From making beats at home around the age of 15, Manchester’s newest indie superstar Lei Hope discovered and immersed himself in the material of Omar Apollo, Clairo, Yeek, Blood Orange and Spencer.
However, it wasn’t until the enforced cocoon of the pandemic that Lei began the process of recording. Isolation proved to be a creative chrysalis from which he emerged fully formed. “I didn’t know anyone in the industry or any musicians in Manchester but I knew that Steve Lacy had recorded his first EP on his phone. I took inspiration from that” he explains.
Somewhat of a guitar virtuoso, Lei Hope uses the various shorelines of genre as jumping off points for his own compositions. The result is a pallet cleansing, no filter aesthetic. Not just indie for the sake of it, but affectingly human; wearing his anxiety-stricken Tetris-pop like a casual fit. Newly signed to indie-heavyweights Heist or Hit, first single Boyfriend trades slanky, slow-jam guitar riffs with a jolt of horns to arrive at a thick, sweet, Calpol-textured dollop of indie-pop.
Boyfriend is out now. Find out more by clicking here.
