, update 03/MMV, pictures leisur::hive and BBC)

Leisur::hive Discography:

- 2-track tape (1999)
- "This Is Not Failure" Split-CD (1999)
- "Spasm" CD (2001), (read a review here)
- "3 Ton Edition" CD (2004), (read a review here)

Leisur::hive postal address:
P.O.Box 552
Carshalton
Surrey SM5 2BG, UK

 
Just another picture of the band playing live, with former bass player Joanne in background