Levek – “French Lessons” by forcefieldpr
Levek shares a new song, “French Lessons”, from his upcoming debut, Look A Little Closer, on Pitchfork. The album will be released on Sept 25th with Lefse Records.
Levek is the multifaceted project bearing the surname of front man, songwriter and musical jack-of-all-trades, David Levesque. The first showing of Levek’s versatility surfaced back in 2009, when a handful of a capella cover songs, embellished with what would become his signature Mickey Mouse tribal sound, became an overnight viral phenomenon. His deep-rooted infatuation with Disney nostalgia traces back to the childhood he spent overseas, where the only thing he could get his hands on were vintage VHS tapes from the company’s vault.
After bouncing around the Florida peninsula, spending time in Orlando and Gainesville, where he coincidentally worked as a school bus driver, Levesque settled in the nation’s oldest city, the sleepy beach town of St. Augustine. It was here that Levek was able to push his creative boundaries, resulting in the debut full-length album, Look A Little Closer. For the first time, Levesque found himself in a professional recording studio (Medusa in Gainesville, FL), pulling all-nighters with close hometown friends to weave together the album’s intricate musical storyline. “I feel better knowing that Florida has its fingerprints all over it,” he says.
“I had no idea what this album was when I began the process of the first few tracks,” explains Levesque. “All I knew was a general sound I wanted to go for. I found a common ground lyrically and the album seemed to just take off by itself from there.” That commonality tells the tale of a young girl’s struggle with mental illness and how she overcame the odds through finding shelter and trust in family and friends. This is the first material Levesque has written with a deliberate personal connection for the songwriter and ideally, the listener as well.
Sonically, Look A Little Closer is the amalgamation of the tenderness of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and the funky 70s Blaxploitation attitude. On the lead single “Black Mold Grow,” soaring harmonies bleed into a soulful disco swagger, a perfect contrast to the slinky bossanova-esque “Terra Treasures.” It’s a pastiche of genres that live harmoniously in unison on record and in the mind of the man behind Levek. “The inspiration,” Levesque says quite matter-of-factly “was just to make an album that I’ve always wanted someone else to make. Something that I would enjoy listening to.”
Levek
Look a Little Closer
(Lefse)
Street Date: Sept. 25, 2012
1. Black Mold Grow
2. Canterbury Bell
3. Terra Treasures
4. With A Slow Burn
5. Muscat Mingle
6. St. Francis
7. Can’t Buy This Love
8. Girl In The Fog
9. Solemn Feeling Forever Healing
10. French Lessons